Hydrovane 502 startup after about 7 years standing

[Campesino]

I have a Hydovane 502 that has been sitting in a (dry) barn for about 7 years as the electricity supply was not up to the job.

I tried to start it as I now have access to a 25 amp supply, to check it out before giving myself a hernia moving it 50 meters onto the building site (Dry, dust free).

As it is raining cats and dogs, I ran a long 6mm twin and earth to it, to check if it was free to rotate. It did, in a clockwise rotation (viewing the end of the motor).
It ran for about two seconds then cut, ran for another two seconds, cut, etc.
The contactor remained engaged during the cycling and there was a "clack" from the motor as if it had some under-voltage protection or other
start protection.

I'm fairly sure my problem is the cable run is much too long, but reading this forum, I am probably lucky that it will not run as it is massively overdue for a service.

As I can't find the manual, that I know I have, and I'm sure it is an owners manual not a service manual anyway, apart from the obvious oil change, what other parts are recommended to re-commission the 502?

Before I bought it, the 502 was running in parallel with a 503 running a couple of CNC milling machines, and was under a service contract.
I believe it to be a good example of a great machine, so I would like to look after it.

I hope you guys can help me and the 502!

 

[Campesino]

Update

I finally managed to find a manual that would download and I suspect that the over-temperature pcb also has an under-voltage function that is dropping out the main contactor for a few milliseconds.
I will try again when it is dark to confirm this.

As to parts it would appear that without a strip-down, all I require is AirForce oil, an oil separator, an air filter and seals for the drain & fill plugs?

If anyone has a more detailed manual on this compressor it would be most welcome.

Regards
James

 

[Country Joe]

I hope you guys can help me and the 502!

If anyone has a more detailed manual on this compressor it would be most welcome.

Hi there & welcome to the Forum!
If you're not in a massive hurry to get it going today, I'd maybe hang on for a bit.
There's a guy on here (Gary 900r - I think) who knows hydrovanes so well, you'd believe he was brought up by a pair of hydrovane compressors, as a child! Also another guy by the name of Tigler, is another of the compressor heavyweights - with encyclopedic knowledge of them!

As you've got hydrovane in the title, I'm guessing they'll see this sooner or later, and have some or all the info you're after.
I can't help personally, as I don't know a damn thing about them, but luckily they do!
All the Best,
CJ

 

[Gary900r]

Hydrovane have used several starters on this range of machines can you let me know more about the one you have and the make of motor.
With the contactor types if the contactor drops out then you should need to press the start button for the contactor to pull in again(unless the wiring has been bodged like the 504 I was looking at a couple of weeks ago). All standard motor protection is in the starter
Hydrovanes do not like being stood for long periods of time without being used. Depending on the environment and running cycle the last time it was running there may have been moisture left in the machine this will cause corrosion internally.
I have been to several from 501s up to 200cfm units where after being stood the vanes have stuck in the vane slots. Including one where it had 1 hour on the clock and was in a clean dry warm room but unused for 4+years. The 504 mentioned above is having a new airend.
Drain the oil and see what comes out. Remove the airend and try the motor without any load. Try turning the airend by hand.

 

[Campesino]

Thank you Country Joe and Gary900r

The protection pcb inside the starter is marked 72093.
The motor is a Powerplus 2.2kw single phase, frame type ML90L-2
The 502 compressor is serial number 007468.

I will drain the oil and let it settle to see if there is anything lurking in there.

The machine was running in an electronics factory, away from the CNCs and usually was switched on all day, which I now think was not a good idea as the oil may not have been up to temperature the whole time.

With regard to removing the airend, is it just a matter of removing the allen bolts and pulling it away, or is the coupling something more complicated than a dog type coupler?

 

[Gary900r]

Airend is removed by the 4 allen bots and disconnecting the o/t wire from the starter box.
Is the starter box a white box with all gubbins inside?.

 

[Campesino]

Just got the airend off after modifying an allen key as the starter box makes it a p*g of a job.

Yes that is correct the starter box is white with a start and emergency stop button.

The oil in the airend is clean, well red, with no detectable ferrous particles.

To answer my own question the coupling is a 3 dog type with a buffer mrtween then.

The airend shaft rotates freely by hand.

I have not tried to start the motor only.

