Quincy Compressor Quality Control (or Lack Thereof)

[EOC_Jason]

I guess I shouldn't make assumptions, but the poster I was responding to said he can go months between uses, so I'm assuming this is a home garage with a similar 60-80 gallon sized compressor. If you're not using it for weeks or months and it only takes 5 minutes to re-fill, not sure what the big gain is in leaving it full anyways. When I go to do some work I close the valve and flip it back on and by the time I have the car on the hoist it's full and ready to go.

Just blow off the water on the bottom of the tank. I have a ball valve that I open and when the water stops coming out of it I close it. Completely draining the tank makes no logical sense as the amount of water added from filling the entire tank will take you right back to where you started from.

To reply to Handyandy, my compressor is ~20 gallon. I live in an area with pretty low humidity levels, so the tank never accumulates much water. What little there is when I do drain it probably doesn't even fill the pipe coming out of the bottom of the tank to the ball valve. But I am religious about checking it as I do have a horizontal tank.

My typical compressor usage is just to blow off things, or fill up bicycle / vehicle tires. I'm not going to sit there waiting for it to fill up from empty every time I need to spend 5 seconds to blow something off. There is nothing to be gained by draining the air once you have removed the water. It's a pressure vessel, it's designed to be under pressure... But I do leave it usually around 80-90 psi or so, I only run the pump when the pressure gets too low for whatever I need to do.

Like someone else said, gas (propane, acetylene, oxygen) tanks don't leak, water heaters don't leak, and many other pressure vessels don't leak. Just because a small leak in an air compressor won't cause a catastrophe doesn't mean it's "normal"...

 

[finn]

My Champion, DeVilbiss, PC, IR, and CH all leak down to one degree or another.

Some more than others, wit the old Champion being the best.

All pump up fast when I turn on the power and open the shutoff valve, and are in standby mode by the time I attach a tool to the hose.

Frankly, the op isn’t going to be happy with anything Quincy offers him. They should fire him as a customer and terminate the epic drama they are now involved in.

 

[trbomax]

As I said, will have more updates tomorrow afternoon on that front. When I have the facts, I will happily share them. In the meantime, if someone can answer my question about the immediate psi drop, not overnight changes, I'm happy to hear what might be behind that.

I would look at the input check valve that is in the discharge line.When the blow down unloader valve it isolates the tank from the pump.The only air released should be whats between the input check valve and the compressors cylinder heads. This allows the pump to start with no load.When the pressure in the line between the pump and the tank reach a higher level than whatever is in the tank, it will open and allow air to pass from the compressor and the tank.

 

[gatewaysysop]

Making unreasonable demands and bitching and brand trashing online. That's what is unacceptable. If your unhappy with the purchase fine, ask them to take it back and leave it at that.

You're getting yourself worked up over nothing. Your compressor is fine.

At this point, Quincy is just trying to placate you.

Frankly, the op isn’t going to be happy with anything Quincy offers him. They should fire him as a customer and terminate the epic drama they are now involved in.

Update: R.W. Lindsay technician replaced the tank check valve. Lo and behold, that has fixed the problem.

Evidence: Fills to 175 psi and cuts out, after unload, still at 175 psi (no more immediate loss during unload). After a few minutes, drops only to 173 psi and holds there. After 3 more hours, had only dropped to 172 psi. Additionally, since it was discussed a few pages back, the unload is now appreciably shorter than the 10 seconds it took before.

Obviously this is not the same behavior as dropping several (4 to 5) psi in the time it took to unload the cylinder heads (10 seconds), and obviously not the same continued drop (another 5-ish psi) in the next 5 minutes. I'll happily update on how it settles up overnight from the 172 psi it sits at currently, for those who might be curious.

For those who ripped on me without waiting for the facts, feel free to PM me if you lack the character to apologize in the same public fashion in which you flogged me.

 

[L.Cheapo]

That was way more stressful than it needed to be. Hope its all fixed now and you can enjoy your new compressor for many years as intended, OP.

 

[EOC_Jason]

Update: R.W. Lindsay technician replaced the tank check valve. Lo and behold, that has fixed the problem.

Excellent!

Chalk one up for "globally sourced parts"...

 

[Handyandy23]

Glad that there is (hopefully) finally a positive resolution here. Doesn't look great on Quincy either way but at least they seem to have fixed it now, and they also threw in the compressor upgrade, which I would be happy with. I know defects happen but kind of scary that one person got hit with multiple defects (wrong compressor, bad compressor, and then another faulty part).

Re: the off topic discussion of emptying the tank between uses versus not, that is a an interesting idea on just bleeding off the water and leaving the tank mostly full. I think I'll give that a try and see between uses how much water comes out. Emptying the tank is what the manual told me to do and what I had always seen others do, so I figured that was best practice, but I'm always up for a smarter way to do things.

 

[EOC_Jason]

Re: the off topic discussion of emptying the tank between uses versus not, that is a an interesting idea on just bleeding off the water and leaving the tank mostly full. I think I'll give that a try and see between uses how much water comes out. Emptying the tank is what the manual told me to do and what I had always seen others do, so I figured that was best practice, but I'm always up for a smarter way to do things.

I actually will (try to) drain the water the next day after I'm done using my compressor. That gives the air enough time to cool and the water enough time to condense and work its way to the bottom. If you drain it right after using you will get some water, but you would be amazed how much more you will get the next day too.

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

Please don't let the OP's VERY unlucky issues with Quincy take away from the fact that Quincy has and do built thousands of quality compressors.
The first compressor was a shipping issue, not an issue with the compressor itself. The 2nd compressor WAS a quality control issue that should have been caught in QC...no excuses.
The third...which is an UPGRADE from compressor #2 that Quincy provided as a gesture to show they screwed up and to make-up for the OP's hassle.

