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hyde

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Not sure if this is the right place... But here we go I bought an air compressor not to long ago and the thing worked when I was given an example.. Well when I got it home it filled up normal worked fine but once it went to recharge it popped the internal breaker I have to let all the air out every time. Now I'm getting ready to paint my truck this is a bummer! Can anyone help? It's running on a 15a 110v circuit.


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#2 · (Edited)
hyde said:
Not sure if this is the right place... But here we go I bought an air compressor not to long ago and the thing worked when I was given an example.. Well when I got it home it filled up normal worked fine but once it went to recharge it popped the internal breaker I have to let all the air out every time. Now I'm getting ready to paint my truck this is a bummer! Can anyone help? It's running on a 15a 110v circuit.
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How many horsepower? The real ones, not the "Madison Avenue Horsepower" where you can run a 7 HP motor on a 15 amp 120 volt circuit. What are the full load amps on the motor nameplate?

But it is probably the unloader valve not working, or lack of an unloader valve. There should be a check valve between the compressor and tank. Once the compressor stops, the unloader valve should relieve the pressure between the compressor and the tank with the check valve holding the air in the tank. If the check valve is bad, that may prevent the unloader valve from opening. On my nearly 40 year old (crap I'm getting old) Sears compressor, the unloader valve part of the pressure switch iirc. I'll go check, and if that is not right, will edit this post accordingly.

OK, just checked. There is a small tube from the compressor head to the unloader valve. There is a lever on the pressure switch that opens the unloader valve when it reaches pressure and stops the motor. Without the unloader valve opening, the compressor will be trying to start under load and that will probably cause your breaker to trip.
 
#5 ·
Before you take the time and effort to do a video, after the compressor shuts down at the end of it's cycle do you hear a slight hiss for a few seconds. This will be the unloader valve draining the compressed air inside the compressor's cylinder(s) so your compressor's motor (and the wiring/breaker connected to that motor) don't have to try and force a start against compression.
 
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#7 ·
Uh-oh...purging sound probably indicates that the unloader IS working.
 
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#8 ·
hyde said:
It's more of a purging sound
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Glad WyoRoy pointed that out. I had intended to but forgot. Right after the compressor shuts off, the unloader should dump. Mine is a Pssssh sound. I can also reach under and manually press the unloader if it hangs up, as it has done a few times. Not lately, though.

Also, your 15 amp breaker may be right on the verge......
 
#11 ·
It looks like you have one of those noisy high speed compressors.
They like to draw around 10 to 15 amps after startup inrush current stabilizes.
The breaker may be on its way out, I have replaced a few over the years so thats not usually the problem. Or the motor run capacitor could be going bad.
How old is it?
 
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#15 ·
You need to get something that will monitor current going into the machine.
Can you barrow or buy an amp clamp or kill-a-watt meter?

The kill-a-watt is most handy. They are about $20 and can be used on anything.
What I have done with mine is run each machine from air compressors to refrigerator and copy down the amp draw in an inconspicuous place on the machine with magic marker for future trouble shooting.

Another thing you can try is pull the cover off and make sure the compressor's shaf spins freely.
 
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#16 ·
I have that same type of compressors. HF. If you can not feel air blowing over the fins on the head the fan has come loose. It will run until just about full and then pop the overload. Take the cover off and make sure the fan is good.

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#18 ·
I've had issues in the past with compressors "overdrawing" circuits when there was a large voltage drop. Biggest issue I remember was when we were running at the end of 200' of extension cord. The helper was playing musical extension cords swapping back and forth between saws and the compressor when the compressor "stalled" trying to start up. We quickly unplugged the unit so we would't fry the motor. After we dumped the air pressure, it would run fine, but wouldn't restart under pressure. I figured at 1st that the unit just finnaly reached it's end point due to age. However the next day we had similar issues with the back up compressor. Eventually I determined the "erratic" behavior of the units ( some times they worked fine, other times they stalled) had to do with what extension cord he had the compressor plugged into. Turns out the smaller cord I was using to run the battery charger and radio wasn't heavy enough to deal with the long length and we had issues with voltage drop. The lower voltage wouldn't supply enough power to turn over the compressor under load.

I had a similar issue in my garage last year. The main line coming into the house had issues where it was rubbing on a tree limb and the line was almost shorted thru. On that leg of my panel I'd have issues running the compressor ( standard garage outlets) On the outlets attached to the sub panel in the garage ( other leg) I had no issues. I didn't figure out the problem until one of the snow storms this winter brought down the bad line. After they fixed it, I've had no issues on the standard garage outlets where it wouldn't fire up under load before.
 
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Discussion starter · #19 ·
the fan does work ive been hit in the knuckles by it, no i never kept the info which is my bad, he gave me a demo worked fine.

the question is if i want to paint this truck is there any way to do it without a compressor? is there a c02 refillable gun?
 
#20 ·
Look for a place that rent a paint booth. The motor on the compressor might be bad it works fine with little resistance but when it has to start up again and pressure up it might not have the power to do so. You will hear a buzzing noise at the motor then the motor breaker will trip. Try another receptacle i noticed you were in Canada what size of wire is in the house #12 or #14?
 
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