Quality electric motor brands?

[Sarge 3,463]

Came home after work the other night to find some of my steel was wet from a rain - blew it dry with the air hose and put it inside to keep it from rusting any worse. When I went down into the shop I heard a very loud buzzing coming from the equipment room - it was my compressor motor. The old Dayton farm duty 5hp single phase had enough of pulling that old Speed-Air pump and let the smoke out in a spectacular fashion, wow - that thing got hot!

 

Looking around, not easy to find a decent quality severe duty motor - especially with the following specs...

230v single phase

5hp, at least

1-1/18" shaft size

1740-1750 rpms

Continuous duty

 

The Dayton I had on it that is cooked was an L231T frame, not even sure what other frame styles would work on this old girl but I suspect the common 184T should be similar. I see a lot of negative reviews and feedback on nearly all the common brand names from years ago - I'd imagine they have been bought up and made half as good as they used to be, like everything else. Compressor was originally equipped with a 3 phase motor, this one came out of a corn crib lift that a buddy had given me to do the swap.

 

Is there any brands that are reliable enough for the severe duty I put this thing through? When I blasted my trailer for the rebuild/repaint - that was 7hrs of continuous running at full load feeding a pressure pot. There are days I'll run the glass bead cabinet for 12hrs straight to clean parts/metal for getting things done - need a motor that can keep up and not break the bank.

 

Sarge

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Back in the 70s & 80s I ran Dayton 5hp for 15 years. Lots of sandblasting too!

And I've always figured Baldor was good. 

[squonk 41,464]

They almost all use cheap bearings in them nowadays. Baldor,Marathon,Century ect. I haven't gotten anything with any oomf that would last at all but that may be due to being on speed drives. The EMF seems to eat the bearings out   Unless you install bearing protectors.15  years out of a Dayton anything is good. We used to joke about anything with a Dayton name on it at the hospital I worked at. But we did get about 12 years out of a Dayton shop vac. Put that thing thru hell! 

Edited September 20, 2018 by squonk

[Achto 27,827]

9 hours ago, DennisThornton said:

Baldor was good

 

As an ex-employee of Baldor my opinion may be a bit bias, but I'm still a believer in their motors. Even after they were purchased by ABB.

[JoeM 7,874]

If you want  to go "old school", check out CL. From time to time older motors show up for sale.

[Cvans 1,009]

We ran a lot of open drip proof Lincoln Electric motors in our plant with good results. Quality of bearings and build seemed very good. Ran everything from 5 to 150 HP. with excellent results. Hopefully things haven't changed.

Baldor then Dayton would be next. As Squonk stated many motor manufacturers are putting lower quality bearings in their motors to save on cost. After replacing the original bearings these motors would run for years. 

[Sarge 3,463]

I missed out on an older heavy series GE single phase 5hp with low hours, it was over 2hrs drive away but would have been totally worth it at $250 listed price. Just couldn't get enough time off work, as usual. There is one just over an hour away that's an older Baldor but looks like it's been beaten pretty hard on its case - even the tag has a ton of scars so I'd rather avoid that one.

Has anyone dealt with Leeson lately? Even Amazon carries them in the right specs with the 1-3/8" shaft size, various models run below $600 new. I do know one guy on our paving crew that has a farm with an old corn crib on it - with a lift, no less so likely has a 5hp in there to run it. He says its a big motor, but knows nothing about this stuff, might run over after work Monday and take a gander, maybe I'll get lucky. 

I'd almost bet this old Dayton burned up all 4 poles by the amount of smoke and noise out of it, wow that thing got hot.

 

Sarge

[lynnmor 7,356]

When you get a new motor up and running, check the voltage supplied to it with any and all things turned on that are commonly used.  Voltage drop is a major cause of motor failure.

[kasey54 305]

Hey Sarge, sorry to hear of your burnout. I think one brand these days is as good as the next, however the frame size can be a deal breaker. Your Dayton 213 Frame has an inch and 3 eights shaft size. 184T has 1 inch and an eighth shaft. Each frame size has a different foot print and shaft height as well. Severe duty is a classification that usually designates a totally enclosed motor with provisions such as shaft seals and cast iron endbells , and an external cooling fan. Totally enclosed fan cooled is typically adequate for most compressor duty applications. If your motor/compressor combo has its own room, not exposed to sanding debree, and overspray open drip proof is usually all thats needed. Regal Bennoit now owns all the major motor companies except Baldor , that no longer exists. Hope this helps.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Didn't know! 

Baldor was bought out! 

[Cvans 1,009]

Copper is soft and it is good to check all connections before applying power to the circuit. 

As soon as you get that motor on line do a voltage and amperage check and make sure the motor is running in specs. A lot of motors have been lost to bad contacts in a contactor and loose lugs.

Our standard procedure was to tighten the terminal and then back it off a 1/4 turn and tighten it again.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Cvans

[Achto 27,827]

6 hours ago, DennisThornton said:

Didn't know! 

Baldor was bought out! 

