Pump Motor Spade Reversal..UHOH

[simsjim]

I just had an interesting experience installing and testing a WhisperFlo WFE-3 115/230 single speed pump.

I wired the pump to a 120v dedicated circuit with its own breaker using 12 gauge solid core outdoor Romex. I had the pump motor's power spades in the "LOW VOLTAGE" configuration according to the schematic on the pump motor.

After turning the power to the circuit back on, I turned on the pump expecting to hear nice quiet motor and see some pressure in my filter pressure gauge, BUT what I got was loud, smelly, slightly SMOKING motor, and NO pressure. I quickly turned off the Intermatic timer that controls the pump about 25 seconds after I turned it on, and then killed the power to the circuit.

As a troubleshooting step, I reversed the motor power connection spades to the "High Voltage" configuration on the schematic. I turned on the power. Now, nice quiet motor, good pressure (about 10 psi in the Taglius Sand Filter) and good water flow. BUT the thermal protector cuts the motor off after about 30-45 minutes; it resets after about 20 minutes and turns the pump back on. Very ODD.

I am certain the power circuit feeding the pump is 120v because that was the same circuit I used to power the Hayward SuperPump I am replacing. I even went as far as hooking up the pump to another 120v circuit (controlled by a separate breaker) to see if there were issues with the circuit, but the pump behaved in same manner on a different circuit.

I contacted the supply house where I purchased the pump. They said there could be 'shellac on the coils' causing the inoperable low voltage setting. Hmmmmmm…..

Any thoughts about this? Has anyone ever seen anything like this? So the SMOKING MOTOR is an obvious red flag, but I am curious about why it would work in High Voltage. If “The Shellac Hypothesis” is true, wouldn’t the motor behave in the same manner (smoking, etc) regardless of voltage settings?

I would love to get some feedback on this puzzling behavior.

Thanks J

Some other pool stats
12K gal IG vinyl
1.5” pvc plumbing
Suction – 2 skimmers and main drain
Pressure – 2 outlets
Equip Pad approx 30 feet (uphill) from pool
WhisperFlo ¾ hp EE Single Speed pump
Taglius SD60, 325# Sand Filter
Hayward CL220 Off Line Chlorinator