Problem with Coltri MCH6
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Ok So my tumultuous Coltri saga has come to an end,
After my previous post where I was back to odd issues again I rang a friend of mine that is also a dealer for Coltri, after a bit of back and forth he got the importer to the UK to ring me, I explained all that had happened and they offered to have it picked up for them to inspect, which was good news, I countered their offer and suggested as I had a week off that I would take it in person in the car to them and then I could look it over with their main technician, all went to plan, and I took with me my original 4th stage in the hope it could illuminate without an immediate tear down, which it did, they only took a moment to say it was not a forth stage problem as it looked almost new, next they ran it up after a warm up and encountered my problem of the 3rd stage OPV firing at 200bar, I was then shown some cheeky methods of fault finding,
1, if the pipework coming out of the forth stage is warm (at the 4th stage end) then it indicates a working forth stage, (be wary if your doing this as it could burn you)
2, even with the OPV popping it was possible with the cylinder valve shut to achieve 300bar, at that moment the compressor is turned off, if the pressure doesn’t immediately fall and keep falling to well less than 100bar in less than a minute then the 4th stage is holding pressure and obviously sealed in the cylinder correctly. (Mine initially lost 5-10bar then held it steady and refused to move)
3, during factory updates on the MCH6 the machine went from having no OPV on the 3rd stage at all to having a 100bar OPV fitted on a few of them over a few months to then a 120bar OPV fitted which is what you get now, (mine had the 100bar OPV,, and I’m left wondering if going to 120bar OPV was because of issues encountered with the 100 being not quite high enough.
4, Oil colour, it’s been mentioned on here by myself and others that the honey coloured oil seems to go black/grey with a slight metallic look to it, according to the Coltri Technician this is perfectly normal and does not indicate anything amiss, just change the oil at the stipulated intervals,
5, the best way to look after the MCH6 is to warm it up for just a few minutes before having it pressurise so just with the drains open, you must drain the condensate, bottom of the pressure gauge tower every few minutes and do the one below the filter tower every other time, condensate is normal from the first the filter one is really just to check condensate has been drained properly at the first one, when use is complete leave the drains open and allow to cool, when the machine is back to ambient temperature run it for just a couple of minutes to ensure any condensate has been ejected, due to the MCH6 having the 4th stage at the bottom it is prone to condensation accumulating here due to the oil cooling off above in the sump the effect been condensation accumulation here after the machine is turned off until it is cooled down.
I hope this post helps somebody that finds themselves in a situation similar to mine, (and if you’ve read this far you deserve a medal)
After my previous post where I was back to odd issues again I rang a friend of mine that is also a dealer for Coltri, after a bit of back and forth he got the importer to the UK to ring me, I explained all that had happened and they offered to have it picked up for them to inspect, which was good news, I countered their offer and suggested as I had a week off that I would take it in person in the car to them and then I could look it over with their main technician, all went to plan, and I took with me my original 4th stage in the hope it could illuminate without an immediate tear down, which it did, they only took a moment to say it was not a forth stage problem as it looked almost new, next they ran it up after a warm up and encountered my problem of the 3rd stage OPV firing at 200bar, I was then shown some cheeky methods of fault finding,
1, if the pipework coming out of the forth stage is warm (at the 4th stage end) then it indicates a working forth stage, (be wary if your doing this as it could burn you)
2, even with the OPV popping it was possible with the cylinder valve shut to achieve 300bar, at that moment the compressor is turned off, if the pressure doesn’t immediately fall and keep falling to well less than 100bar in less than a minute then the 4th stage is holding pressure and obviously sealed in the cylinder correctly. (Mine initially lost 5-10bar then held it steady and refused to move)
3, during factory updates on the MCH6 the machine went from having no OPV on the 3rd stage at all to having a 100bar OPV fitted on a few of them over a few months to then a 120bar OPV fitted which is what you get now, (mine had the 100bar OPV,, and I’m left wondering if going to 120bar OPV was because of issues encountered with the 100 being not quite high enough.
4, Oil colour, it’s been mentioned on here by myself and others that the honey coloured oil seems to go black/grey with a slight metallic look to it, according to the Coltri Technician this is perfectly normal and does not indicate anything amiss, just change the oil at the stipulated intervals,
5, the best way to look after the MCH6 is to warm it up for just a few minutes before having it pressurise so just with the drains open, you must drain the condensate, bottom of the pressure gauge tower every few minutes and do the one below the filter tower every other time, condensate is normal from the first the filter one is really just to check condensate has been drained properly at the first one, when use is complete leave the drains open and allow to cool, when the machine is back to ambient temperature run it for just a couple of minutes to ensure any condensate has been ejected, due to the MCH6 having the 4th stage at the bottom it is prone to condensation accumulating here due to the oil cooling off above in the sump the effect been condensation accumulation here after the machine is turned off until it is cooled down.
