My compressor hits the target air pressure but doesn't shut off.

by Spencer
(South Riding, Virginia)

Hi, I have a new (used about 10 times to fill tires and take a few wheels off) Craftsman 17 gallon, 1.1 horsepower, 150 max psi compressor that is doing something weird. I have it set to operate at 90psi and when it dips below that, it kicks on. It gets up to 145 fairly fast like other craftsman compressors I have owned. That's normal. Now the weird thing...once it goes up to about 145ish, it just keeps running and running and running. The needle barely gets to 150. After about 4 minutes of struggling it finally shuts off. I don't hear or notice any leaks but when it is just running like crazy and seemingly not doing too much compressing, I can feel a bunch of air coming out of the plastic cover on top of the machine.

It has a dedicated outlet that nothing else uses and all tools work fine with the compressor. Is there a secret pressure setting switch or something that I need to know about?

I hope I covered everything and hope that someone can point me in the right direction. It's so annoyingly loud that I would consider selling it but have never had a problem like this with any other one I've owned.

Thanks for any help with this,
Spencer

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Bill says...

Hi Spencer:

What is the normal cut out pressure? If it's 150 PSI, and your compressor is struggling to get to that level, then you need to read about why your air compressor won't build pressure:

http://www.about-air-compressors.com/compressor-will-not-build-pressure.html

Or, it might be your reed valves (intake) that are messing up.

Cheers,

Bill