RE: Contactor question

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Steve Conner by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <steve-at-scopeboy-dot-com>

As far as I know, industrial contactors are _designed_ to switch heavy
inductive loads without problems. These things have massive heavy-duty
contacts and arc chutes to quench the inductive arcing. The fact that yours
has a 25hp motor rating suggests it can manage an inductive load of pole pig
proportions happily. A 25hp induction motor is about 16kVA.

I think you would need a very large R-C snubber to make any difference to
the arcing.

Original poster: "Richard W. by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<potluck-at-xmission-dot-com>

Before this system is put
into actual use I want to make sure the contacts can survive opening with a
minimum amount of burn.

<snip>