FWIW, Quincy does not manufacture the check-valve. Personally, I've had a small piece of carbon from a pump get lodged in a check-valve and cause it to leak. It's possible that a small copper shaving from the supply tube could have come loose during transit and lodged itself in the check-valve.
I have to believe that Quincy would have checked the third unit over well before shipping it to the OP.
Personally, I've had VERY good luck with Quincy. I use a QR 25-325 in my business and as of this minute has clocked 5,644 trouble free hours of use.

 

[American Locomotive]

Update: R.W. Lindsay technician replaced the tank check valve. Lo and behold, that has fixed the problem.

Evidence: Fills to 175 psi and cuts out, after unload, still at 175 psi (no more immediate loss during unload). After a few minutes, drops only to 173 psi and holds there. After 3 more hours, had only dropped to 172 psi. Additionally, since it was discussed a few pages back, the unload is now appreciably shorter than the 10 seconds it took before.

Obviously this is not the same behavior as dropping several (4 to 5) psi in the time it took to unload the cylinder heads (10 seconds), and obviously not the same continued drop (another 5-ish psi) in the next 5 minutes. I'll happily update on how it settles up overnight from the 173 psi it sits at currently, for those who might be curious.

For those who ripped on me without waiting for the facts, feel free to PM me if you lack the character to apologize in the same public fashion in which you flogged me.

Seriously? Telling you that your compressor is likely fine, and posting the physics to back it up is "ripping" on you and "publicly flogging?"

You posted no videos, no sound clips, nothing really definitive about your "unloading". If you had said, "The air comes barrelling out of the unloader port like a wide open blow gun for 10 seconds, and then continues to hiss for several minutes", then I would agree - your check valve has a problem. But you never said that.

What I said about the air temperature still holds true. A 150 degree tank at 170 PSI will pull down to 150 PSI by the time it gets back down to room temperature. Even just going from a cool 60 degree night to a warm 80 degree day will result in a 5 PSI pressure swing.

I'm glad you got your issue resolved. I gave you a reasonably explanation based on my experience for your issues given the limited information you provided.

 

[gatewaysysop]

Seriously? Telling you that your compressor is likely fine, and posting the physics to back it up is "ripping" on you and "publicly flogging?"

I'm glad you got your issue resolved. I gave you a reasonably explanation based on my experience for your issues given the limited information you provided.

I'm sorry you didn't have more information to go on. You seemed to think you had enough insight at the time to proclaim nothing was wrong and the company was just placating at difficult customer. Call it what you want, I considered it undeserved public shaming, but maybe that's just me.

I'm over it and glad it's resolved too.

 

[The Cobbler]

I thought the information given was suitable. the 10 seconds seemed a log time and it would easily indicate the check valve was an issue.

 

[American Locomotive]

I thought the information given was suitable. the 10 seconds seemed a log time and it would easily indicate the check valve was an issue.

It could be a problem, or the compressor could have an orifice to restrict flow on the unloader to quiet it down. The problems described by the OP were not unusual and I have observed in other compressors.

 

[70Mach1]

I'm sorry you didn't have more information to go on. You seemed to think you had enough insight at the time to proclaim nothing was wrong and the company was just placating at difficult customer. Call it what you want, I considered it undeserved public shaming, but maybe that's just me.

I'm over it and glad it's resolved too.

+1 Glad you pushed until you got what you paid for: a working compressor with no issues.

 

[David0858]

^ Hard to find issue with the logic / science here.

If it's truly a leak then you should continue to see pressure loss over time, until you're eventually at 0. If it's just air cooling then you should see that loss over some time and then hold relatively steady.

I also agree with another poster that the tank can't be expected to be 100% air tight - if you leave it full over the course of days or weeks it will lose air. And theoretically if used properly where you drain it when not in use, the pressure loss is so minimal that it should never be an issue in the time span you'd be using it.

The only variable there is if you don't know the source of the leak it's hard to tell if it's going to get a lot worse over time. Losing 20 psi over a couple days is fine as long as it doesn't turn into 20 psi in a couple hours.

My $150 HF doesn't. I can go out a week or two later and it's still full.

 

[tym]

It's not that you can't have a warranty. It's how you go about it. Making unreasonable demands and bitching and brand trashing online. That's what is unacceptable. If your unhappy with the purchase fine, ask them to take it back and leave it at that.

This is a disappointing blame-shifting mentality symptomatic of much of what's wrong in Murricuh today.

 

[customh]

It's not that you can't have a warranty. It's how you go about it. Making unreasonable demands and bitching and brand trashing online. That's what is unacceptable. If your unhappy with the purchase fine, ask them to take it back and leave it at that.

This is a disappointing blame-shifting mentality symptomatic of much of what's wrong in Murricuh today.

Agree tym. What's the point of the warranty if you can't enforce it? What happens when you've spent time and money installing some equipment and there is a cost to replace it even if the replacement is free? He didn't brand trash until he had given Quincy plenty of rope with which to hang themselves. At least the customer service weren't the ones to tie the noose. From a customer service standpoint this thread is a glowing review of Quincy- but the assemblers and quality staff sure made it hard for them to deliver. Curious what will happen over the years to Quincy now that they are owned by Atlas Copco.

The greed comments in this thread are sadly true and I don't know if a company that manufactures a "commodity" item like a compressor could stay afloat if they were of a "quality first, all else be damned mentality" because of the people that price shop. The bottom dollar is getting driven from both ends, most customers care about price first and the companies want to drive up profits.

By and large, compressor service companies **** to deal with as OP experienced. I've dealt with most of them in our area as I am in charge of about 450hp of air compressors currently. I'm glad Quincy was able to make everything right, hopefully OP will still be using this compressor in 40-50 years.