By Tom Bishop, P.E.
EASA Senior Technical Support Specialist
Most plant engineers and maintenance staff can attest to the reliability of standard-efficiency motors that have been repaired or rewound using industry best practices. They also know repair can cost far less than replacement, especially when the motor has special features. Despite this, some of them hesitate to have failed energy-efficient motors (NEMA Premium models, in particular) repaired because they’ve heard it degrades efficiency.
So, what’s the right answer? Is the decision to repair, rewind or replace a failed energy-efficient motor as simple and straightforward as you may have heard?
Topics in the article include:
- What makes a motor more energy-efficient?
- Repaired motor efficiency
- Review the motor application
- Catastrophic failure (present)
- Catastrophic failure (prior)
- Rotor condition
- Mechanical parts condition
- Higher-efficiency motors
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