 

The acquisition between ABB & Baldor was agreed upon on 11/30/10. ABB was to buy all Baldor stock at a price of $63.50 per share. The acquisition was completed on 1/27/11. I remember this cause it was a pretty good pay day for me. Not only did I get paid out for the stock that I owned, I also was paid out for the stock options that I had & did not even purchased yet. . Reading up, I guess as of 2/27/18 ABB has made the decision to drop the Baldor name. I miss working for Baldor, they treated their employees well & had a good culture. ABB was also good to work for but they decided to get out of the generator market I the U.S. Now a new sign hangs out in front of our factory. I'm not always happy with our new owners, but as long as my pay checks clear I guess I'll stick around.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Achto

[DennisThornton 4,769]

The world is a changin'... 

Sears used to be my favorite store... 

[WHX?? 49,193]

I gotta agree with Dan, back when I used to install and service farm & dairy equipment our go to replacement motors were Baldors and we used them on everything from silo  unloaders to milk pumps to barn cleaners. Used  Daytons from Grainger once in awhile just cause they were more readily available and cheaper...the farmers really liked that! I forget who actually made Daytons but they held up ok considering how harsh a farm evironment can be.

GE's were another favorite but pricey but that was in the day when they actually made ther own motors instead of Chinese ones today. I think even Emerson and AO Smith, which is what I find in HVAC apps most are made overseas. 99.9% of fractional HP motors are overseas stuff. 

Kasey hit the nail on the head Sarge, get something rated severe with cast end bells not pot metal. Might pay more but worth it. 

Yes do check amp draw and see if agrees with name plate. Maybe the old speed air is getting ready to lock up?

 

[953 nut 55,909]

The green house operation I worked at three and a half decades ago (20 acres under plastic) had about 400 large ventilation fans with 2.5 HP motors on them. We kept a few new Dayton motors on hand at all times but found that we got longer service life from the older motors the local motor shop rebuilt. They used good quality sealed bearings and sealed the metal with some sort of ugly stuff that lasted forever. Even the dead Daytons that were rebuilt would outlast the new ones.

[Sarge 3,463]

I've been doing a ton of research about this whole thing - the older Dayton that I had swapped on there to get away from the stock 3ph unit turns out to be a very heavy severe duty motor - which is nearly impossible to find now. One of the only ones I can find with cast end bells is the WEG, and it's made in Brazil. I hate how the old, stable companies that made good products in this country have been bought up and destroyed by sending the manufacturing overseas - profit isn't everything if you lose your reputation and folks are getting sick of it. I totally agree about using an older motor that has had a quality rebuild done on it - just been checking around and seeing who is the most reliable and has a good track record. If you folks know of a shop that does high-quality work and can offer a warranty (plus, ugh - ship it) let me know. I hate not having my air system - sort of lost around here without it. 

The old Speedaire pump is fine - tested her out with a smaller motor and no issues at all, but that 3hp was struggling horribly.

If I have to go with new, it will probably require going to a 7.5hp severe duty to get something of an equivalent to the old Dayton. I missed out on a very nice, old GE with low hours, bummed about that one...ugh.

 

Sarge

[Sarge 3,463]

Got her buttoned up and back in service a week ago - ended up getting a commercial series Baldor 213T frame 5hp. Smoking deal from an Ebay vendor that sells high volume with free shipping - $673 shipped, full factory warranty. Runs nice and quiet, the motor pulls the compressor like it isn't there. It took a lot of research at startup torque curves to find one that at least matched the old Dayton and the original 3ph motor that was on this thing - SpeedAir wasn't screwing around when they built this old compressor unit. 

Baldo L3708T

5hp/1ph 230v

Power factor 93

Service factor 1.15

84% efficiency

 

I checked all the wiring out closely at the pressure switch, mag starter switch and all the other motor wiring all the way to the panel - no issues and no voltage drops whatsoever. Ran full voltage and amperage draw tests during initial startup/run cycles during the break-in process with my Pheonix meter - everything right at spec with the draw rates right at 20amps @230v. I'm pretty happy with it, barely even gets warm after several hard cycles from draining the system down to below 75psi, then letting it fill back up and restarting that process several times. This mimics the cycling it will have to endure when I'm sandblasting outside with the pot unit, shouldn't be any problem. Guess I got used to the old Dayton's noise level, especially the bearing noise - this unit is far less than half the old one. Startup is a nice, hard ramp up to speed, not the harsh impact of the old Dayton that slammed the pump's flywheel with all it had. That old motor had a super high starting torque, but run torque was actually quite low - the Baldor is more of an even blend much closer to the original 3ph motor that SpeedAir equipped this thing with. 

 

Can't wait to get back into the shop this next week and get to work - determined to finish the welding/machine work on the old Atlas/Clausing industrial drill press and get that dumb thing back in one piece - and actually be able to use it. If it works as it should, I'd love to give that Taiwan built Craftsman 17" the death it deserves - that thing has irritated me since the day I laid out the $400 for it...lol.

 

Sarge