PTS Flowbench Forum

Long story short I blew a motor in my bench which was new in 2008 about 6 months ago. Jamison sent me a replacement but it didn't fit the baffle recess, I did however make it work by just gasketing it to the baffle and it didn't sit in the factory recess. More importantly all along I suspected this was not the smartest thing to do because the new pump was a two stage (the old is a single stage) and I assume has additional airflow compared to the other 8. Well the new pump just failed. The impeller nut came off, wallowed out the impeller, and that locked up the pump. I don't know if I can chuck this failure up to a mechanical problem with the pump or a problem caused by an imbalance.
I'd like to hear the experiences and opinions of the forum members if they have mixed pumps with different volumes and pressure potential?
I have my own opinion on this but thought I would just toss this out and see what others have to say.

By the way on a side note this machine has about the worst industrial wiring I have seen in a long time. They use a mag starter on L1 only and to save costs split the 6ga wire in to 3 14ga wires and hook those up to L1 L2 & L3 on the mag starter. They daisy chain the motor grounds rather than hoe run them and have no circuit protection on the branches to the motors. I could not stand it any more and yarded off all the wiring and started over. It really sucks (not in a good way) to have to rebuild a 7K dollar bench. Next will be a whole new bank of motors.

I'm also an owner of that same bench and honestly wasn't happy with the wiring job either. I lost 4 motors in a little over a years time (after about 5 years of use). I found it to be due to poor ground connection (not crimped well) and the wires were just long enough to barely connect to each other. I ended up rewiring all of the motors and also upgraded them to dual stage ones that are at least serviceable. Since then my issues are gone and my capacity is much more than before. Overall I'm satisified with my purchase just think they could have done things a little different considering the cost involved. You can take the front cover off of the old ones and use with the replacement that he sent you (I have one as well). Bite the bullet now and upgrade the motors. I have a new wiring layout and pictures if you need help.

Similar experiences that I had. I have since replaced all the motors with Lighthouse small housing efficient pumps. The wiring is fixed with all grounds home run to a terminal strip and fuse protection added. Without fuse protection this machine is downright dangerous.

I will add two more mag starters so I can turn on 3 motors at a time. The 9 higher power motors have more capacity than I need even testing at 50". With the help from Bruce and the calibration plates I have the accuracy dialed in. It really takes 4 plates to do this job right. The factories plate is a joke. I actually have resisted motor speed depression control because I feel the controlled pressure would mask a bouncing manometer. Still a work in progress which is not too keen considering the benches cost.

How about some pictures of the inside when you have it apart again?

Yes pictures please