 

[Campesino]

Motor runs fine without the airend, but when it is run down it still gives a "clack" as it is close to stopping and when rotating there is a feeling of something rubbing, like a brake mechanism?

I think I'll pull the motor end cover off to have a look, just in case it is a bearing, but I don't believe it is.

Anyone know what the torque is for the airend bolts?

 

[Robotstar5]

Motor runs fine without the airend, but when it is run down it still gives a "clack" as it is close to stopping and when rotating there is a feeling of something rubbing, like a brake mechanism?

I think I'll pull the motor end cover off to have a look, just in case it is a bearing, but I don't believe it is.

May be a centrifugal switch closing, you don't hear it opening on start up due to the noise of the motor/pump.

 

[Campesino]

Yes Robotstar5 it is a centrifugal switch.
Found it yesterday last night just after the wonderful plastic fan, that had melted itself to the motor shaft, fell to bits!
Oh deep joy....

 

[Campesino]

Typical

Went into town to buy new motor fan, universal type, as I'm in Spain, fitted it and did a test run. All well and good.

I don't know why I tried a couple of restarts, apart from I thought I heard a squeak from the new fan at full speed, no load (airend is still off).
On the second or third start the motor did not start correctly, appeared to draw more current than when it was running full speed, so I hit the stop button double quick.

As it had not done this before I thought try again a few times to see if it is repeatable, whilst hovering over the stop button.
Eight starts OK then number nine.....Bang......

The starter capacitor had blown its end off, but strangely there was no smelly goo all over the inside of the capacitor box, as is usually the case when a capacitor ruptures?

The capacitor in question is 40uF 450V so I'm hoping that is the correct value?

If this capacitor was giving up on life that may explain the starting issues?

Final question. Is the black, unmarked thing in the same housing a filter or something as it was warm after the bang? I did not check it before, as I had no cause to.

 

[tigler]

Typical dying cap symptoms. Modern caps are plastic dielectric so no goo to blow out but also the reason the fail sooner than older caps. What does the black object look like ? Hydrovanes do normally have dual cap motors so it could be the second cap.

 

[Campesino]

Capacitors

Ah, looked inside the lid and the other, unmarked, capacitor must be the starter capacitor. The exploded one must be the run capacitor, I assume.

No idea as to the value of the unmarked one. It is slightly longer, approx 10mm, and the same diameter so probably the same value.

I will have to get an Ebay manual!

 

[tigler]

Going by the value you have given for the failed cap, it will be the run cap.
The start cap will have a higher value, generally above 70MF. The value may be shown on the motor data plate.

 

[eil]

It sounds like you have blown the run cap, and no wonder nine starts straight after each other it did not have time to cool down, most manufacturers don't like more than twenty starts an hour. Normally the start caps are a higher value than the run.

 

[Campesino]

Capacitors

Got out a 500W flood light.
The mystery back capacitor was marked 300uf 300v.

I did wait 5 to 10 seconds between restarts and it was not under load (no air end) but point taken.

Most of my motor experience is with 3ph motors which are a bit more robust it may seem.

 

[Robotstar5]

I did wait 5 to 10 seconds between restarts and it was not under load (no air end) but point taken.

Most of my motor experience is with 3ph motors which are a bit more robust it may seem.

Some of the 250 hp motors we had in the foundry needed a break of 20 minutes between starts or the starter would cook!

 

[tigler]

Not surprised with 187 KW up it

 

[Campesino]

I digress..

Several of the customers I know insisted that, for type approval and final acceptance, they could perform all sorts of power breaks on both the incoming 3 phase supply and individual circuit breakers, supplying pumps and motors etc.

The object of the tests was to try to break the thing as it cost 100 times more to fix the thing once it was commissioned.

We did occasionally have a few design hitches, with the odd cooked pump or transformer, but at the end of the day the equipment was pretty-much bomb proof.

But there is a bit of a difference between a 120kw TV main station, on the top of a mountain, being struck by lightning, and a compressor sitting in my barn!

 

[Ralph2]

An old thread I know, but I have just been trying to solve the same issues with my trusty 502 Hydrovane. The MCB was tripping more and more frequently on start up, a pretty sure indicator that the start capacitor is on the way out. Finding out which was which proved to be a little trickier. Hopefully the photo below will help others in't future.

My thanks to Justin at Hydrovane for his help. I forgot the check the run capacitor value with him so not shown here.