I was in a friends shop the other day and he had a blower fan off a residential HVAC unit sitting in the floor running and moving the heck out of some air keeping us cool. I though that was neat as it moved a lot of air and was cheap (free) so I told myself I had to get one or two or however many I could get my hands on. Well, I scored one tonight finally. Mom and Pop had to get one of their HVAC systems replaced so I robbed the blower. It looks just like the one my friend had, capacitor with two big wires going into the motor and two smaller wires that went to the control board I assume. My question is how do I make the thing spin fast like my friends did? This one appears to be a 230 unit. He had his plugged into a regular 110 outlet. Did he just luck up and find one that was 110? I can connect power to the two smaller wires and it turns and moves air but not like his did. The two small wires are connected to a block on the motor with one in the common location and the other in the high location. Help me out guys, it gets hot as heck in my garage sometimes! Thanks.

 

That blower must've come out of a package unit or a heat-pump air handler. A gas furnace would use a 110-volt blower. Put 220 to yours(if the rating plate on the motor calls for 220) or you'll burn it up from under-voltage. Or score a blower from a 125,000 btu gas furnace and if the motor is multi-speed(neutral white with black, red and maybe blue or orange wires) black will be High, red Low, blue Medium, and sometimes orange Medium Low. Sure makes a helluvan exhaust fan!

 

Well heck! It was a heat pump. I talked to him about his and I know his came from a gas furnace. I guess I can either run this one off my 220 or just scrap it and keep looking. That sucks.

 

You were right. I shoved the two wires into my 220 socket for my welder and it blows some serious air! I guess I will have to wire me a 220 plug on it or figure out how to make 220 out of a 110 plug!

 

I used to use one in my garage also, when I would replace a furnace I would remove the blower before I trashed the rest and gave a bunch of them away.

Most of the residential blowers were 120 VAC.

You only need to make a mount and a guard for the inlet to keep out the small fingers and trash it will suck in.

Most HVAC contractors will give you the blowers for free.

I have a small NASCAR high pressure blower that I carry in my truck for when I need some air at work.

Check the tag on the motor to be sure of the voltage.

A 120 volt motor will run on 220 volts but it will overheat soon and burn out, also the capacitor may not be rated for the higher voltage and it may explode.

Jim

 

dont mean to rain on the parade but being the hvac buisness a 110 volt blower removed and set out to run wide open pulls more elect than a high volume fan its not designed to pull air freely thus it takes more power to run it, to set it up corretly you need amp meter and a way to block off air flow to get the right readings.....

been there done that

 

I dont know the answer to this, but if you check the wiring connections on the side of the motor, it should be setup to run on multiple voltages. just changing the wires around a bit should get you from 220 to 120. Small, dedicated purpose motors may not be setup the same tho.

Depending on your fan current load, you might be able to setup a transformer to make it more universal.

 

I just wired a 220 plug on it like my welder uses and all is good. I used it all day today cleaning out the garage and it is awsome! I posted this on a couple other forums and got several guys responding about it. Mine is only a 220 motor and there is no way around it so I just went that route. One guy had three of them hanging from his ceiling and everywhere you go in his garage you have nice cool air moving on you! I think its a neat way to recycle. Looky there, im being "green"

I dont see what its gonna hurt running it like that? It move the heck out of some air, it has the correct voltage, and it dont get hot or anything so whats the problem with that? There are several guys that have run these things in their shops for years without a problem.

 

I have been running a 110 one like that for many years . .you have to tie half stuff in the garage down when it is running tho.