Oil compressor maintenance

[mark mcfarlane]

I just picked up an Ingersol Rand 10 gallon compressor and want to put the maintenance schedule into my calendar.



Do people actually 'change' the oil every year on their oil-filled compressors?
Check the oil level every week, month, or 3 months in a home shop?
Any other maintenance desirable?

[Mark Bolton]

Id imagine you'll get all ends of the spectrum. Never changed oil, changed way to often, etc. It's really a matter of how much work it gets. We change ours regularly but in full time shop. Id imagine many hobby shops dont run their compressors as many hours over their lifetime compared to a production/mechanic shop environments use in a week. Changing the oil arbitrarily is just a waste of oil. Id swap out the oil for a good synthetic or high quality oil and if it sees once a week use put it on a 2-5 year maintenance. Other than an intake filter possibly and blowing the tank down for moisture that'd be it.

I have non-oilless job site compressors that have run tens of thousands of hours and left out in the worst conditions and they still run and never once changed the oil.

Other than condensation in the crank case there would be no reason to dump good oil down the drain.

[Martin Wasner]

My shop compressor, I do what ever the manufacture recommends. My new compressor, I might just pay somebody else to maintain it. Then the liability is on them if done incorrectly. It's every thousand hours, or once a year.

Like Mark, my jobsite compressors get abused and neglected. Which is tragic because they are the easiest things to maintain. Drain and refill.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have changed the oil in my compressor 2 times in the 9 years since I bought it. I do blow out the air filter on it regularly. I did install an automatic drain valve to drain the tank periodically so I don't have to worry about it.

[mark mcfarlane]

I have changed the oil in my compressor 2 times in the 9 years since I bought it. I do blow out the air filter on it regularly. I did install an automatic drain valve to drain the tank periodically so I don't have to worry about it.

Ken, do you remember what you used for the auto drain valve? Are you happy with it?

The IR auto valves I looked at online are pretty pricey, and some of the zero loss ones are $500-$1200 just for the valve assembly.

[Brian Nguyen]

I was told that you're suppose to change the oil almost immediately to remove all the metal shavings... and then afterward check the oil and change as necessary depending on how much it runs. I rarely use my compressor so I'm still on the first oil change.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mark, I will check in the morning for the model number. It was one IIRC, Bruce Page recommended. I can't find the thread. I thought I ordered it from Amazon but a check of my order history didn't produce it so I must have ordered it from Northern Tool. I will check it in the morning.

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks Ken.

Brian, Ingersol Rand says 12 months or 2000 hours (or maybe it was 1000) to the first oil change for this compressor, using synthetic oil.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Good morning Mark! What I bought and installed was an Ingersoll Rand EDV-2000. It works well. I plugged mine into a nearby outlet after I installed it. Bruce installed a switch on the cover for his belt drive and wired it through the switch so it doesn't have to be on all the time.

Shop around for the best prices. This morning I saw prices from $103 to $259.

[Jim Becker]

Like, Ken...my maintenance schedule has not been frequent for my IR compressor simply because the use level has been limited. It historically hasn't run much. That's changing a little now that I'm retired from full time work and in the shop every day, including working to monetize the shop. So it's likely that I'll change the oil more frequently now. I do check the level from time to time and top off if necessary and recently had to adjust the belts because "something moved".

[mark mcfarlane]

Good morning Mark! What I bought and installed was an Ingersoll Rand EDV-2000. It works well. I plugged mine into a nearby outlet after I installed it. Bruce installed a switch on the cover for his belt drive and wired it through the switch so it doesn't have to be on all the time.

Shop around for the best prices. This morning I saw prices from $103 to $259.

Thanks Ken. From the pictures, it looks like that controller lets you open the valve down to 2 seconds every 45 minutes, is that correct?

No 'longer time intervals' between bleeds, such as 'daily'.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

That is correct Mark. Mine is set to 2 seconds every 45 minutes.

Remember that I hear with a cochlear impact so I don't have the advantages of the mechanical inefficiencies of the 3 bones in the middle of the ear. When it's quiet in my shop, the AC is fully charged, I am working on something and the valve opens. let's say it startles me considerably!

I have the drain hose going into an empty old 6 gallon paint bucket I got from a neighbor who is a professional painter.

[mark mcfarlane]

That is correct Mark. Mine is set to 2 seconds every 45 minutes....

Thanks Ken. It is a blessing to be able to hear, startled or not.

