Kenmore 4.1 Powermate Canister.... Can I still run it?

[jaker15]

So, I have been told that the high speed windings in my Kenmore are failing, which is causing the crackling noise and slowing of the motor speed when I have it running on HIGH speed. It still runs just fine on LOW speed. 


Is it safe for me to continue using this Kenmore on LOW only? 

 

[countvacula]

Lamb has a replacement five wire two speed motor for it if the old one gives out. I would have to poke around their website for quite a bit of time to find the model number but I know they make one still. Some Filter Queens use it.

 

[countvacula]

Btw, my understanding of how the Kenmore motor alters speed is that it is switched between series and parallel operation at the speed selector switch. This alters the voltage to the motor. At low speed the motor only receives half the voltage it receives at high speed. There are only one set of field windings in the motor itself. It is an unusual motor in that the lead from one of the brushes, the black wire, goes right to the ground side of the on-off switch and not to a field winding as is the case with the lead from the opposite brush.

 

[sbakerde]

You are

Correct that their is only one field coil. So it's not possible that the high speed coil would burn out because it's all the same one. If any part of the coil is damaged or defective the whole thing is bad. The switch chaged back and forth from using the entire field coil to using only half or a percentage of it for low speed. This is because leads are brough out from the center(ish) of the coil windings. By using only the half the magnetic field acting on the armature is weeker therefore spinning the armature at a lower speed. The voltage does not change on either speed. However current consumption does. Lower speed doesn't pull as many amps as high speed.

 

[countvacula]

Huh. I have a bulletin from Lamb and supposedly the speed control switch changes the motor from series to parallel operation. I thought that affected voltage rather than current. Using only part of the field coil for low speed operations makes sense. It is a very interesting motor. Anyway, if the field coil is toast Lamb does have a current production five wire motor that fits.

 

[cuffs054]

So can Jaker still run it on low?