For this tip we focus on qualitative trending of data. Remember trend is your friend and by qualitative trending we are talking about a change in the appearance of the data rather than an amplitude value change. Many anomalies can occur with an electric motor that do not have an industry standard alarm level to compare to and this is where appearance alone can be the difference between identifying or overlooking a fault. Polarization Index (PI) tests with the MCE® technology can be compared qualitatively. Even if the calculated index for two tests may both qualify as acceptable, the appearance of the most recent PI compared to the baseline PI may indicate that moisture contamination exists, resulting in further action and a change in the asset health condition. Spectral analysis of the Rotor Evaluation or Current Demodulation tests with the EMAX technology can be displayed on a waterfall plot. These too can be used to identify qualitative changes in individual peaks or broad band energy peaks allowing additional troubleshooting and root cause analysis, even though no individual band alarm was exceeded.