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Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Oct 15, 2010

Compessor Question

WDE · Guest

I had a similar issue and it was a clogged inline filter. I also had to change a bad safety relief valve. When operating pressure is reached in tank, pumping to tanks stops but motor keeps running. Not sure if you have a regulator and/or unloader pressure switch but I would check those for settings and defective.

Guest

Just throwing a couple things at you. If the air is trickling down while you're spraying,...seems like the compressor may be losing air somewhere else,..like the drain valve in the bottom of the tank,..or maybe one of the other fittings.

Not sure why it would just be randomly shutting down,...does it have low oil shut down.

Simple enough to change the spark plug.

My IR compressor shut down a few times this this Summer. To make a long story short,..it seemed to be the gas cap not venting,...I took the the fuel line off thinking it was plugged,...when I took it off,...no gas at all came out,....so I thought I'd check the filter inside the tank for debris,....as soon as I turned the gas cap loose,...the gas began flowing.

Jeff

Ugly Shingles LLC · Oct 16, 2010

I also had the same problem with the gas cap biggrin

tighten it down and the motor shuts down, loosen it and it runs fine.

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Oct 16, 2010

Gas cap was the first thing I checked. After the main tank reaches capacity it triggers the unloader (?) to throttle down the gas. This is when it starts to choke. You cannot manually increase the throttle cuz it's hooked to the throttle cable leading to the unloader. The unloader itself has a release lever and that's where air is coming out. But it seems like it's supposed to come out to maintain 150 psi in the main tank. It ran so beautifully for the first month.

Oct 16, 2010

Roof Cleaning New Jersey wrote:

I am not fully knowledgable in this area except for the basics. I have a new Northern comp 5.5. First month evrything was sweet with the new Flojet. When the tank gauge reaches 150 the unloader (?) idles down the motor. Is this unloader peice supposed to be constantly displacing some air? Sometimes it seems to be losing alot of air. Once in a while I'll be on the roof and the pressure will widdle down to a trickle. If I shut the ball valve and let it build up pressure it will come out fine. I'm not sure if I have a pump or compressor issue but the compressor seems to have a hard time hold air or something. It even stalled out like 3 times this week forcing me off the roof to address. Frustrated here.

1) It should not be the motor idling down. When the pressure reaches its max set PSI the compressor will idle off... Yes the unloader piece is supposed to release a small amount of air....

2) If you are losing pressure to a trickle then do as Jeff suggested and check to see if all your connections are tight. It does sound like your losing pressure though one of these fittings or the drain caps under the tanks. Also remember to drain the water out of the air tanks from time to time by loosening the caps on the bottom while the pressure is built up.

3) Jeff is also right about the gas cap. I've been having the same issue but with one of my newer Power Washing machines. I don't care for the newer gas caps. They don't seem to vent correctly.

RCIA Founder

Raystown Roof Cleaning Central PA 1-800-236-0322 wrote:

Just throwing a couple things at you. If the air is trickling down while you're spraying,...seems like the compressor may be losing air somewhere else,..like the drain valve in the bottom of the tank,..or maybe one of the other fittings.

Not sure why it would just be randomly shutting down,...does it have low oil shut down.

Simple enough to change the spark plug.

My IR compressor shut down a few times this this Summer. To make a long story short,..it seemed to be the gas cap not venting,...I took the the fuel line off thinking it was plugged,...when I took it off,...no gas at all came out,....so I thought I'd check the filter inside the tank for debris,....as soon as I turned the gas cap loose,...the gas began flowing.

Jeff

Amen brother Jeff! Gas caps can Funk Up your day!

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Oct 16, 2010

Ok guys today It took like a long 5 minutes to get too 100 psi and it didn't want to go more than that. I shut the machine to listen for leaks and found none. I spent the next hour treating the roof 12v style. Came back and the comp gauge held at the psi it was shut off at. Now I'm thinking something with the comp pump. It's all wet with pump oil on the tank near the unloader.

Guest

Considering this is a newer compressor, it shouldn't have a plugged air cleaner on the intake of the pump itself,....but my compressor was taking a along time to build pressure and was even having a lot of oil blow-by into the water trap/ filter in the air discharge line.
I replaced the intake filter and it pumped up very fast,..and the oil blow-by stopped as well. Easy enough to spin off and see if it makes a difference,..won't hurt to run it a few minutes without the intake filter.

Jeff

-- Edited by Raystown Roof Cleaning Central PA 1-800-236-0322 on Saturday 16th of October 2010 02:48:31 PM

Guest

ed where did you purchase the compressor from?

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Oct 16, 2010

Northern. Its Northstar product.

Guest

have you called northern tool too se if they can help with the problem or even maybe get you a new one for exchange?

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Oct 16, 2010

Northern transferred me to Northstar who was conveniently closed today. Northstar has bad customer service. I had a hot water trailer from Northstar. The insulation jacket fell to the burner causing it to smoke badly. When I called Northstar to trouble shoot it their service tech was a 70 year old woman who yelled at me. I'm scorn for life. Lawsuit pending.

Guest

ouch!!!

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"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"