Electrical or mechanical issue with compressor

[streetglider]

I have a BelAire, 5 HP, 2 stage, 60 gallon compressor which was wired to a 220 line in my garage by an electrician. The compressor worked fine for about a year but recently it has been not been starting until I check all of the electrical connections a time or two. When it starts, it runs for a while then stutters a bit causing the lights in the garage to dim. It does this once or twice until it fills up. We recently had a broken air hose, a Harbor Freight one, that caused the compressor to run until it threw the breaker. I am pretty sure the problem is electrical but I am not sure where to start. I was wondering if the motor could have been damaged so that it is now pulling too much electricity causing this problem. I am not familiar with electricity which is why I paid to have the line run. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Does the compressor have a starter or just a pressure switch?

 

[American Locomotive]

Can you get a clamp on ammeter? The compressor running continuously shouldn't have tripped the breaker. It sounds like the motor may be damaged.

 

[Showkey]

The other lesson is turn the compressor off when not in regular use.........even over night continuous running ( from a line leak) cause damage or worse.

 

[streetglider]

According to the specs: Start-Stop Pressure Switch Control

From the manual: Thermal Overload Switch
Device, integrated into the electric motor winding.
This may be what is actually shutting off the motor. There is a reset button that doesn't appear to move much when we push it in. We just check everything when it doesn't start and eventually it will.

I don't have an ammeter but could probably borrow one.

 

[streetglider]

I did learn that lesson and I turn it off now whenever I leave the garage. I had actually just left for a while planning to be gone a couple of hours and then return to what I was doing. When I got back and went to use it, I noticed it wasn't starting and when it did the line was split.

 

[matt_i]

An easy check is to drain the receiver/tank, remove the v-belt(s) and roll the air compressor crank pulley over by hand. It should be mostly free rolling. If you struggle to do this then the motor will also struggle.

The thermal overload contact should be just a dry contact that is interlocked with a relay, in other words its not designed to switch the entire current of the motor to off as the contact goes open.

A wild guess is your pressure switch is acting up and has damaged contacts or the spring mechanism isn't snapping over very well. It would be worth a look at the actual contacts (voltage = off) to see if they are pitted or carbon-tracked or burned, etc.

 

[Dagny]

Is it a capacitor start motor?

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

You didn't pump the oil out of it did you?

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Ok since it has integrated overload, then that means no starter...

 

[CompressorPros.com]

The BelAire model 216V doesn't have a starter, just the overload on the motor. From what you are describing, it sounds like a motor issue. If the pump were locking up, it would completely shut it down.

 

[streetglider]

Still has plenty of oil. I will look at the contacts and roll the air compressor crank pulley. I am hoping it is not a motor.