Application Note

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Application Note

F r o m t h e F l u k e D i g i t a l L i b r a r y @ w w w . f l u k e . c o m / l i b r a r y

What’s shakin’ with

your HVAC system?

Senior HVAC technician Ron Auvil checks out a chiller, a

noisy pump, and a couple of shaky compressors with the

Fluke 810 Vibration Tester

Beating bad bearings

My first stop was a late-night

visit to the chilled water plant

of a local hospital. A reliable

supply of chilled water to cool

the hospital’s emergency rooms

and data center is a big priority

there, so they test the system

along with the emergency

backup generator every month.

Before we shut down the system

for testing, we did a walk-

through and gave the primary

chilled water pumps and other

equipment a good visual inspec-

tion. While we were doing

so, one of the hospital techni-

cians told me that one of the

2,000-gallon-per-minute chilled

water pumps seemed to be run-

ning a little loud. I agreed, but

although an experienced ear is

an important troubleshooting

tool, this symptom was trouble-

some but not conclusive. This

seemed like a great opportunity

to try out the Fluke 810 for the

first time.

It took me about ten minutes

to read the 810’s instruction

manual and get set up. The

first thing the 810 prompted

me to do was to enter some

basic information about the

drive train setup, such as motor

horsepower, RPM, and pump

layout. I was able to get a lot of

this information from the motor

nameplate. To measure the run-

ning speed (RPMs), I plugged in

the laser tachometer that comes

with the 810 and pointed it at

the motor shaft. It gave me a

reading of 1,711 RPM, which

was automatically entered into

the 810.

After I finished entering the

setup information, I attached the

810’s vibration sensor while the

hospital technician looked on

so he would be able to do it in

the future. There are two ways

that you can attach the 810’s

three-axis vibration sensor. The

first and easiest way is to use

the sensor’s powerful magnetic

mounting. The other way is to

The new Fluke 810 Vibration Tester

was designed to enable technicians

with no training in vibration measure-

ment and analysis to test pumps,

motors, compressors, and other HVAC

equipment and get both diagnoses

and recommendations for required

action on the spot within just a few

minutes. I took an 810 with me on

recent visits to a couple of facilities

with critical HVAC applications to learn

how it works and to try it out under

real-world conditions.

Summary of content (3 pages)

PAGE 1
What’s shakin’ with your HVAC system? Application Note Senior HVAC technician Ron Auvil checks out a chiller, a noisy pump, and a couple of shaky compressors with the Fluke 810 Vibration Tester The new Fluke 810 Vibration Tester was designed to enable technicians with no training in vibration measurement and analysis to test pumps, motors, compressors, and other HVAC equipment and get both diagnoses and recommendations for required action on the spot within just a few minutes.
PAGE 2
epoxy one of the metal mounting pads that come with the 810 onto the piece of machinery and attach the sensor to the pad. The second method provides the 810 with higher quality data, but the data collection takes a little longer. It’s the preferred method for attaching the sensor to equipment that you plan to test regularly because once you have a pad attached, you can quickly attach the sensor in the exact same place the next time, making the process as quick, consistent, and accurate as possible.
PAGE 3
appreciate. For example, the 810 generates a graph of the vibration spectra that you One of my favorite sites to visit can examine right on its color is a large arena that is home to screen. (You can also download an NBA team and both profesthe vibration data from the 810 sional and college hockey teams. to a computer and examine it The site also regularly hosts ice with the included Viewer PC skating shows and competisoftware.) This enables vibrations.