Soft starters are motor control devices that provide a motor's smooth start-up for helping limit the electrical peak demand and mechanical shock. While a variable frequency drive can also control a motor's specific speed, a soft starter can only accelerate and decelerate the motor. Schneider Electric offers a complete range of feature-rich soft starters for industrial as well as commercial applications. Discover our soft starter solutions designed to meet your applications' performance requirements, covering the security of equipment and personnel, ease of start-up, along with fast wiring time.

A soft starter is a device that allows motors to start with less power than usual. Reducing the wattage decreases the system's risk of electrical and mechanical shocks. They gradually increase speed and are only needed during starting and stopping. A soft starter prevents shocks by ensuring smooth and consistent starting through torque management for the progressive acceleration of the drive system. Mechanical components will last longer and require less maintenance because of this. Soft starters also help with power factor adjustment, a self-monitoring function. Due to magnetizing and related losses, the relative reactive component of current consumed by the motor is redundantly high when the motor is operating at less than full load. Another useful feature of soft starters is the ability to modify the starting torque and acceleration time.