Executive summary
A multi-national beverage bottler was experiencing motor failures that reduced their ability to keep beverages cold. After changing to ECR® 2, their failure rate decreased by 10x, they saw an ROI in less than one year, and their customers experienced 10-12% lower energy costs.
Challenges
One of the world’s largest beverage bottlers was losing sales and customers. Approximately 5% of their refrigerated bottle coolers were offline for part of the year due to failed motors. This easily overlooked component caused average sales to decrease by up to 14% when the cooler was offering warm drinks to unsatisfied consumers.
How could this bottler keep their product cold and their customers happy?
The solution
Given their history of helping the world’s largest beverage brands improve reliability, increase energy savings, and boost revenue, AoFrio’s team started analyzing the failed motors. They quickly realized that the two largest causes of motor failure were poor power quality and moisture intrusion.
After discussing various options, AoFrio recommended replacing the existing fleet of motors with advanced ECR 2 motors. Designed for an average lifespan of 10 years at maximum load, these motors accept input power from 70-264V so they are much more tolerant of poor power quality and voltage spikes. They also come standard with IP67 protection from moisture and have the option of a food grade rated housing for added protection.
Up to 70% efficient and with a power factor of up to 0.95, each motor was also fully programable in the field. This allowed the same motor to replace many different SKUs, making the upgrade program faster and easier.
Results and future plans
A few years after the retrofit program, the bottler has seen motor failures decrease by 10x, such that only 0.025% of motors fail in any given year. Since ECR 2 is 10-12% more energy efficient, their customers are also delighted with the lower energy costs. Given the cost of lost sales and motor replacement, the customer estimates their Return on Investment (ROI) to be less than one year. With this great investment payback and happy customers, this multi-national beverage bottler has now standardized on ECR 2 for their fleet of bottle coolers.
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