Lightning effects on motor starters

[dan55]

Had a customer who lost 3 motor starters last week. Also burned up one motor. The coils appear to have taken some sort of surge..... lighning? The affected starters are stuck in the open position. My question does lightning have a tendency to be attracted to the coils.

 

[iwire]

My experience is that lightning is pretty random in what it destroys and what it does not.

That said if there was a storm are you sure the service did not experience a single phasing condition?

 

[cpal]

I agree with Bob
Most damage (other than a direct strike) from Lightning is usually under ()or over voltage(surge), and single phaseing is pretty common.

 

[brian john]

Lightning , goes where it wants to, when it wants to and how it wants to. I have seen some strange damage over the years.