dirty commutator area causing extra battery drain?

Thread Starter

Poor old sod

Joined Jul 25, 2017
193
they normally strip and clean the motor, and polish the commutator as needed.
My gopher motor is way o'due for service.
i'm wondering if the dust is causing tracking and extra current drain, as my range has shortened a lot. is there a significant risk of fire?
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
There's never a problem with cleaning a commutator. As long as you don't get conductive debris between the plates of the commutator. If you did you'll shorten the life of the battery because the extra connections will be drawing current. I still think it's going to be an old battery, time for retirement. Typical SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) batteries last about 5 years. Other battery chemistries also have a limited number of times they can be recharged, though I don't have any ideas on how long that may be. Among the differing kinds of batteries out there, there are Ni-Cad (Nickel Cadmium), Li-mh (Lithium Metal Hydride), Li (Lithium Ion), Li-Po (Lithium Polymer), LiFePo (Lithium Iron Polymer). Those are the ones I've heard of. There are likely other battery chemistries too. There's the potato battery, the orange battery, the lemon battery - and so on. Hydrogen cells that combine hydrogen with oxygen which release an electron (or more - I certainly am not the expert on hydrogen cells).
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,619
There's never a problem with cleaning a commutator. As long as you don't get conductive debris between the plates of the commutator.
Modern commutators now typically have segment separators that are kept worn flush with the com bars, , unlike their older Mica counterparts that had to be under-cut and collected carbon etc.
 
Top