Old/new compressor in my shed..

[insane04]

My air test is next week

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[BackwoodsGA]

Good luck! What are you testing to "E"?

 

[insane04]

Yep

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[divingtactics]

I am even more anal about draining than Jim. I do it every five minutes for a couple of seconds. I am kind of a "more often for shorter periods of time" kind of guy. You may also want to put a little more space between the compressor and the wall. The better the air flow the better your cooling.

Now remember, a home compressor system is kind of like a plecostomus in the fish tank ... it will continue to grow to fit the space provided.

Ray, does this not shorten the life of the filter canister, which at 3300 PSI is negligible but at 4500 PSI, a real issue? I'm talking load cycles here. If you vent every 5 mins then you reduce your load cycles by 2/3. I used to vent every 5 mins, till I read about load cycles.

From the Bauer manual, but I'm sure it would apply to all: The filter system is subject to dynamic load. It is designed for a certain number of load cycles, which originate from an abrupt pressure loss at condensate drain (1 load cycle i.e. condensate drain = 1 depressurization, 1 pressurization). The filter housing has to be inspected internally by an expert after having reached half of the determined number of load cycles. The inspections have to be arranged by the operator. After reaching the max. number of load cycles the filter assembly must be replaced, otherwise the housing may burst due to material fatigue.

The max. number of load cycles for the P21 (P0) Central Filter Assembly is 4,000 if operated at the max. allowable pressure difference range of 330 bar (4,700 psi). For a pressure difference of 225 bar (3,200 psi) the max. no. of load cycles is 35,000

To avoid exceeding the max. number of load cycles the operating hours should be recorded in the table in the chapter 4.4 of this instruction manual. On condition that a max. number of four cycles per hour is not exceeded (condensate is drained every 15 minutes) the max. number of operating hours is 1000 for 330 bar units, and 8750 for 225 bar units.

So by that rationale, at 330 bar, draining every 5 mins would reduce your hours at 4785 psi from 1000 down to 333 and reduce the hours at 3263 psi from 8750 down to 2916.

Maybe I am reading this wrong or interpreting it completely wrong, happy to stand corrected as I have changed my auto dump timings as a result of reading this.

You are spot on about the system continuing to grow to fit the space.

 

[rcontrera]

If draining condensate drained the pressure down, I would agree with you. However, the couple of seconds that it takes to drain the moisture will make for a negligible pressure change.

 

[clownfishsydney]

You will need to totally pull apart the valves and pistons after you have run synthetic oil through it for a while as it will dissolve all the built up carbon and clog everything up. This can kill parts of the compressor like pipes and valves, as well as introduce oil to the air.

 

[frogman62]

Scott,
Do not pay any attention to the comment about tearing down the compressor. Absolutely nothing will occur with the compressor by changing oil once you flush the first oil change from the compressor. American bristol changed teh recommendation from anderol 500 to diester synthetic compressor oil 10 -15 years ago and we changed hundreds of compressors to better synthetic oils with no issue
IF this were a car with petroleum based oil in it for 200,000 miles and not burning oil AND you changed to a high cleaning oil like mobile ! (systhetic ) you could wash lots of carbon buildup around the rings and seals that were preventing you from burning oil to now burning quite a bit of oil. This is not a well worn car and you should not treat it as such. Change the oil after running it to get it hot for an hour or two and then change oil and you are ready to go. I changed to synthetic oil years ago in all commercial compressor for fire departments and in military compressors and had absolutely no issue
Jim Shelden

 

[clownfishsydney]

If it has been running mineral oil for more than 50 hours, then it will need to be cleaned. This happened to our compressor once we changed to synthetic. Bauer even has a warning on this on their web site. If it has been running synthetic, then should not be a problem.

 

[frogman62]

Scott, that compressor was originally built by American Bristol. I was an American Bristol dealer for over 25 years and the manual specifies Anderol 500 synthetic oil suitable for high temperatures and breathing air. It has never had anything except synthetic diester base oil in it and changing to Summit DSL -100 -- a higher temp, better synthetic oil will not cause any issues. This compressor never had any mineral oil in from the factory and I doubt that any fire department would change the oil and void the compressor warranty and ignore the manufacturers recommendation.
Jim Shelden