Both my bilge blowers melted
 

And they did it in sequence. Wtf?

Had the blowers running last weekend and I started to smell that burning electronics smell. Oh $hit. Popped the hatch and one was smoking so I turned them off and began to investigate. One was smouldering and the other had a large black hole burned in it.

What the hell?

There has got to be more to this story -- were there any mice in the blower area? Is it possible that you may have put 24V to both instead of 12V?

Please keep us informed what happened

3pointstar

did the pumps try to pull water?

Ryan

No

No way 24v was hooked up to them, they've never been messed with to my knowledge.


Also, can a mod move this to boating general discussion? I'm not sure how it got here.

I moved it for you.

Are you certain they didn't get wet somehow, not even water splashed in the output vents when moored?

they could get hot because they never get lubricated. I have drilled a hole and dripped oil on the shaft. But looks like you're getting some new ones :)

One i can't say for sure, but the other i know for a fact didn't get wet.

Were they the atwood in line blowers? If so, i have had a couple of those melt down for no apparent reason. Attributed it to time in a wet enviroment. The replaced them with a jabsco unit.

The jist

Fuse protected ? What size fuse ?

Dirt dobbers like to nest in them and or in the hose ducks

restrictions in the air ducts or vents and or again nests of some sort built in them or ducking from whatever ie animals - dirt dobbers, rats I have even stuck in them.

plastic bags or whatever gets sucked up into them or the hose ducking - check for any restrictions.

next when blowers turn on, the end vent hose portion can get sucked up against anything - the bilge floor, a stringer, a bulkhead or whatever creating a total restriction of air movement thru the blower inwhich causes them to run very hot. very common - the reasons installed vent hoses improperly or to long or end of vent hose not sucured in place that gets sucked up against whatever when the blowers are turned on,

or the vent hoses collapsed

Most of the time its installer problem that caused this for brand new installs that fail in short order.

or a wiring problem or fuse problem ie voltage problem of some sort as well

I've seen them mounted in a spot (bottom of slight U or L) where water collects in them. I'll know it first hand when someone turns their blower on and you hear a slight gurgle of water.

+1 on the dirt dobber nest. Lost 2 blowers at once due to those little bastards building their nests on the fan blades.

Its probably that ECM reflash that failed and shorted out the blower sensor's, post your serial # of the engine so we can help :angry-smiley-038:

Yes, they were. Not in a wet environment.
Bup, I'll look for obstructions when I pull them out. My new units should be here today and I'll pull the old ones tomorrow. They are protected by a breaker, but it never tripped. Not sure what the deal is there.

These were mounted vertically.
That is a very distinct possibility.
Damnit, Bowman changed my vent motors' redline and I tossed a rod. :)

LMAO, I just sent him a ecm to reflash, Im having the blower rev limiter increased to 10k revs and the protect interrupt installed :Score-101010:.......good luck with the M-dobbers

FYI: make sure to get the water cooled blower housings if you do this !

^^^^^^^ thinks of EVERYTHING

Finally got back to the lake to replace them, here is one that I pulled out.

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...pswmyg2o9c.jpghttp://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...psufvmpnvj.jpg

Wow !

You'd almost have to disassemble the motor, look at the brushes, and look for missing shellac/black marks on the coils to figure out the failure. Most of the DC motors failures I've seen were crud/sticking brushes (R/C motors, drills, etc).

I say toss a set of 35k rpm Dyson brushless motors in those bilge blowers with billet fan blades with lithium ion batteries. Pimp.

Dyson? I was thinking replace them with some 22 year old skanks, it being a Fountain and all.

If you can afford the additional maintenance (Boone's Farm, Aquanet, penicillin), then by all means, go for it!

Yikes, how long had they been running to get so hot?

No way to know exactly but it couldnt have been very long because the battery switch is off if Im not in the immediate vicinity of the boat.

Voltage test showed 13.9v off and 12.9 running on both sides.

That's exactly what mine looked like. I really think the attwood blower is just cheap crap that ain't up to the task! Jmo, I know you are searching for a cause elsewhere . Went thru this on my 10 meter and the blowers were only a couple seasons old. Buy a jabsco unit and never look back .

Dang, already bought replacement Attwoods. It's moderately calming to know that I'm not the only this has happened to, but still now acceptable.

I have some more documentation I'll prepping into an report I'll send to their tech guys. I do accodent investigations and reports at work, time to use them skillz. :)