Failed Steelhead Pump Motor

[Mike123]

If this has happened to you, please give me some feedback. My steelhead wort pump motor failed during a recent brew day, luckily just at the end of a recirculation mash. The motor was running, with wort flowing freely, and it just stopped and would not restart. I have kept it oiled, and clean. It probably has a total of 10 hours run time. Has anyone had this happen, and what was the cause - if you happen to know? I'll be taking it apart to look for a cause. The only thing I can think of is overheating, but that is an initial guess. If it did overheat, what should I be looking for to confirm that?

 

[day_trippr]

[...] If it did overheat, what should I be looking for to confirm that?

Give it time to cool down then see if it runs without having done anything else to it. If it runs, that's indicative of a thermal shutdown.
fwiw, I had my ventilation blower do that once on a really hot day. It sits above the brew rig and was being bathed in spilled heat.
Then I ran a separate cooling plenum from near floor level straight into the back of the motor and it's never happened again.

If you have the pump motor inside a spill-shield, make sure there's plenty of air flow through it...

Cheers!

 

[Mike123]

Give it time to cool down then see if it runs without having done anything else to it. If it runs, that's indicative of a thermal shutdown.
fwiw, I had my ventilation blower do that once on a really hot day. It sits above the brew rig and was being bathed in spilled heat.
Then I ran a separate cooling plenum from near floor level straight into the back of the motor and it's never happened again.

If you have the pump motor inside a spill-shield, make sure there's plenty of air flow through it...

Cheers!

Thanks Day_Trippr. I did try to re-start it but perhaps did not wait long enough for it to cool down, and yes it has a spill shield over it, and is mounted so perhaps it does not allow heat to escape adequately. So this plenum.....I assume you are venting air from the motor...or are you blowing air into the motor through the plenum? Have a pic?

 

[day_trippr]

When my blower thermal-tripped it took a looong time to reset itself. The thermal sensor is essentially stuffed into the windings so there's a lot of copper and iron thermal mass that has to chill.

Here's a shot of my blower and the cooling duct that feeds the back of the motor housing. Like your pump motor, it has an internal fan that pulls air in from the back and blows out the front/sides. Works great, but clearly not something that should be needed to support a pump motor.

Here's the best shot I have of the motor ends of my pumps and shields. You can see there's tons of free space around the entire pump so there's pretty much zero airflow restriction. I wager similar, really loose shielding should work for any brew pump...

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

Although 10 hours of runtime is not much, maybe the brushes have worn out or one is stuck.
Try a few firm taps toward the back end of the cylindrical motor cage.