I hope this post helps somebody that finds themselves in a situation similar to mine, (and if you’ve read this far you deserve a medal)
Ok So my tumultuous Coltri saga has come to an end,
After my previous post where I was back to odd issues again I rang a friend of mine that is also a dealer for Coltri, after a bit of back and forth he got the importer to the UK to ring me, I explained all that had happened and they offered to have it picked up for them to inspect, which was good news, I countered their offer and suggested as I had a week off that I would take it in person in the car to them and then I could look it over with their main technician, all went to plan, and I took with me my original 4th stage in the hope it could illuminate without an immediate tear down, which it did, they only took a moment to say it was not a forth stage problem as it looked almost new, next they ran it up after a warm up and encountered my problem of the 3rd stage OPV firing at 200bar, I was then shown some cheeky methods of fault finding,
1, if the pipework coming out of the forth stage is warm (at the 4th stage end) then it indicates a working forth stage, (be wary if your doing this as it could burn you)
2, even with the OPV popping it was possible with the cylinder valve shut to achieve 300bar, at that moment the compressor is turned off, if the pressure doesn’t immediately fall and keep falling to well less than 100bar in less than a minute then the 4th stage is holding pressure and obviously sealed in the cylinder correctly. (Mine initially lost 5-10bar then held it steady and refused to move)
3, during factory updates on the MCH6 the machine went from having no OPV on the 3rd stage at all to having a 100bar OPV fitted on a few of them over a few months to then a 120bar OPV fitted which is what you get now, (mine had the 100bar OPV,, and I’m left wondering if going to 120bar OPV was because of issues encountered with the 100 being not quite high enough.
4, Oil colour, it’s been mentioned on here by myself and others that the honey coloured oil seems to go black/grey with a slight metallic look to it, according to the Coltri Technician this is perfectly normal and does not indicate anything amiss, just change the oil at the stipulated intervals,
5, the best way to look after the MCH6 is to warm it up for just a few minutes before having it pressurise so just with the drains open, you must drain the condensate, bottom of the pressure gauge tower every few minutes and do the one below the filter tower every other time, condensate is normal from the first the filter one is really just to check condensate has been drained properly at the first one, when use is complete leave the drains open and allow to cool, when the machine is back to ambient temperature run it for just a couple of minutes to ensure any condensate has been ejected, due to the MCH6 having the 4th stage at the bottom it is prone to condensation accumulating here due to the oil cooling off above in the sump the effect been condensation accumulation here after the machine is turned off until it is cooled down.
I hope this post helps somebody that finds themselves in a situation similar to mine, (and if you’ve read this far you deserve a medal)
OK...my take away was other than having the "old style" 100bar OPV your compressor is A-OK? That cool down technique was also given to me by the Nuvair where I bought my MCH-6 Icon...
Thanks for the detailed diagnostics! I will file those for sure...appreciate you getting back with them.
Maybe why I haven’t had your problems is I’ve always done warm up and cool down sessions with mine. I’ve had the 1st tower go loose when the chassis snapped where it’s connected.Ok So my tumultuous Coltri saga has come to an end,
After my previous post where I was back to odd issues again I rang a friend of mine that is also a dealer for Coltri, after a bit of back and forth he got the importer to the UK to ring me, I explained all that had happened and they offered to have it picked up for them to inspect, which was good news, I countered their offer and suggested as I had a week off that I would take it in person in the car to them and then I could look it over with their main technician, all went to plan, and I took with me my original 4th stage in the hope it could illuminate without an immediate tear down, which it did, they only took a moment to say it was not a forth stage problem as it looked almost new, next they ran it up after a warm up and encountered my problem of the 3rd stage OPV firing at 200bar, I was then shown some cheeky methods of fault finding,
1, if the pipework coming out of the forth stage is warm (at the 4th stage end) then it indicates a working forth stage, (be wary if your doing this as it could burn you)
2, even with the OPV popping it was possible with the cylinder valve shut to achieve 300bar, at that moment the compressor is turned off, if the pressure doesn’t immediately fall and keep falling to well less than 100bar in less than a minute then the 4th stage is holding pressure and obviously sealed in the cylinder correctly. (Mine initially lost 5-10bar then held it steady and refused to move)
3, during factory updates on the MCH6 the machine went from having no OPV on the 3rd stage at all to having a 100bar OPV fitted on a few of them over a few months to then a 120bar OPV fitted which is what you get now, (mine had the 100bar OPV,, and I’m left wondering if going to 120bar OPV was because of issues encountered with the 100 being not quite high enough.
4, Oil colour, it’s been mentioned on here by myself and others that the honey coloured oil seems to go black/grey with a slight metallic look to it, according to the Coltri Technician this is perfectly normal and does not indicate anything amiss, just change the oil at the stipulated intervals,
5, the best way to look after the MCH6 is to warm it up for just a few minutes before having it pressurise so just with the drains open, you must drain the condensate, bottom of the pressure gauge tower every few minutes and do the one below the filter tower every other time, condensate is normal from the first the filter one is really just to check condensate has been drained properly at the first one, when use is complete leave the drains open and allow to cool, when the machine is back to ambient temperature run it for just a couple of minutes to ensure any condensate has been ejected, due to the MCH6 having the 4th stage at the bottom it is prone to condensation accumulating here due to the oil cooling off above in the sump the effect been condensation accumulation here after the machine is turned off until it is cooled down.
I hope this post helps somebody that finds themselves in a situation similar to mine, (and if you’ve read this far you deserve a medal)
I think I ran the compressor about half a dozen times before being told about the warm up / post use de-condensate drill, but to hear it from the distributors technical guy I thought it worth reiterating, my whole saga basically boils down to having the 120bar OPV replace the 100, which even the Coltri tech fella was a little lost as to why Coltri ever fitted them, I’m just glad it’s been sorted, having replaced a full forth stage and gaskets in 2nd and 3rd it just began to feel like it would never be right,, the frustration as you can imagine was becoming laborious. I’m just glad it’s sorted, but I do think I learned a few things from going through it with the Coltri guy, if you can understand something, fixing it is far easier.
A fault in the welding.The chassis snapped?accidental impact or unknown?
No, they replaced the chassis.
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