Air compressor blowing circuit breaker

[John K Jordan]

In particular, John's post about unplugging the compressor every day to avoid a runaway compressor-caused fire due an air line leak has opened my eyes. I shall try to get in the habit of shutting off the compressor every day, and also add a new valve at the tank to slow down the effect off my slow leak in the in-wall rapid-air tubing network.

I have a friend who lost his shop and all tools this way. What are the chances: many years after rebuilding he had a similar incident with his compressor when a component failed after he stepped out of the shop for a bit but caught it in time.

My compressor (5hp IR 60 gal) is in a sound-insulated closet. So the controls would not be out of sight I ran the pipe from the compressor though the wall and added a gauge and shut off valve along with my dryers, regulator, and distribution manifold. The electrical disconnect is also in plain sight in the main shop so I don't forget about it. I put a colored flag on the switch to make the switch state it more visible from across the shop but I'm planning to wire in a bright "compressor motor enabled" light.

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JKJ

[Mike Henderson]

In particular, John's post about unplugging the compressor every day to avoid a runaway compressor-caused fire due an air line leak has opened my eyes. I shall try to get in the habit of shutting off the compressor every day, and also add a new valve at the tank to slow down the effect off my slow leak in the in-wall rapid-air tubing network.

Cheers,

What I did to handle that problem is I put a motion sensor in the circuit. I have my compressor running on 240 volts so the motion sensor controls a contactor (a type of relay) that then controls the 240 volts. If there's no motion, the power is off to the compressor. I figured that a motion sensor was more reliable than me remembering to turn the power off to the unit.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Most have found issues when it comes to starting current required and these tandem breakers don’t have enough capacity for the in rush current.

I've had to use tandem breakers in my subpanel. They're the ones with the two 120V breakers on the outside and a bonded (double breaker) between the two 120 volt breakers for controlling a 240 volt circuit. It was that, or replace the subpanel with a bigger panel. I added more 240 volt tools than I expected when I put in the subpanel so I needed more bonded 240 volt breakers, while still having the same number of 120 volt breakers.

So far, I haven't had any issues at all with the setup. But even with the tandem breakers I'm completely full now. If I try to add another 240 volt tool it's either do a multidrop on an existing circuit or put in a bigger subpanel.

Mike