OK so this is what I have learned so far.

Electric motor bearings have so little load they should last a few
lifetimes.

The original bearings probably fail because coolant either gets past
the shaft or as the unit heats up and cools down vapor condenses
inside and this causes lubrication failure or corrosion. Not too bad
for 17 years of hard use.

Bring the old bearing with me to the distributer in case there are
size differences.
Don't push against anything but the inner ring.
Use a lamp to preheat the bearing and try to get the newer lube.


Because the coolant kind of mists around I expect the next set to fail
around 2021.

Now if I go with bearings that need grease through the zerk fittings
whats a good policy for maintaining them, I know overlube kills more
things than underlube cause I've done it on other things.