Finally got my old air exchanger running again after the motor seized up last winter

Took me about 3 weekends to pull it apart and find the right replacement fan blade online. Has anyone else dealt with a seized ventilation fan in their shelter during the colder months?

3 comments

3 Comments

jadej506d ago

You said "took me about 3 weekends to pull it apart" and that's exactly what I was wondering about. When that motor locked up on you, did the housing or the fan blade itself get damaged too? I ask because I had a similar situation where the seized motor actually warped the mounting bracket, and I had to fabricate a new one from scrap metal. Took me almost a month of evenings to get it all sorted out. A lot of people don't realize that a seized motor can sometimes mess up the surrounding components, not just the motor itself. Did you have to do any extra repairs aside from replacing the blade and motor?

phoenix_lewis6d ago

Funny you mention that @jadej50, because I once had a blower where the seized motor literally snapped the housing bolts clean off. Had to drill them out and tap new threads, which was a whole other beast. The fan blade in my case was fine actually, just some scratches. But the mounting bracket got all bent up from the heat the motor gave off before it locked. Took some careful bending with a vise and a hammer to get it back straight. Have you ever dealt with warped plastic housings from a motor overheating?

blakestone6d ago

Watched a buddy deal with that exact mess last summer. The motor locked up so bad it cracked the plastic housing near the mounting points. Fan blade was toast too, bent from the sudden stop. He ended up having to drill out broken bolts and patch the housing with epoxy and a metal bracket. Took him way longer than he planned, like two months of weekends. You ever try epoxy on a housing like that or did you just go straight to the scrap metal fix?