[stuart_clark]

I would totally disagree with that 1 I have bought these cheaper italian motors from woodbridge since 1997 and each motor last for approx three years without a brush change depending on usage and as far as iam concearned I just replace them rather than change the brushes! Back in 97 i was paying £25.00 per motor I think the lamb equivelent were £97.00 ! ok that was ten years ago and vacume motors have gone up in price since then ! I dont think with these particuler parts you get whjat you pay for rather than greed of suppliers charging what they like for parts ,
I can buy a lamb 5.7" three stage from woodbridge for £57.00 plus vat and delivery

[AJB]

I used Woodbridge cheaper vacuums in my Ninja
for 6 Years, they are good motors, but are certainly
less powerful than Lamb, not masses of difference
but noticable.

[damien71]

Definitely there are far more problems with Vac motors in series than in parellel!
We use Cross-American Recoil 3XPS use 2  three stage and also a 2 stage. Our motors each have there own stack pipe and so are practically independent from each other as far as affecting the other adversly. This way they all run cool and at their peak performance.
I believe in series you only increase cfm by 20% under opperating circumstances. In parellel it is 80%With Cross
American's approach testing indicates even more increase in cfm and air velovity. You actually have more opperating lift too because of the increase of pull at the wand on the carpet where every really matters.
Again a side benifit is cooler motors that last longer.


best wishes
Damien71

[carpetguy]

Why can't we get a more powerful. single motor, in extraction machines, they must be in use, in some of the powerfull commercial vacuums ?

[Steve Chapman]

the extracta motors are fitted in parallel so work independently of each other, the two i replaced had each done less than 300 hours, and looked clean as a whistle, no residue in the exhaust etc.

I'm convinced they are just poor quality or faulty to start with.

The motors should be designed to be used quite rigorously, and apart from switching them on and off and making sure no foam or water is pulled through them , what else can you do to make them last longer?

only not use them at all  :


regards
steve

[carpetguy]

Just found a motor 1750 watts / 2.35 hp..............how does that compare with the usual ?

[Ken Wainwright]

If my memory serves me correctly, the twin vac Extracta's use the older 7.2" vacs in parallel. Same set up as on my Alltec Professional Plus.  The service recommendation for the Alltec used to be 350 hours but that sometimes was too long and motors went pop because brushes were worn out.  The recommendation then came down to 300 hours, and to be honest, I found this to be borderline too, so I serviced mine at a convenient time after 250 hours. I then went from <1 year vac lif to 4 or 5 year life.

It all makes me wonder whether the carbon brushes on these motors are durable enough.  Would I be correct in thinking that our 230 volts requires a harder carbon than the US's 110volt?

I'm told that the 5.7" vacs are much more durable than the larger 7.2's.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[Steve Chapman]

ken,
they are as you've stated,

 have inspected the brushes today and the ends were just like crumbled powder, although there was plenty of length left.

Does this seem like the brushes are the problem?  - And can i assume that this has damaged the motor beyond repair?

this seems to me a bad problem with so little hours use, and the fact extracta recommend a once a year service, you would think the motors would last the year aswell, esp for the not so technically minded.

Extracta have never recommended replacing or checking the brushes, so perhaps this is something overlooked my manufacturers and suppliers?

It would save at lot of grief and cost in the long run.


regards
steve

[Ken Wainwright]

Steve

I'm not too gen'd up on the technicalities of these things, but if the brushes have crumbled, could this have caused excessive arcing?  When Trevor Ives services machines, he runs the motors first @ half speed (with 110 volt transformer) to help the brushes bed-in properly to minimise the arcing problem, so that's why I'm thinking damaged brushes could cause a problem.

At 300 hours on my Pro-Plus, the brushes were absolutely shot.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[damien71]

Carpet Guy:
The Vacuum motor you might be referring to is the Lamb Ametek 117500-12.
I bought one of these motors a little over a year ago and it is a screamer. Very powerful.I used in my system and then later loaned it to a friend of mine who uses a Bane Clene Paramount. We have somewhat increased the performance by putting a 2 HP motor in it and ended up turning the Sutorbilt 3MVL vacuum pump almost 1700 rpm and still kept the amps down to around 16. When he added the 117500-12 Premier vac motor it was like a gas truckmount almost. However the motor(Lamb) only went another 20 hours or so when it started sparking. I likely did not put more than 25 hours on it myself.
I asked a person in the buisiness of central vacuum for homes about it and he said that there were problems in the early models . So if you buy one make sure it is one built recently. Definitely don't buy one made in 2005. I have had the most succes with a moderately powerful 5.7 Lamb Vac that operates at 117  inches of water lift sealed. And has a maximum of 100 CFM  with no restriction. Of course these motors don't work under these conditions but rather inside an extractor with or without another one and then with hose attached. Go to www.lambametek.com and then to products and look under tagential discharge  and you will find most of the motors used by mfgs.


damien71

[carpetguy]

Good post Damien...........the motor I found is actually made in Slovenia, but there is a UK distributor, who I will be phoning for info'

I owned a CFR a few years ago which had a single, three stage vac, that was capable of working effecrively, on 150 feet of hose.

Even allowing for the CFR tooling, the power was impressive.

I'm no engineer so can only guess at the possibilities, but a single vacuum, with greater power has more appeal than doubling, or trebling, the number of vac'c