A couple of months ago, at one of our customer sites, we found a supply fan motor on a rooftop unit had failed, beyond repair. Without it, a whole section of a building in a local municipality had no heat. When we placed the order for the motor, the initial lead time was longer than we wanted, but it was still early Fall, so the outside temps weren’t really cold or really hot (well, it IS New England, so you never know, it can be freezing in the morning and scorching hot in the afternoon at any given moment), but it wasn’t panic mode time yet, so we ordered it.
When the motor was due in, we reached out to our supplier, a major reputable national HVAC manufacturer, and they said… Oops. We messed up. Not only are you not going to get this motor when we originally promised, we literally can’t even tell you WHEN you might get it.
Because weeks had passed while waiting on the promised motor, as the Starks in the North like to say, “Winter is coming” and we couldn’t leave our customer out in the cold!
The motor we originally ordered was an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) ECM motor (Electrically Commutated Motor). These are fancy-pantsy energy-saving beauties but they have hard-to-get parts to make them that way. And with the supply chain in shambles and worsening,
it’s anyone’s guess when the parts might arrive, and when they do, just how many orders the factory will need to fill? Yowch.
So, my team went to work to see if we could find a solution. Options?
- Find a non-OEM ECM motor,
- Find a non-ECM motor that will work,
- Or find another alternative, to provide some sort of solution to get the unit up and running and heating before the White Walkers arrive.
After a few trips to the local motor shop (Bless you Northern Electric!) and some very dedicated and detailed information gathering from the unit, the manufacturer, and the motor supplier, we were able to find a non-ECM motor available within a few days that would work and keep the unit running until we can get the correct OEM ECM motor. (Whoa, say that five times fast!)
It took some time, effort, legwork, and savvy technical expertise, but we got the problem solved and the heat turned on!
If you’re a customer of Advance Air, you are part of our team. If there’s a solution to be had, we’ll find it! If your current contractor won’t do the same, perhaps you should think about finding a new one.
Call Advance Air today at 508-763-3738 and see what we can do for you!
