Will this work?

[soapy]

I have been having problems with the switch on my shampoo vac. It is a basic 3 position on-off-on switch rated for 20 amps using a single pole. They only seem to last about 2 months before they stop working. I found this double pole 3 position switch and made up this wiring hoping that it will spread the load over 2 contacts instead of one and make the switch last longer. Thoughts or suggestions

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

Sounds like it would help, but thats above my pay grade.

2 vac motors pull more that 15 A onrush though - a number of years back we had some conversation on the forum about putting a delay on one of the vac motors so that only 1 motor at a time hit the peak/startup draw. I had vac breakers popping periodically, so I followed forum advice and put one of the motors in each vac on a 1 sec delay, havent popped a breaker since.
Theres an alternative for you, maybe better?

 

[Greg Pack]

It will share the load, but I'm wondering why the load is making these go bad. Are the vacuum motors pulling through the switch? If so, I would route through a relay instead.

 

[soapy]

I am not sure if it is a problem with switches now just being so cheap that the switch is easily damaged by cycling the switch. It does go through a relay already.

 

[OurTown]

Are there not better switches out there? What about aircraft type quality?