Scup
New Member
Here is a history of where the USA is going, based just on my observation of the history of a simple blower motor, and I really do not care for what I am seeing. I am sure my ranting could likely apply to other fields as well.
I own an old obsolete Bison wood fired hot air burner. Strangely enough, with only minor repairs like replacing the door gasket, and removing the automatic thermostatic controlled damper which would damp the fire down thus reducing its output (a good thing) but increasing the formation of creosote (a very bad thing), the unit is still fully functional. However, lately it has not been so easy to keep it operating due to off shore products.
The original blower motor was powered by a cheap 120VAC sleeve bearing direct drive capacitor motor with a 3/8" shaft. It lasted at least a couple of decades but it did require a drop or two of motor oil on the sleeve bearings once or twice during the heating season (takes maybe 30 seconds to oil it up). Cause of failure; the sleeve bearings finally failed. Interesting to note when taken apart, the Dayton blower had rubber isolation mounts between the blower and motor to reduce operational noise. Dayton no longer manufactures the original blower but had an upgraded unit, (if one would consider a Chinese ball bearing motor to be an upgrade). My anticipated lifespan of the upgraded blower I then thought would be essentially forever since the sleeve bearings appeared to be the weakest link. After going through two of these Chinese blower/motors in six years, I now only anticipate two or three years, and considering it is only used in the heating season and intermittently at that, these continuous duty rated motors seem to have a total use life expectancy of around a year. Cause of failure was hot running likely due to its design (whether intentional or not I do not know) and made worse by ball bearing failure; both units were hot running right out of the box. Having worked on naval sonar systems most of my life if I had found any system resolver or servo that had any resistance whatsoever when turned by hand, it would be replaced immediately. The ball bearings in these Chinese blowers really fall far short of what I have come to expect in quality from American manufacturers. Have no idea of why Dayton decided to go off shore, although I could guess, for the replacement blower since I did have a love affair with the reliability of motors manufactured by Dayton.
The recent (just yesterday) replacement was a Rotom blower thinking a Canadian outfit would understand the necessity of reliable heating equipment. The blower was of the same approximate specifications as the Dayton and is direct replacement. Unfortunately, I discovered that it too is made in the Peoples Republic of China. This blower is running hot as previous purchased Chinese blower motors, so once again I had to order out a replacement. The motor is warranted only for one year (not surprising) which would amount to probably less than two months of total continuous use. Have no idea of how long this motor will perform but must assume that a standby replacement will likely be needed and as such has been ordered. Time will tell! I did check with my local electrical supplier and he did mentioned that two or three years is about all that one should expect from these blower/motors.
There is no question that these blowers are very low cost, but considering that a blower failure would not only jeopardize your heating system, you would be risking consequential damage of having frozen water pipes.
I did consider removing only the motor from the blower and replacing it with an American made motor, assuming I could find one. Alas, the diameter of the shaft was measured at 12 mm or 0.472”. I am at a total lost as how to go about resolving this problem in replacing the motor. It would be easy enough to ream out the old squirrel cage blower to ½” using a drill press, but I would still have to find an American made end mount motor to fit the blower’s housing and with the proper voltage, rotation, speed, HP etc.
Getting so desperate to get something reliable, I am thinking about using a jack-shaft and pulley and move toward the use of a belt powered blower with a detached American made motor as the prime mover.
Any suggestions would be helpful?
I own an old obsolete Bison wood fired hot air burner. Strangely enough, with only minor repairs like replacing the door gasket, and removing the automatic thermostatic controlled damper which would damp the fire down thus reducing its output (a good thing) but increasing the formation of creosote (a very bad thing), the unit is still fully functional. However, lately it has not been so easy to keep it operating due to off shore products.
The original blower motor was powered by a cheap 120VAC sleeve bearing direct drive capacitor motor with a 3/8" shaft. It lasted at least a couple of decades but it did require a drop or two of motor oil on the sleeve bearings once or twice during the heating season (takes maybe 30 seconds to oil it up). Cause of failure; the sleeve bearings finally failed. Interesting to note when taken apart, the Dayton blower had rubber isolation mounts between the blower and motor to reduce operational noise. Dayton no longer manufactures the original blower but had an upgraded unit, (if one would consider a Chinese ball bearing motor to be an upgrade). My anticipated lifespan of the upgraded blower I then thought would be essentially forever since the sleeve bearings appeared to be the weakest link. After going through two of these Chinese blower/motors in six years, I now only anticipate two or three years, and considering it is only used in the heating season and intermittently at that, these continuous duty rated motors seem to have a total use life expectancy of around a year. Cause of failure was hot running likely due to its design (whether intentional or not I do not know) and made worse by ball bearing failure; both units were hot running right out of the box. Having worked on naval sonar systems most of my life if I had found any system resolver or servo that had any resistance whatsoever when turned by hand, it would be replaced immediately. The ball bearings in these Chinese blowers really fall far short of what I have come to expect in quality from American manufacturers. Have no idea of why Dayton decided to go off shore, although I could guess, for the replacement blower since I did have a love affair with the reliability of motors manufactured by Dayton.
The recent (just yesterday) replacement was a Rotom blower thinking a Canadian outfit would understand the necessity of reliable heating equipment. The blower was of the same approximate specifications as the Dayton and is direct replacement. Unfortunately, I discovered that it too is made in the Peoples Republic of China. This blower is running hot as previous purchased Chinese blower motors, so once again I had to order out a replacement. The motor is warranted only for one year (not surprising) which would amount to probably less than two months of total continuous use. Have no idea of how long this motor will perform but must assume that a standby replacement will likely be needed and as such has been ordered. Time will tell! I did check with my local electrical supplier and he did mentioned that two or three years is about all that one should expect from these blower/motors.
There is no question that these blowers are very low cost, but considering that a blower failure would not only jeopardize your heating system, you would be risking consequential damage of having frozen water pipes.
I did consider removing only the motor from the blower and replacing it with an American made motor, assuming I could find one. Alas, the diameter of the shaft was measured at 12 mm or 0.472”. I am at a total lost as how to go about resolving this problem in replacing the motor. It would be easy enough to ream out the old squirrel cage blower to ½” using a drill press, but I would still have to find an American made end mount motor to fit the blower’s housing and with the proper voltage, rotation, speed, HP etc.
Getting so desperate to get something reliable, I am thinking about using a jack-shaft and pulley and move toward the use of a belt powered blower with a detached American made motor as the prime mover.
Any suggestions would be helpful?
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