Indoor Blower Wheel Rotation

February 6, 2023

Motor Minute™ Technical Tip – Indoor Blower Wheel Rotation

Hi, Chris from Regal Rexnord here with your Motor Minute technical tip. Helping you become an HVAC motor pro one minute at a time.

In this segment of Motor Minute technical tip I am going to talk about indoor blower wheel rotation.

We are going to focus on the direct drive forward curved blower wheel applications, often referred to as a squirrel cage design.

Determining the correct direction of the indoor blower wheel is quite easy if you understand where the air enters and exits. The air enters through sides of the blower housing and exits out of the center.

The blower wheel is built with curved blades that scoop the air towards the outlet. This wheel spins CWSE or CCWLE.

For this example, we can buy or set up the motor to operate related to the shaft end or lead end based on how the replacement motor is rated.

• CWSE – Clockwise Shaft End
• CWOLE – Clockwise Opposite Lead End
• CCWLE - Counterclockwise Lead End
• CCWOSE – Counterclockwise Opposite Shaft End

It will take some practice, but after you learn to focus on the curvature of the blade and where the air exits the blower housing, it will begin to make sense.

Understanding the correct rotation is critical if you are replacing with a dedicated rotation motor. If you are replacing with a dual rotation motor, knowing the correct rotation of the air moving device will help you set up the motor to operate in the proper direction of rotation, the first time. Thus, saving the time required to reverse the motor after it has been installed or replace it with the correct rotation motor.

Understanding the direction of rotation acronyms as listed on dedicated and dual rotation motors can be intimidating. For this reason, we gave that topic its own Motor Minute tech tip titled “FHP Motor Rotation”.

And that’s a wrap on this segment of Motor Minute technical tips. Remember that we provide motor training and product information in multiple formats including videos, literature, podcasts, articles, of course Motor Minute technical tips and classroom education both online and face to face. All of this industry leading training is available at no charge to HVAC professionals at regalmmu.com. Thank you for taking the time to build your motor knowledge.