Too hot for air compressor?

[Travis Conner]

I was reading and supposedly 85 degrees is the hottest air temp you want to run an air compressor.

[Frank Pratt]

Compressors are hot running machines, both from motor heat and the heat of compression. I imagine that lots of fresh airflow would let you run it in a hotter environment.

[Brice Rogers]

Is it possible that the 85 degrees was Celsius ?

[Bruce Wrenn]

I was reading and supposedly 85 degrees is the hottest air temp you want to run an air compressor.

Millions of air compressor operate in temps above 85 degrees everyday. One thing to consider is changing to synthetic oil.

[roger wiegand]

Looked at the Quincy site and they do indeed recommend keeping the ambient temperature under 85 "Warm ambient air is acceptable for an air compressor, but try not to operate past 85 degrees. Once you go over this temperature, it’s likely that your air compressor could overheat and shut down entirely."

I wonder how the folks who live in Mumbai, Thailand, Singapore or any of the other myriad countries where half the worlds population lives, where 85 is considered a cool day, manage.

[Bruce Wrenn]

The cooling on a compressor comes from the built in fan on drive sheave. This means when compressor shuts off, cooling air stops. It isn't too hard to add an electric fan, blowing over compressor, that is controlled by a sensor attached to the compressor.

[mike stenson]

Looked at the Quincy site and they do indeed recommend keeping the ambient temperature under 85 "Warm ambient air is acceptable for an air compressor, but try not to operate past 85 degrees. Once you go over this temperature, it’s likely that your air compressor could overheat and shut down entirely."

I wonder how the folks who live in Mumbai, Thailand, Singapore or any of the other myriad countries where half the worlds population lives, where 85 is considered a cool day, manage.

You don't even have to go that far. Our high has been 105ºf or higher for about 2 months. Most of the time the low is a couple degrees below 85ºf... My compressor is still running, oh and it's over 10 years old.

[Mike Cutler]

Looked at the Quincy site and they do indeed recommend keeping the ambient temperature under 85 "Warm ambient air is acceptable for an air compressor, but try not to operate past 85 degrees. Once you go over this temperature, it’s likely that your air compressor could overheat and shut down entirely."

I wonder how the folks who live in Mumbai, Thailand, Singapore or any of the other myriad countries where half the worlds population lives, where 85 is considered a cool day, manage.

Even here in CT. it's been warmer than 85 for most of the summer, humid too. My compressor has been getting quite the workout this summer, and so far so good.
Quincy makes a wide range of air compressors, from roll around jobsite portables, to larger pad mounts. They can't control the environment, or use, of the compressors across the broad spectrum of applications of usage, so they probably have some generic "operating" information for all of their compressors.
Unless a person is running a serious car repair business out of their garage, I doubt most of us in the DIY'r/hobbyist category will ever challenge an air compressor of significant size. I know that mine can, at times, sit for months in between uses, and then maybe see only limited use, and possibly one or two cycles compressor cycles when it is used.

[Ben Helmich]

I wouldn't worry about it. I've been in auto repair shops my whole life and compressor failures don't happen often. 85 degrees is a good day in Texas. I wouldn't put it in a tin box in the sun with no airflow.

[Todd Trebuna]

I wouldn't worry about it. I've been in auto repair shops my whole life and compressor failures don't happen often. 85 degrees is a good day in Texas. I wouldn't put it in a tin box in the sun with no airflow.

What he said.^^
It’s routinely over 85 in my garage shop and my compressor runs regularly. It is a 20 year old 20 gallon Campbell Hausfeld, oil less.

[Travis Conner]

I think they just want to air outlet temperature below 300 degrees. Not entirely sure what that means, maybe the pipe coming out of the cylinder head going into the tank. My compressor doesn't cycle for anymore than maybe 2 minutes to get it back up from 125 to 175. Even if you're sitting their with the blow nozzle wide open the whole time.

[Rod Sheridan]

Looked at the Quincy site and they do indeed recommend keeping the ambient temperature under 85 "Warm ambient air is acceptable for an air compressor, but try not to operate past 85 degrees. Once you go over this temperature, it’s likely that your air compressor could overheat and shut down entirely."

I wonder how the folks who live in Mumbai, Thailand, Singapore or any of the other myriad countries where half the worlds population lives, where 85 is considered a cool day, manage.

Motors for use in high ambient temperatures have lower temperature rises....Rod

[Travis Conner]

Who knows, why do manufacturers come up with such dumb things?

[Ben Rivel]

Who knows, why do manufacturers come up with such dumb things?

So they can protect themselves from being sued.

[Mike Heidrick]

Mine recommends installing in an operating environment between 35 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Its an Emax screw compressor though and designed to run 24X7X365. Guarantee its seen hotter than that in its life before me and been just fine.