My Shamel 3hp single phase compressor stopped working.

by Conor
(Donegal, Ireland.)

I have a 3hp single phase compressor.

I was doing some spraying and half way through the job it stoped working. I removed the cage that keeps little fingers away from the roters to see if it may have seized even though the glass bowl was showing plenty of oil and has only done about 10 hours work if that and it spun freely.

I then proceeded to remove the black casing where the circut breaker reset button is and found that there was a tube shape componant about 2 inches in diamater and about 4 inches long with 4 spade comections 3 of which had wires connected to it. The top of the componant seemed to have sepperated from the rest of the tube. It was pretty hot and I can only assume that it has over heated and this caused it to split.

Can anybody tell me what this part is called and is it an expensive part?


It is a Shamel 3hp single phase (230 volt) compressor with a 200 liter tank if thats any help.
Cheers in advance.
Conor.

_______________________
Bill says...

Conor, I'm sorry, I don't know the part you are looking for. If you have access to a digital camera, re-posting and uploading a photo would sure help folks.

How did it stop? Did it reach cut out pressure and stop? If not, what was the pressure in the tank when it stopped? When it stopped, did the pressure switch trip?

Any more information about the how it stopped would help trying to diagnose your compressor problem.

Cheers,

Bill




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My Shamel 3hp single phase compressor stopped working.

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Jun 24, 2010
 What now???
by: Conor

I managed to find out that the part I needed was a capacitor. I managed to locate 1 and fitted it. Started up the compressor and after 10 seconds or so it blew up.

Any ideas why this happened and how do I solve this problem.

Cheers in advance,
Conor.

________________
Conor, what blew up? And I'm so sorry it did.

The capacitor is like a battery, but unlike a battery it discharges very quickly, and in so doing, provides the boost of inrush current to the motor to help it start. If the capacitor was going or gone, then there may not be enough amperage in your circuit to meet the current inrush needs of the motor. If that were the case, the motor wouldn't start, and often you might blow a breaker or fuse.

Cheers,

Bill
Jun 24, 2010
 I think I found out what it is.
by: Conor

I was talking to a friend of mine who seems to know a small bit about these things,so he tells me, and he thinks that the part I'm looking for is a capacitor, at least thats how he spells it.

This is what happened. The compressor was working fine. Because I was spraying it was constantly running for about 2 hours. After filling my gun (again!!) I noticed that it sounded like the motor was coming under pressure so I immediataly turned the compressor off. I let it cool for a while and when I went to start up again it was like it was struggling to start up. So switch off again. I then proceeded as in my previous post.

P.S: Thanks for such a rapid reply to my post.

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