Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Note to self:

All fan belts are not created equal.

I got the new motor all ready to go on the new swamp cooler, tightened up the fan belt and plopped down on the couch to enjoy the cool.

Lasted about 45 minutes, when it just stopped.  I checked the breaker switch, it was fine as evidenced by the water pump still pumping water.  I went up top and realized the motor had overheated, it was quite hot.

So I loosened the fan belt, a lot looser than you would ever want your car’s fan belt.  Almost an inch and a half of play in the belt.  That would squeal like hell on your car.

I had to wait a bit for the motor to cool off, but it’s been running for several hours now, and as you can see from the temperature gauges, it’s working quite well.

5 comments:

Lisa Shafer said...

I assume that's your FURNACE thermostat, right? 'Cause my swamp cooler sure the heck doesn't have a temperature gauge on it anywhere. My choices are OFF, PUMP, LOW, and HIGH (read: Do not use unless you want books blown right off the shelves and the entire house covered in dust in five seconds flat.).

Max Sartin said...

Oh yeah, that's the furnace thermostat. I have 6 choices on my swamp cooler: Off, Pump Only, Low Vent, High Vent, Low Cool and High Cool.

Lisa Shafer said...

I can only choose fan speeds, not temperatures.

Kranky Granny said...

Sorry your swamp cooler became such a problem. Hope all is working well now.

Max Sartin said...

Thanks. It's been working great for the last 3 days, so I think I worked out all the bugs.