My new IR Garage Mate is much easier on the ears than my old Porter Cable Pancake compressor, which startled both myself and the dog every time it turned on. The 'auto compressor shutoff at max pressure' feature failed on the PC pancake, encouraging me to replace it, for the sake of the dog (that's what I'm telling the wife :).

A local Northern Tools had the IR Garage Mate in stock for $40 off, which almost covered the sales tax.

[Mark Bolton]

Our Quincy is on a timer similar settings to Ken and is in back bay where our hardwood racks are. The discharge was simply straight out of the auto drain initially and it would literally give you a heart attack every time it cycled. If you were up on a ladder or sorting through material for break down in that bay it was not a good situation especially at 175PSI. We have a culvert running under that bay and poked a hole in the concrete clear through to the culvert and installed a nipple, elbow, and a stretch of pipe down through the slab into the culvert. You can now be standing right next to the compressor when it drains and its a hiss no louder than turning on a water faucet. I would pipe that drain outside or through a wall with a piece of PEx tubing before your nerves are shredded.

A shop is noisy place but those unpredictable startles really suck.

[mark mcfarlane]

... I would pipe that drain outside or through a wall with a piece of PEx tubing before your nerves are shredded.

A shop is noisy place but those unpredictable startles really suck.

Thanks Mark for the tip. If I put the compressor up on a wood platform I could drain it outside without cutting concrete, I'd just have too cut through the exterior brick, and wait for my son to come visiting :). One good/bad thing about this compressor is the 200lb weight.

Since this is a low-ish pressure situation after you get through the first bend, I'm thinking PVC for the drain line, just like the condensate drains on my ductless ACs,... maybe with some screen over the end of the PVC run outside to prevent bugs from crawling in... yet that makes something else to clog up.

[Mark Bolton]

I wouldnt hesitate to vent it up-hill with a PVC condensate trap type affair somewhere in the run. The compressor is going to blow the trap clear every time it cycles but anything that drained back would settle in the trap anyway. The only time you will get any quantity of moisture out of the tank is when its been running heavy and the air coming into the tank is hot. We have an intercooler on ours that pulls 80% of the moisture out before it gets to the tank but we still get a little out on each cycle. I wouldnt over think it and just pipe it outside however works and adjust from there.

If your compressor is in a remote enough location who cares just let it land on the floor. But man, that thing would wake me up in a bad way on a regular basis.

Cant beat a compressor upgrade. Exciting times.

[Martin Wasner]

My Atlas has a float bowl like a toilet. Once it fills, it automatically dumps. I just have a plastic hose zip tied into a floor drain four feet away.

I opened the valve on the tank after 100 hours, no water. So the dryer is doing it's job well

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks guys.

I didn't think to put a floor drain in when I built the shop. It would have made sense to add one in the machine room.

The compressor is in conditioned space. I didn't get much condensate out of my old compressor with 'every other month' drainings, maybe a half ounce at most.

A rag zip tied around the drain outlet (to prevent splashing) might capture the condensate and then dry out before the next cycle.

I want this compressor to last my lifetime. I'm 61 so probably 20-30 years at best.

[Bill Dufour]

I have an electric valve timed to go off every 20 minutes or so. But it vents when power is first applied so it is wired to the motor supply. Every time the motor restarts the tank vents. Work great since I do not run continuous very much. I do wish I had a way to vent the tank at the end of the day. Maybe add a push button switch.
My drain hose is simply a piece of old rubber air hose, through a hole drilled in the siding, ending in a bush outside. Much easier to run then any ridgid pipe or tubing. But the end may whip unless tied down or weighted.
Bil lD

[Mark Bolton]

My drain hose is simply a piece of old rubber air hose, through a hole drilled in the siding, ending in a bush outside. Bil lD

I feel for the poor mouse or bird that builds its nest in that bush lol. Flying mice!. For sure. The simplest way to get that blow down outside the building is best by me. Our blow down valve is 1/2" or 3/4" pipe (cant remmeber). And without it being piped outside when it blows off it can be close to a change your shorts moment if your not ready.

[Jim Becker]

Mark, I also have an IR auto moisture valve on mine...it's been keeping the tank "waterless" for many years now. Scares the you-know-what out of me if I'm in the DC/Compressor closet for some reason and it suddenly goes "psssst!" LOL

BTW, I just have a short hose connected to the auto-drain and there's really no appreciable moisture from mine, so it just dumps "wherever". Since you live in one of the major humidify capitals, you may have more noticeable output.