tmassey
Contributor
The day that all compressor owners fear has come: my compressor broke. I don't where to go next.
I set up to run it today as normal and pressed the button. The compressor sprung to life, sounding just like it's supposed to. It made its way up to 2000 PSI and gas started coming out of the hose, just like it's supposed to. But as the pressure built up from there, it soon started making consistent clunking/rattling noises. This happened within a few minutes of starting: probably 5 minutes or so of running.
I looked everything over for about 60 seconds or so. I couldn't pinpoint the noise, but it sounded like it was coming from the compressor head. Nothing was visibly slapping or wiggling (like, say, a belt striking something), so I shut it down. I drained all of the pressure down and started it back up: the clunking noises started from the very beginning. I took a 5 second video of it so you can share in my misery and shut it back down again.
So, now what do I do? I have zero knowledge about compressor repair, and a rather large amount of intimidation to try. Of course, if it's broken it does me no good, so that helps to get over the intimidation. But that still leaves me with exactly zero idea of what to look at, what to diagnose or even what to try.
Here's a link to that video so you can hear it along with me.
With my ear protection on it sounded a lot less like a rattle and a lot more like regular clunking. But either way, something is not right. While it was running I glanced at the pressure gauges: they were at 80 PSI, 400 PSI and 2500 PSI, which is where I expect them to be at that point. The oil is at the right level (which I always check before I start). It's over 60 degrees out today, so plenty warm.
Compressor details: Poseidon PFU-150: 6CFM, three-stage, 5000 PSI compressor with a 5HP single-phase electric motor. It's kinda-sorta a Bauer block. It *is* a block made by Bauer, but it's a different block than used in the normal Bauer-branded compressors. The third stage is the one with a "hole" in it -- if you've seen a Poseidon block you'll know what I'm talking about. In principle it's the same as any other similarly-sized compressor and in practice it uses many Bauer parts. It even looks a lot like a Bauer, but it's not identical.
I'm officially out of ideas! I would be grateful for any suggestions you might be able to make.
I set up to run it today as normal and pressed the button. The compressor sprung to life, sounding just like it's supposed to. It made its way up to 2000 PSI and gas started coming out of the hose, just like it's supposed to. But as the pressure built up from there, it soon started making consistent clunking/rattling noises. This happened within a few minutes of starting: probably 5 minutes or so of running.
I looked everything over for about 60 seconds or so. I couldn't pinpoint the noise, but it sounded like it was coming from the compressor head. Nothing was visibly slapping or wiggling (like, say, a belt striking something), so I shut it down. I drained all of the pressure down and started it back up: the clunking noises started from the very beginning. I took a 5 second video of it so you can share in my misery and shut it back down again.
So, now what do I do? I have zero knowledge about compressor repair, and a rather large amount of intimidation to try. Of course, if it's broken it does me no good, so that helps to get over the intimidation. But that still leaves me with exactly zero idea of what to look at, what to diagnose or even what to try.
Here's a link to that video so you can hear it along with me.
With my ear protection on it sounded a lot less like a rattle and a lot more like regular clunking. But either way, something is not right. While it was running I glanced at the pressure gauges: they were at 80 PSI, 400 PSI and 2500 PSI, which is where I expect them to be at that point. The oil is at the right level (which I always check before I start). It's over 60 degrees out today, so plenty warm.
Compressor details: Poseidon PFU-150: 6CFM, three-stage, 5000 PSI compressor with a 5HP single-phase electric motor. It's kinda-sorta a Bauer block. It *is* a block made by Bauer, but it's a different block than used in the normal Bauer-branded compressors. The third stage is the one with a "hole" in it -- if you've seen a Poseidon block you'll know what I'm talking about. In principle it's the same as any other similarly-sized compressor and in practice it uses many Bauer parts. It even looks a lot like a Bauer, but it's not identical.
I'm officially out of ideas! I would be grateful for any suggestions you might be able to make.