Compressor question

[Louis Brandt]

Hello,

I just bough my new Craftsman 1 HP 3 gallon oil-lubed compressor, and I’ve used it once for a few minutes. I did everything that the manual told me to do, and everything seemed to operate fine. I drove a new 16 gauge finish nails with it, and everything worked fine.

But, I have a question. In checking old posts on this forum, I found one suggesting that you are supposed to run a new compressor for a few minutes with no load on it and with the drain open, supposedly to break it in. Is this true? Have any of you heard of this? Should I do this? Does this have any beneficial effect on the unit, or is this just bad advice?

Thanks,
Louis

[John Coloccia]

If your manual says to do it, do it. I believe my 60gal kobolt had no such requirement. I know I've had them with that requirement in the past. If the manual doesn't say to do it, I don't do it. Like I teach folks in the pistol class I teach, always read your manual :)

[Larry Marley]

Years ago I had a sears oil less compressor that required about 15 minutes of running with the valve wide open, no pressure. If you did not do this the compressor would never get up to pressure, ever. I don't want to detail how I know this... years later purchased an oiled compressor and did not need to do this.

[Scott T Smith]

The newer Porter Cable pancake compressors recommend a break-in period - same proceedure as what Larry mentioned.

I don't think that it would hurt to follow the break-in proceedure, even if the manufacturer did not specify one.

[Ted Baca]

I would say just use it but be sure to drain the tank each time you start it up. This will provide the volume you can expect and then determine how much you need to drain the tank. If it were me (self confessed anal maintentance freak that I am) after 100 hour I would change the oil. Then at 1000 hours change it again and use synthetic oil. I use synthetic in mine an I hope to have many many years of service. Money spent is money saved. Like the old Fram commercials say "pay me now or pay me later"

[Kev Godwin]

Louis
I have the very same C-Man compressor and did not do a break-in as you described since it was not suggested in my manual. However, I guess it sure wouldn't hurt anything. It has been working perfectly.

Since yours is newer than mine, did your newer manual say to do a break-in?
Kev

[Louis Brandt]

No, my manual didn't say that it needed a break-in.
Louis

[James Gillespie, Jr.]

I recently picked up a Husky Pro 60 gallon oiled (at the BORG on sale) which is made by CH. It calls for a 30 minute no load break in period and its first oil change after 60 minutes run time.

[Tom Veatch]

...It calls for a 30 minute no load break in period and its first oil change after 60 minutes run time.

I wonder if that as much related to motor as it is to the compressor. Reason for asking; I recently replaced the motor on my bandsaw with an industrial grade Baldour motor and the documentation with the motor specified that it be run in a no load condition for an hour before being connected to the tool, then for another hour connected before loading the tool.

As a side note, the reason I had to replace the motor was I stalled it making a heavy cut in resawing some wet maple and thought I'd tripped the breaker. Got to the breaker box, saw nothing was tripped, got back to the saw and noticed that I hadn't hit the off switch. You know, when you let the smoke out of a TEFC motor, you don't actually let the smoke out. It's still in there somewhere, but it's not doing its job.

[James Gillespie, Jr.]

From the manual:

4. Run the unit for 30 minutes, under
no load, to break in pump parts.