Air Compressor Problem

[olywrestle]

I have a home air compressor by Craftsman. It is one I got from my dad when he bought a new one. the problem is, once the tanks gets empty enough to kick it back on it blows the circuit breaker. It is attatched to a 20 Amp breaker like it is suppossed to be. Any ideas why it would blow the breaker everytime it starts back up? I can go and flip the breaker and then turn it on manually and it does fine until it needs to fill again.............HELP!

 

[Rusted]

I have a home air compressor by Craftsman. It is one I got from my dad when he bought a new one. the problem is, once the tanks gets empty enough to kick it back on it blows the circuit breaker. It is attatched to a 20 Amp breaker like it is suppossed to be. Any ideas why it would blow the breaker everytime it starts back up? I can go and flip the breaker and then turn it on manually and it does fine until it needs to fill again.............HELP!

What else is on that circut? it may be a 20A circut, and the compressor requires 20A, but if you have 5A of other things plugged in you are over the limit. Also it is common for breakers to not work at their proper rating, it may have been a 20A breaker 20 years ago when they build the house, but it not pop at 15A.

Plug it into a different circut, one that has NOTHING else plugged into it. See if that changes anything.

 

[olywrestle]

theonly other thing on this cirucit is my washer and laundry room lights. Same thing was ahppening at my dads house, and it was a circuit just for the garage, and even if everythign else was off, it still blew the circuit

 

[BioNuke1]

See if the check valve is working. It purges the cylinder and copper line of pressurized air so it can start up again as if the tank were empty....

 

[spencurai]

This happens to the craftsman compressor at my place too. I am running it on a 15 amp breaker and it will cycle once or twice after filling up then it will trip the breaker. MY house is brand new so I probably just need a more kick ass breaker in there. Change up to a fresh breaker, maybe a 30amp if possible...I am no electrician though so dont quote me ont hat.

 

[olywrestle]

See if the check valve is working. It purges the cylinder and copper line of pressurized air so it can start up again as if the tank were empty....

where would it be located? what woudl it look like?

 

[Rusted]

Are you using an extension cord to the compressor? Or is it plugged directly into the wall?

I believe this check valve that was mentioned is usually on the outlet side of the air, most have a little key ring looking piece that you would pull and it would dump all of the air in the tank.

 

[Caleb]

do what spence said, replace the breaker, not necesarily with a larger one, just a fresh one. Once you start rippin gthem too often they loose theiur effectiveness. I did the same thing with mine, just replaced it with another 20A and its been fine since. If you have bigger than #14 wire like a lot of new houses you may be able to step up a size on the breaker.

 

[Mr.Chevy]

I too have a craftsman air compressor and mine did the same thing when we moved in to are house. So we put it on its own 30 amp breaker and havent had a problem yet. It took a little to run new wire to the compressor but it was worth it in the long run.