Hidden Compressor Problems & Maintenance

Issues Youre Not Aware Of Right Now

Are you wasting thousands of dollars?

Is your compressor silently heading for a disaster?

Compressed air is an important asset in many factories and workshops. My experience is that it is often
taken for granted, or thought of as being free.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Compressed air is in fact very expensive and without proper
maintenance, your air compressor might just decide to stop.
Over the years, I have learned what the most common air compressor problems are.

Imagine a complete factory shutdown..

Imagine what would happen when your compressor shuts down, and the air pressure in your system
starts to drop? Panic!

First you might experience some machinery malfunctions in one part of your factory, soon followed by
other parts. Eventually, your whole factory will slowly grind to a stop, because there is no more
compressed air.
Believe me, I have rushed to these places so many times:

Compressor tripped. No more compressed air. Production shut down.

Please, calculate for yourself what an air compressor break down would cost you, including paid wages,
lost production, emergency compressor rental, lost batches of products because of quality issues, etc.)
After that, calculate what proper maintenance would cost you. I can assure you that this is usually a
factor 10 -100 times smaller compared to the cost of a complete plant shutdown.

If you just keep an eye on the 5 things that I explain in this report, you most certainly will have a much
healthier compressor and save thousands of dollars per year in compressed air costs.

Unnoticed maintenance issues

Dont let these little things happen to your compressor although they are very easy to spot when
youre looking for them, my experience is that many people simply never check them.
A small problem can quickly grow out of hand. Or worse: a small problem might damage your
compressor or your compressed air equipment in the long run, without you knowing in!

Oil and oil filter changes

Sure, everybody knows... Just like a car, your compressor needs some fresh oil and a new oil filter every
now and then.
Your manual will state when this should happen.

But my experience is that many compressors run in dusty and dirty conditions. A lot of dirt and dust will
enter your compressor. This dust will shorten the lifetime of your:

Compressor element screws (the heart of your compressor!)

Compressor element bearings (the heart of your compressor!)
The oil separator (risk of oil in your compressor air or separator collapse!)

A breakdown of the screw element will mean a long compressor down time for your factory. In fact, it
often means you will have to go and buy a new compressor.
An oil separator collapse is not pretty. It basically send all the compressor oil into the compressed air
system. Image the time it will cost to clean that up!

My TIP: In case of a dusty environment Change your oil and filters more often than is indicated in
the manual! If the manual says every 4000 hours, change it every 2000 hours.

Running at high temperatures

The biggest problem for a compressor is overheating. Compressing air generates a lot of heat, and all
this heat has to be removed.
If the temperature rises too high, it will seize and completely destroy your screw element.

Sure, your compressor has a warning and a shutdown alarm for high temperatures, so that wont
happen anytime soon.
BUT

I have seen so many compressors running for weeks and months near or at their warning temperature.
Usually, the warning pops up at 110 degrees Celsius and the shutdown at 120 degrees Celsius.
Running at high temperatures will not instantly destroy your compressor.. no, it will slowly kill it.

You see, at high temperatures, the compressor oil degrades much more quickly. It will form a thin layer
of varnish or lacquer on the inside of each and every part that comes into contact with the
compressor oil.
This includes:

The screw element

Check valve / oil stop valve
Separator filter
Oil cooler
Oil hoses

This varnish looks like a redish glow on the metal surface. It is almost impossible to remove. You will
need special chemicals to remove it.
In short, it slowly ruins your compressor.
My tip:
-

Dont run your compressor at too high temperatures for a long period of time
Change your oil more quickly. If the normal interval is 4000 hours and your compressor runs at
100+ degrees Celsius, change it every 2000 hours.

Water in the compressed air

You wont believe the amount of water an air compressor produces each and every day.

The water is naturally in the ambient air that is sucked in by the compressor. Because of the large
amounts of ambient air that a compressor needs to produce compressed air, there is a lot of water in
the compressor air.
This water is removed by compressed air dryers and condensate traps.

I have seen installations where the whole 1000 liter compressed air receiver was filled with water. Im
not kidding here.
Simply nobody ever checked.

Their pneumatic equipment was basically running on water instead of compressed air!

Not this is an extreme example (but I have seen them more than once!).. but you could have a water-inair problem yourself without even knowing it!

Water in your compressed air will not only directly running your compressed air tools, equipment or
products. It will also eat away on the inside of your compressed air piping, creating a rusty, dirty
compressed air piping system.. do I need to tell you what that will do to your equipment?
My tips:
-

Check your compressed air dryer every daily

Check the correct function of all condensate traps daily
Drain your main compressed air receiver daily.

Wasted compressed air

A small compressed air leak here or there.. who cares? Right?

Well, consider this:

A small 1/8 leak will leak around 25 CFM at 100 psi.

That means you will lose around 37.000 cubic ft per day, or 13 MILLION cubic ft per year.
What this costs you?

Around $2500 each and every year, depending on your electricity cost!
And that is just one small 1/8 compressed air leaks.

My experience is that a typical medium sized compressed air system with an average amount of leaks
is blowing at least $4.000 dollars per year into thin air.
On bigger systems... this can EASILY mount up to 20 100.000 dollars per year in electricity costs
WASTED!
Each and every year!

Fix those leaks! The time and costs it takes to repair a compressed air leak typically pays back in a
week or a month!
My tip: Search and destroy compressed air leaks on a regular basis.

Pressure problems

The last hidden problem I have often seen has to do with pressure.

You need pressure to operate your machinery or tools. They need a minimum amount of pressure to
operate.
So we just set the compressors pressure at max and alls good, right?
Yes. But it will costs you dearly in your electricity bill.

Remember compressing air takes energy. Compressing air to a higher pressure takes even more
energy.
Dont set your compressor any higher than strictly needed.
But there is one pitfall here: pressure drop

Pressure drop is the pressure that is lost between your compressor and the equipment that uses
compressed air.
It is created by the friction inside the pipes, by filters, bend, valves, etc.

Say your compressed air piping system and filters create a pressure drop of 1.5 bar.

And, your equipment needs 5 bars to operate. Than you need to set your compressor at 5 + 1.5 = 6.5
bar!

Now if you had a smaller pressure los, say 0.2 bar, then you could set your compressor at 5 + 0.2 = 5.2
bar.
You save 6.5 5.2 = 1.3 bar!

This equals THOUSANDS of dollars in electricity costs per year.

My tips:
-

Find parts in your compressed air system that create pressure drops and fix it.

Change compressed air filters in time

If you have compressed air filters that create a large pressure drop: replace them with bigger ones.
Dont want to spend money on a new compressed air filter? Think again! A dirty filter creates a larger
pressure drop. As a result, you will need to set your compressor at a higher pressure to counter the
pressure drop.

The increase in electricity costs can easily be 3 or 4 times that of a new compressed air filter! So, change
those filters!

Have a look at your piping system

Did your factory grow over time and you slowly added more pneumatic tools, machines and equipment
to it?
Maybe its time to upgrade your piping system! Smaller pipes create a much bigger pressure drop than
bigger pipes!

Its often worth it to install a bigger piping system. These costs for that can be recover in a year or two!
My tip: did you outgrow your compressed air piping system? Upgrade!