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Jim Stewart Jim Stewart is offline
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Default How do I know when contacts in a motor starter are too worn?

Ignoramus2083 wrote:
On 2011-10-13, lid wrote:
In ,
wrote:

At 29 amps of FLA, a voltage drop of even 1 volt will melt the
contacts in short order. I do not think that voltage drop will be a
good indicator.


Do the math, Mr. Algebra.com - any contact big enough to call itself a
motor starter will take 29 measly Watts all day long without melting
unless it's made of Wood's metal.


I think that 29 watts per contact (three poles makes 87 watts) will
quickly destroy the contactor.


I'm with Iggy on this one. No time to do the math,
but I have had experience trying to remove a couple
of watts of heat from a small semiconductor footprint.