From: Chris Zach <cz alembic crystel com>
To: Elec-trak list <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 6:12 PM
Subject: (ET) Pressure washer upgraded. Wooo!
I LIKE IT!
This morning I sat down, wired up the motor and contactor on the pressure washer and gave it a run with the low pressure bubble wand attachment. It works, however the motor was slowing down a bit and the motor terminals were hot after a bit of usage.
So I tightened the power bolts on the motor itself, then used the Elec-trak drill+wire brush to really brush down the posts. Took about 10 or so years of gunk off, after which I re-connected it and fired it up with the high/low pressure wand.
*WOW*. When I set it to focused mode it will shoot the water over the house (30 feet vertical). Very very strong, the wand and tools are rated to 3400 pounds of pressure and the pump should only be 1500. But boy is it a good 1500, maybe the best day of the gas engine's life did this well.
The motor posts are cool, the motor is slightly warm, all contacts and wires are cool. So I've got the right wires. The motor does slow down a
bit when the pump is running full blast, pulls into the yellow on the power meter. I'll re-connect the E-meter sometime and check the real power draw. I do think I have the compensation coil in the motor and it's in series with the armature now strengthening the field, but you know, I can deal with that.
Next up will to be to get a 4 wire plug for the field (instead of the 2 alligator clips I am using now) and I'll also wire the temp switch in the motor in series with the contactor loop to shut it down if the motor overheats.
Overall though it's pretty amazing, set up will now take about 2 minutes instead of screwing around with fuel and pulling my shoulder trying to pull-start the thing.
The pump itself doesn't seem to be leaking oil out the top, so I think it's good. I'll make it a policy to check the pump monthly to see how the oil is, but I doubt it will need much.
Overall a spectacular win. And another project out of my
pile of things to do, now what do I do with this old engine?
Chris
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