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How You Can Extend The Life of Your Electric Motors

Mike Jeffries | April 12, 2021

In just about any manufacturing facility, there is a lot of preventative maintenance and regular scheduled maintenance to keep things running smoothly. And that's a good thing because maintenance, particularly electric motor maintenance, is the one area that even the best maintained facility can always improve upon. Anything that can be done to prevent or cut down on the potential of an electric motor failure is always a healthy move for any organization's bottom line.

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5 Tips to Help You Prevent Electric Motor Failure

1. Provide Your Electric Motors With Ample and Proper Lubrication

Properly lubricating the electric motors in your manufacturing facility is by far the single most important aspect of extending their lifecycle. Each electric motor in your facility comes with a recommended lubrication guide from its manufacturer. Lubricating an electric motor properly and timely will ultimately lead to an extended life span. 

If you don't have a list of every motor in your facility and what type of lubrication they need and how often they need it, now is the perfect time to create such a document. Make sure that your maintenance crew has this information and review it often for accuracy.

Proper lubrication reduces wear, tear, and friction, the leading causes of electric motor failure.

2. Proper Voltage and Adequate Cooling

Next to lubrication, proper voltage input and adequate cooling is the next Achilles Heel for any electric motor. Ensure that every electric motor is provided with the proper clearances for adequate cooling and check for voltage irregularities with an oscilloscope. Both ventilation and voltage are common problems that lead to electric motors overheating and then their failure.

Incorporate the proper testing and cooling requirements within your electric motor maintenance program.

3. Check Motor Mounts and Vibration

By using an ultrasound monitor, you can effectively make sure that any of your electric motors are not vibrating excessively during normal operation. Some vibrations are normal but this way you can make sure that there are no excess vibrations that can lead to damage to your motor mount. 

If excess vibration is detected you can effectively prevent things like misaligned bearing assemblies and loose motor mounts, two items that can cause premature electric motor failure.

4. Using a Routine Cleaning Regimen

As simple as this sounds, it is imperative to extend the life of any electric motor. Dirt, dust, and other debris can collect around the motor causing it to not properly cool itself and ultimately can lead to electric motor failure.

5. Always Practice The Proper Storage and Handling Instructions

If your maintenance team needs to unmount any electric motor it is very important to follow the proper storage and handling instructions as provided by the motor manufacturer. 

Whether the motor is being removed and stored or packaged for shipping, special care should be addressed with regard to minimizing the presence of moisture, degreasing, or any other special instructions that need to be followed.


If you have any questions about maintenance or repair for your electric motors, feel free to contact the experts at Mader Electric anytime.

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