Candy Dryer motor wiring.

[drbgc38]

Hi - I am just here to ask for help with my Candy tumble dryer motor, which I have extracted and wish to use in a project. The windings have three wires coming out: Orange, Blue, and Grey. The motor works with just the orange and blue connected to the mains supply (live and neutral), with the grey not connected to anything. It doesn't self-start, but it runs once I give it a spin.

The capacitor appears to be OK (still not sure) so it seems likely that the lack of self-starting is because of the grey wire not being connected to anything.

How should I connect the grey wire? Bearing in mind that the motor is to be used externally, not back in the original dryer.

Many thanks

 

[Diver300]

You may not need to connect to all three wires. It could be that connecting to two of the wires makes the motor turn one way and connecting to a different pair makes it work the other way.

If the motor doesn't start, it's likely the capacitor. If it still runs when spun to start with the capacitor disconnected, the problem is definitely the capacitor or the connection to the capacitor.

 

[drbgc38]

OK, thank you. I haven't tested the capacitor properly yet, so that does remain a likely explanation.

Do you have any information on colour codes for wires on this motor, by any chance? The thing is that in the dryer, the grey wire did lead somewhere (to the base of the thermostat control), after turning white at the motor's junction box, so I am still not sure what its function might be.

 

[Matthewjtaylor]

Hi - I am just here to ask for help with my Candy tumble dryer motor, which I have extracted and wish to use in a project. The windings have three wires coming out: Orange, Blue, and Grey. The motor works with just the orange and blue connected to the mains supply (live and neutral), with the grey not connected to anything. It doesn't self-start, but it runs once I give it a spin.


The capacitor appears to be OK (still not sure) so it seems likely that the lack of self-starting is because of the grey wire not being connected to anything.

How should I connect the grey wire? Bearing in mind that the motor is to be used externally, not back in the original dryer.
I also contacted this website to get some information but they didn't pick the call.
Many thanks

Since the grey wire was previously connected to the thermostat control in the original dryer, it's likely part of the motor's starting mechanism or related to a safety feature.

Without a detailed wiring diagram for this specific motor, I recommend caution when experimenting with the grey wire. If the motor doesn’t self-start, it’s possible that the grey wire is necessary for the start winding or another control feature, and not connecting it could cause the motor to fail in the long term.

Make sure to thoroughly test the capacitor as well, as that could be contributing to the issue. If you're unsure, I would suggest consulting the manufacturer's wiring diagram or an expert to avoid potential damage or malfunction.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Can you check the resistance of each motor winding combination?

It looks from the photos as if the capacitor is permanently wired across the motor red & blue.
In that case, it is very likely a basic double wound reversible motor, as illustrated below.

If so, the red to blue resistance should be roughly double the grey to red or grey to blue resistance?? And, the correct connection would be grey to neutral and EITHER red or blue to live, depending on what direction you wanted it to run.

 

[drbgc38]

Yes, thank you very much for the replies.

I just got it working, but I am puzzled as to how the motor works.

Firstly, I took the mains neutral off the junction box blue connection from the motor, and reinserted it into the grey connection. The blue from the motor now only leads to the capacitor. This got the motor working on its own.

Puzzle: What sort of motor uses a capacitor to start it off but doesn't have a centrifugal switch to disconnect it once it is turning? This is what I appear to have. My worry is that a capacitor which functions as a starter would have to switch off at speed. Is there a kind of motor that leaves it connected all the time?

 

[Diver300]

Puzzle: What sort of motor uses a capacitor to start it off but doesn't have a centrifugal switch to disconnect it once it is turning? This is what I appear to have. My worry is that a capacitor which functions as a starter would have to switch off at speed. Is there a kind of motor that leaves it connected all the time?

A lot of single-phase induction motors have a capacitor that is left connected.

If the motor doesn't need much start torque, then the capacitor can be quite a low value, so it has little effect on the efficiency when running and there's no point in having a switch to disconnect it.

 

[drbgc38]

OK, I see. Thank you.

It's 8 microfarads, just for interest.

 

[drbgc38]

Is there a way to adjust the speed of rotation for this motor?

 

[Diver300]

Is there a way to adjust the speed of rotation for this motor?

For low torque applications, you may be able to reduce the voltage and the motor will run slower. However, the normal way to adjust the speed is to alter the frequency with a variable speed drive.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Puzzle: What sort of motor uses a capacitor to start it off but doesn't have a centrifugal switch to disconnect it once it is turning?

They are used in all sorts of applications.

The commonest ones I personally know of are older garage door motor units, and antenna rotators.

My first search for each produced some example diagrams:

How to wire a repurposed ac motor

I have an old garage door opener that I would like to repurpose. I would like to bypass the normal garage door logic and add an on-off-on switch. When switched to on1 rotates in direction 1, when

electronics.stackexchange.com

https://ve2zaz.net/T2X_Rotator_Cntrl/T2X_Mods_Schematic.png