Catastrophic failure of a pump Capacitor

[Morepower]

This capacitor almost blew the metal cover off the end of the pump, and it's held on by 3 x 3mm machine screws.  It did baloon it a little also !!!!  I have never seen a capacitor destroyed to this extent, it must have been struck by lightning, surely !!  Just thought i'd share some destruction with ya's  ;D ;D Sorry about the pic quality but I had to use my Mobile camera.

 

[MarioMaster]

man there must've been a wiring fault or lightning as you mentioned, capacitors don't usually blow like that unless you short them across ac

 

[Lead_Head]

I've got a very similar motor on a 1/2HP pump, A.O. Smith motor?

Usually motor capacitors do not fail like that :-/

 

[chimo]

Nice pic! I've only seen one worse than that - unfortunately, no pic. It was in a pass through power filter for a shielded room. The filters were on feeders rated 400A @600V. The cap that blew was about the size of my fist. It made a big mess.

 

[nikokapo]

whoa

awesome!!

(u complain about the pic quality? should see my z520 vga camera :-/)

 

[Things]

WOW what a mess!!!!!!! Man i hope you were no where near that thing when it happened Ouch

 

[NairB]

GOSH

To have caught that thing bang on video

 

[Morepower]

Lead_Head yeah it is an A.O.Smith or Sta-rite/Weir pump. They are an awesome pump, the 1.5hp model will break your fingers if you accidently block the suction port in the bottom of the skimmer box with your hand !!

Actually the pic is not TOO bad at that size, I was veiwing it at 1024 x 768 pix.