Fein cord hot !

[wardsa]

I just got my Fein Vac table up and running. WOW! What a difference this is going to make. One thing, at first I just had it pluged into a wall outlet. With nothing else on, I was tripping a 20 amp breaker. I just wired an independent outlet, straight out of my panel for the Feins. I'm using 25 ft. of 12 ga. for the switch. I've got one Fein going to the switch and the other Fein plugged into that one. The cord is getting warm. I only ran it long enough to suface my table, it didn't trip, but I feel if I ran it long it would. Anyone else running into this? I may just have to jump up to 10 ga., now that i've got it all done.
Terry

[nschlee]

Not a good idea to "daisy chain" them as you mentioned. This could lead to shortened motor life. Each Fein should be on it's own cord, and preferably as short as possible if it is to be run on a continous basis under load. Dedicated circuits would be ideal.

[ed_lang]

Neal,

I don't understand. help me out.

My Fein has printed on the motor that the load to be connected to the outlet needs to be 40W min and 2000W max. The specs on the Fein Turbo III say that it pulls 1200W.

What is wrong with hooking up the second vac to the fist one so you only need to turn on one vac? Mine has been connected this way for months and they run for hours at a time.

Specifications:

* Model: 9-77-25
* Auto Start: Yes
* Watts: 1200
* Static Water Lift: 99 inches
* Air Flow: 126 cfm
* Net Weight: 36 lbs
* Power Cord Length: 16 ft.
* Hose Length: 10 ft.
* Capacity Dry: 14.5 gallons
* Capacity Wet: 12 gallons
* Dimensions: 29 1/8" * 16 1/4"


Thanks
Ed

[nschlee]

Ed, Go for it if you want. What's gonna happen if one Fein fails for ANY reason, pops the breaker and shuts down the other while your doing a routing a high dollar job on expense customer supplied material? I'd rather be safe than sorry! If your using a dedicated circuit for each Fein you'd only loose one and maybe not ruin the job before a pause. Ideally you'd want any major vacuum loss to act as an E-Stop. If your wired this way then I can see your point. It's not that it can't be done, it's not good electrical practice. You could also wire your Fein's direct out of your panel without ANY breakers and they'd run great for hours too!

[myxpykalix]

I too have mine daisy chained to each other and then plugged into a heavy duty extension cord and have never felt any heat from the cords. I'm sure i don't run them as long as Ed does though, but i know i have run them for hours that way on occassion with no problem. My thought is they wouldn't have made them so you could plug them into each other if that was dangerous? But your method is probably the most prudent.

[wardsa]

Jack, Do you know what gauge your ext. cord is and the length?
Terry

[harryball]

I've been running my 2 feins daisy chained on a dedicated 20amp breaker directly out of a subpanel since January. They've run for hours at the time including 12 hours continously yesterday. They've run for 8 or 9 hours continuously sitting outside in 100 degree heat as well.

I decided not to fight the redundancy windmill this time and just get the job done. Besides... that was my last 20amp slot in the subpanel. But remember, as rule I don't do extensive carving or heavy deadline work. Then again, when I buy an industrial vac pump I'll only be running one.

Robert

[ed_lang]

Lets not forget that IF one vac fails, the other still running will be sucking air into the exhaust port of the dead one and the material will move anyway. I don't consider the second Fein a redundant backup, it is there to double the CFM so they are either both on or both off.

To each his own.

[jseiler]

Terry posted that his cord was getting warm.

There is only one real reason why a cord heats, I squared R loss in the cord. Power is current squared times the resistance. Either the current has gone up, or the resistance of the cord has increased.

The cord resistance changing usually presents as a spot heat from broken conductors.

Increased current can result from a number of causes. If your line voltage is low, the motor current usually will go up. If you have bad contacts on the motor, switch, or cord, you'll get a voltage drop, and the current can increase. If you have a problem with your motor, like bearings, you can get a current issue. The scary thing about connection issues is that the cord will heat a little and the bad connection will heat a LOT. If the problem is in the switch on the first fein, its seeing double the current of the second one...or more.

I suspect the cord that is heating is the cord connected to the wall and its heating evenly over its length. If its spot heating, check to make sure the cable hasn't been pinched or otherwise damaged.

If its heating evenly, swap vacuums to see if the problem persists. It should persist. I'm bettting one of your motors is on the verge of seizing a bearing, but without more info, that's just a wild ass guess. Any difference in sound on the motors?

The worst thing Terry can do is ignore the problem because no one else thinks they have a problem.


John

[myxpykalix]

I can't tell you the gauge wire, it is a heavy duty extension cord bought at lowes that has the little lite in the recptacle to let you know its plugged it. Its probably a 50 ft cord. It is not anything special you can buy it off the shelf.

I plan to eliminate the extension cord and run some receptacles that have a on/off switch built in, to the head of my table because i have to run around to side of table and reach under to turn off/on. This will help plus eliminate any power loss due to cord length.