Type of single phase AC motor?

[flippineck]

I have a UK mains powered Jebao-brand pond pump.

It's motor is a potted resin brick with a cable coming out, and a hole in it for the removable rotor. I have no way of knowing what is inside the resin block.

The rotor seems to be a solid cylindrical lump of ferrite-type material threaded onto and spinning on, a thin white ceramic shaft. Pretty much as simple as it gets.

Not sure if the rotor is permanently magnetic or not, I'd have to lift the pump out the pond and dismantle to check.

It's visually very similar to this: https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...tion-Molded-Hard-Ferrite_60559755201.html?s=p

Is it possible from the description above, to identify the type of this motor?

I'd like to look into the possibility of efficiently controlling it's power output in a continuous manner, analagous to the way in which dimmers control the output of lamps by controlling the parameters of the sine wave rather than by wasting power through a resistor.

 

[Martaine2005]

I’d say it’s a magnetic drive pump by your description.
I would be surprised if you could control it via a light dimmer.
Have you checked it’s current to calculate its wattage?. Dimmers have a minimum load requirement.

Martin

 

[kellys_eye]

Why control it? They are made for a purpose and not meant to be variable (speed). They rarely exceed a few watts (or 10's of watts for the larger versions) so power saving, if any, would be minimal and cost savings would never exceed the expense of making a controller for it.

A typical 1500litres/hour pump consumes only 25W! If you saved HALF then you would be saving around 100kW/hr a YEAR (8,000+ hours) - at 25c/kWhr you save $25 and any controller you make (if you do it properly and make it weather/waterproof) would cost around 5x that amount.

Flow control, for what it's worth, is usually achieved by restrictions in the water path (input or output) i.e. a tap.

If you want to save money and/or slow the flow, buy a smaller pump!

 

[Minder]

If you want to detect if it is a PM motor, short the motor terminals or leads and try to spin the rotor, if PM, a resistance to turning will be felt when trying to spin.
If it is PM, it will be a form of ECM (electronically commutated motor).

 

[flippineck]

No intention to actually wire it up to a light dimmer, was just trying to illustrate. I was more thinking about trying to identify the type of motor, so I could determine exactly what type of electronic modulation options might be pertinent.

It's a clouded thing to a degree because I don't know whether the rotor design is actually an innate part of the motor, or just a part of a mechanical linkage affair.

As mentioned.. maybe the potential cost savings aren't significant enough to warrant digging much further.