WorldWide Drilling Resource

64 FEBRUARY 2015 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Golf Tournament Winners! It’s Bingo Time!! Amp Story by Bill Corey Pentair Water Training Institute Whether I do a Traveling School or a Factory School, I like to tell stories. (Yes, I have been in every state in the Union, except North and South Dakota, and every province in Canada, except the Great Northwest.) Most are stories of real things which have happened to me. Of course, there are those stories that are so good I claim them even though they happened to someone else! I use the stories to make a point about whatever the subject is: hydraulics, electronics, or sizing. Most of the time, the stories help the students to better understand the point I am trying to make. Sometimes I run across people who just don’t like or want stories. They don’t have the ability to connect the dots or understand the point. I give most of my students an evaluation form to fill out and let me know what they think of the job I did. I get some of my best ideas from these forms, but I also get criticism from them too. Some might actually be legitimate, but most is just someone sounding off about something they didn’t like, like my stories. One person said, “Just tell us what we need to know.” I did; you just didn’t get it. Oh well. So I thought maybe you might be interested in some of my stories, and since I’ve always wanted to write them down, this might be a good format to do it in. I hope you enjoy these as most are 100% true and help you to under- stand a point. First Story! “Hello, this is Bill. How may I help you?” The caller said, “When you reduce the flow, aren’t the amps supposed to go down?” I said, “Yes.” He responded, “I knew you were going to say that.” Of course I had to ask, “Then why did you ask me?” To which he said, “I just installed a new four-inch submersible pump, and even when I cut the flow, the amps are going up.” I said, “Well then, you’re going to have to pull the pump.” He said, “I knew you were going to say that too!” Wanting to know what the problem might be I asked, “When you find out what the problem is, can you call me back and let me know?” He said he would and, to my surprise, about two hours later he was on my phone again. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing or cry- ing, but he said he hooked up his rig to the pump to pull it and figured he had just set it so it should come out real easy. Well, he had to put it on high to get the pump to break loose of the mud it was stuck in. Needless to say, with no water movement around the motor, the amps are going to go up. He said once he broke it free of the mud, the pump worked just fine. The Point: Amp draw is caused by work or excessive heat. If the workload is light, the amperage will be low; and as the workload goes up, so do the amps required to do the work. Of course, if you’re not cooling a motor, the heat will go up and cause the amps to go up also. Sometimes you can save yourself a little embarrassment by thinking of all the things that could be wrong. Stay tuned for more stories. Bill Bill Corey may be contacted via e-mail at michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com