Colder here. What's your temp? What ya burnin?

More walnut in the stove this am. We're up early, not a lot of sleep last night, but at least I'll get my day started early.

It looks like 34° outside. 71° in the house.

 

This morning I took the motor off the back of the boiler and looked it over. Spun the fan with my fingers and it turned as smooth as could be. So I decided to turn the power back on to it and flip the switch on. Started spinning immediately. No issues. Hmmm.
So re-installed it and the boiler is running.

Now. How? What was wrong at the end of the burn season last year to cause the fan motor to sit there and just hum? I shut it down and left it because it was time to quit burning any way.

Right now the plan is to let it run and heat the whole system up. Then shut it down before leave the house.

But I need to do some maintenance to this thing.

Any suggestions/ideas on what would make the motor do that? And what I should do?

 

Same here...but it really does feel like a warm 30's. I worked way too many years with sleep deprivation; hang in there today.

 

Can't fix what isn't broke. Just keep an eye on it.

The venter motor on the gas furnace did the same thing a few years back. All I did was give it a spin-it started right up and hasn't ever acted up again.

 

How accessable is the motor? The housing on it at least? If you can take it apart and clean it, you might find gunk.

Is it possible something jammed in it last year???

 

I'm sure the incident with my venter motor was due to the higher humidity level and am thinking that maybe Gasifier has/had the same problem.

 

Motor is very accessible.

Four bolts removed the motor and fan.
Boiler up to temp and now just waiting until it gets the big buffer tank up there too.


I do not think anything jammed in it. It is pretty tightly wrapped up. However. Dust, Ash, and maybe even a little creosote could possibly get in there.

 

In the 50’s and raining so I built a small fire with pine and maple

 

That's a good motor, baldor. Are there any zerks or oil points? Or sealed bearings?

 

I’d say clean it oil it and keep running it. As long as you’ve got a spare for mid winter just in case.... I ran into that on my stove blower last year mid season. Took it apart and couldn’t believe the dust hung up in it!!!! Cleaned it out, oiled it and it ran just fine! Even last night kept the house around 70 right into this morning. Currently 38 out and smoldering down the coals.

 

Sounds like a good morning to be out at least. Then the best part, back in for some wood heat!

 

Fall is finally here in S.Jersey. Highs in the upper 50's/lower 60's all week and lows in the lower 40's/upper 30's a few nights. Good steady breeze as well to dry out the stacks from all that rain!!! Been working on a small wood shed this past Sunday to hold about a cord - cord and a half. Grabbed the metal roofing for it yesterday on my lunch break!!!

 

37f this morning with the wind whipping around, threw some maple and ash in and getting ready to go to work till 10pm tonight, the house should be toasty by the time the wife and kids come home, I should have a nice bed of coals around when I get home tonight by 10:30pm, feels good outside, our type of weather

 

Looks good , nice work

 

How come it’s not on yet?!!

Looking good!!!!

 

I am no longer home now. But it does seem to be a good motor. It has run a lot for the last seven heating seasons. I know there is a bearing because I bought the replacement so I would have it on hand when needed. When I bought the new motor I also bought the bearing puller tool.

My plan was to install new motor and see if I could fix anything wrong with the older one and keep it on hand. But if it is not necessary then I will leave this one alone and keep new one on hand. Tomorrow, when I have much more time on my day off, I think I’ll pull it off again and see if I can clean it really well.

 

Baldor always was a great electric motor. That’s what we preferred in the lumber mill I used to millwright in 30+ years ago. When you take it off and clean and oil it, check the brushes if you can. Sometimes worn brushes can act like a flat spot on the armature, which is another possibility but a remote one I’d say. A failing bearing can do the same. One last thing to check is the balance of whatever it’s attached to. If there’s a heavy spot that causes the motor to stop in the same spot most of the time it can cause the issue you’re having as well.
I’m not an electrician, but those are some things I’ve seen before there and at an electric motor repair shop that I used to sell tools to. He did most of the rebuilds for the paper mill nearby back then and they were mostly Baldor.

 

Temp only dropped to a few degrees below freezing last night, and already a couple above right now. Should see 5 C or 40 ish F for the day, and hopefully the warm up rolls in tomorrow.