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If you live in dry and hot areas, buying a swamp cooler might rank as one of the best decisions you have ever made. A swamp cooler is an energy-efficient machine that’s prone to the occasional mechanical problem like any other appliance.
It is common to hear pump owners wonder, ‘why does my swamp cooler pump keep burning out?’
If pump burnouts are common with your swamp cooler, sit tight as we tell you how to solve the issue.
What Makes a Swamp Cooler Pump to Burn Out?
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Overworking The Swamp Cooler
This is a common factor in the summer, especially on the hottest of days. It is possible to overwork the swamp cooler to the extent the pump burns out on such days. However, there is not much you can do to prevent this, and it’s also rare.
Your pump won’t suddenly burn out due to overwork, but it could point to other deficiencies that have built up.
Solution: During the summer, turn off the swamp cooler when you aren’t home to give it a rest. Also, opening the windows to bring in cooler air that reduces the cooler’s workload will help.
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An Extremely High or Low Belt Tension
A blower wheel gets the air out of the swamp cooler by rotating to move the air. The machine’s motor enables the rotation of the blower to pass the air out of the swamp cooler through a belt. This belt allows for energy transfer from the motor to the blower.
The belt tensions must be balanced to ensure smooth energy transition from the motor to the blower. If it’s too much and makes the belt too tight, then there will be too much power which might hen cause overheating.
Too much of this will lead to the motor burning out alongside the pump as well. On the other hand, a lower belt tension will only reduce the lifespan of the belt. Too much friction will cause the belt to wear thin over time.
Before you know it, you will need a replacement. However, the motor or pump will be the more complex thing to replace once they burn out.
Solution: Always set the belt in the optimum position to avoid inadequate or excessive tension.
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Electrical Issues
Electrical issues could also lead to your pump burning out. Electrical problems lead to shorting of the components to the swamp cooler, thus potentially causing the pump or the motor to burn out.
Such issues might result from faulty wires, sudden power surges, or bad electrical connections. Bad switches or fuses will also lead to unnecessary heating within the swamp cooler, making the motor and pump overheat.
Solution: Whenever you notice unstable power, always turn the swamp cooler off to protect it from power surges that might burn out the pump. You can also inspect for any bad fuses or improperly placed electrical wires. If you see any, get an electrician to check your power and fix the issue as soon as possible.
Don’t fix the electrical issues alone unless you are suitably qualified.
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Excess Voltage
The average swamp cooler needs voltages of 115 to 125 to work at optimum functioning. That means anything way over that is too much voltage for your cooler. The swamp cooler will work perfectly at only 50 percent of that figure.
However, you can’t always control the voltage, and sometimes the voltage might rise to extreme levels. That will cause the motor to overheat and produce heat that gets to the swamp cooler’s other parts, including the pump.
If you don’t check this fast enough, it could lead to both your pump and motor burning out.
Solution: To solve this issue, you will need to ensure you have a stable source of power for your swamp cooler. That will reduce the bursts that will often lead to burning out of the pump and motor.
1. Dried-Out Bearings
You must wonder how bearings can lead to overheating within the swamp cooler. Well, if you don’t adequately lubricate your shaft bearings, there will be a lot of friction when they spin.
This difficulty in movement or spinning will lead to overheating the motor. The overheating of the motor will spread to the other parts of the swamp cooler, including the pump, and might make it burn out.
Solutions: To solve this is relatively easy. All you need to do is oil the bearings. You won’t have to do it every other month since annual oiling will do. To do that, open the side panels of the swamp cooler to access the bearings, then lubricate them with the oil.
The bearing housing usually has holes to pour in the oil after opening them. Pour enough oil in each of these holes to properly lubricate the bearings. Remember to turn the blower wheel to ensure the oil gets to all the parts of the bearings.
Read Also: 15 Best Swamp Cooler Hacks That You Should Know In 2022
Important Points to Remember
Although the solutions might seem relatively straightforward, it is better to be safe and call a professional to help you solve them. Electrical faults, for instance, might not be something you’d want to try to fix yourself if you can call a technician to do it.
However, if you insist on doing it yourself, take enough precautions. Always switch off the power before trying anything on your swamp cooler. The regular maintenance functions shouldn’t be too hard to perform yourself.
Issues such as belt tension and bearings problems should be easy to fix without the need for a technician. That, however, doesn’t mean throwing all caution to the wind and avoiding following the safety measures.
Final Thoughts
If you were one of the swamp cooler owners wondering, ‘why does my swamp cooler pump keep burning out?’ we hope you now know. A swamp cooler pump will bun out for different reasons, but electrical issues and overwork are the most common.
Follow the tips we have outlined here to diagnose and solve the problems with your swamp cooler pump. Above all, remember to do routine maintenance of the swamp cooler to ensure pump burnout issues are a rarity.
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