Hi there,
My treadmill motor began emitting quite a lot of smoke after about 40 mins of continuous use. Today I took it apart, it's a 180V 8A PMDC motor rated at 1.5/2.25HP.
When I took the motor out of the treadmill, a lot of small clumps of resin fell out of the end of the motor. I've yet to disassemble it to inspect the guts but, is it likely that I will be able to repair this myself, or is the fact that its overheated in the first place signifying a short across the windings i.e. the varnish on the windings themselves have likely failed so I would have to get it rewound?
I suspect it's irrepairable, but I will take a look, however I was looking for a cheap replacement and there are a number of similar motors on Aliexpress.
I was tempted to get a beefier unit that might hopefully tolerate my abuse, so I thought if I went for a 3HP motor it would last longer as I wouldn't be using it to its full capacity? I had been looking at the following for example:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32923483892.html It's pretty expensive though at £200, and my treadmill was only £365 anyway, and has lasted around 1.5 years, I'm not convinced this is economically viable.
That aside, the 3HP motor is actually rated at 15A versus the original 1.5HP motor's 8A rating, is it possible for me to install a 15A PMDC motor into my treadmill without replacing the controller board which supplies the DC power? I'm hoping that since it's using PWM to supply the motor that it might have a self-limiting current capability, or will a bigger motor likely blow the board?