Air Compressor ??

I have a SMALL Sears built in 1979, I've tried but cannot kill it, believe it or not. 1 HP, single stage. Don't know who built it.

Was given a 1952 Ingersol Rand "B". Two cyl, single stage, 3/4 HP motor. Can't get parts.

Just bought a QR-25 Series Quincy, model 310, 3 HP 2 stage, built in 1962. Parts readily available. Been talking to reps at the Quincy factory, very friendly, good advice. Local Quincy dealership, REALLY good folks.

If I didn't get this compressor, would have bought the SpeedAire 60 gal, 2 stage, 5 hp 60% duty rated model for about $900. If I was in the market for a single stage, I would buy their 100% duty rated models (135 psi) for about $700.

My dad has a Black Max (supposedly 5 hp), it's a small horizontal tank (30gal?), single stage. Bought it from Price Club or something. He's pretty happy with it. Uses it ALOT, but light duty. It's awfully noisy.

Uh, don't know if this helps!? LOTS of these things are bought by people who RARELY use them. If you can find a decent used one, you know, really dusty but not rusty, that might be a good way to go. That's what I did with that little Sears unit, $150. Now that I have a bigger one, I'll still use the small one so I don't have to run a big motor to air up the pool toys or car tires.

Mike

One piece, splash lube crank. Have to pull the roller bearings off the end of the crank to pull the rods, which are one piece aluminum with bronze inserts in the big end. Single throw crank with all rods on one journal. Running them low on oil usually means a trashed crankshaft, since there is no provision for undersize parts, and rods will often weld themselves to the crank if run dry. Sliding the rods on over the end of the crank before passing them through the front of the crankcase is not a big deal with a 2 hp unit with two rods, but the big 15 hp, 4 cylinder pumps were truly a Chinese finger puzzle. Heads contain concentric, steel ring valve plates, and iron valve bodies, like an IR type 30, exhaust inside intake. Swans were shipped with unloaders already installed in the heads, don't know about Pumas. This feature was very seldom used, but nice to have, just in case.

Stock filters on Swans were quite inadequate, and we usually replaced them with an aftermarket setup that we could get paper elements for. They had a ball bearing check-valve for crankcase ventilation in behind the flywheel which could be kind of messy sometimes. Swans were always a bit leaky for some reason. Flywheel was held on by a taper and Woodruff key. I used to struggle to pull them off, till I was shown a trick, just take out the retaining nut and washer, and give the end of the cranksaft a good hard smack with a large hammer and brass drift, the wheel pops right off.

Overall, I would have to say that the quality of the pump was pretty good. Thick iron cylinders, iron heads and crankcase, cast crank. Heavy iron valves, steel valve plates. We had trouble with them because we used to run them to too high of a pressure, and had 3hp units running as 5hp units (shop's policy, not mine). One thing to consider before you buy is the cost of parts. We eventually dropped the line because of the outrageous cost of OEM parts. Even if the rest of the compressor was fine, two rods and a crank made the rebuild uneconomical. Maybe feel out the price of parts before you buy one. Otherwise, some decent maintenance should see them lasting for years and years. There are hundreds of them chugging away all around this area.

We eventually replace the line with the Fu Sheng series of compressors, also from Taiwan, which were a lot cheaper to get parts for, i.e. $2.99 for a set of bearing inserts. They were of a similar quality to the Swans, but much more reasonably priced. Perhaps the Swan dealer was the source of our grief, who knows? Check out www.luxair.com. The PE200 PE300 and TE200 look like Fu Sheng units, the ones with the rounder crankcases look like Swans.

Check out>Link

and>Link see if you agree.

BTW, Fu Sheng pumps are what Curtis sell as their CA series of compressors. The CR series are their own design, and man are they BUILT!

Also check:
Link

This is probably a lot more than you needed to know...

I guess if you want to buy an American-built unit, you didn't even read this far anyway, heh heh.

Anyone know of a good place to get parts for an older Fu Sheng compressor pump? I have one from the mid eighties and it needs some seals, etc.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John Phillips
johncphillips@mindspring.com

I installed a T-30 a $5500 unit. The thing came in with no oil in the c-c, defective pressure relief valves, leaking piping connections and darn near shook itself apart when it ran.

I went round and round with the dealer over this thing till I gave him the option to come get it or he could pick it out of the strip pit across the street.

I call the 800 number for I-R 10 times, sent them two written letters and 6 emails with not one single reply.

The I-R was removed and replaced with a Quincy which came delivered to the door complete, tested and ready to run. No probelms or hassels with this one and $1100 cheaper to boot!

Personally, I will NEVER even consider another I-R product of any kind at all no matter what.

The new ones are not anything like the old ones and I-R is following the path of Cat. You buy our stuff, you pay our prices.

Parts for many of the older machines are no longer available and if you are luck enough to get parts, they come at a very high price. I had a deal early last year where I tried to get valves for a 1972 model year. They did have them but the price for the 6 valves was around $1050.00 three times what the compressor was worth. Subsequently, this unit was replaced with a Champion of the same size purchased for $1400.00

The biggest thing that turned me off completely with I-R is there lack or factory quality control and failure to respond to problems with their equipment.

Reports I have gotten back from other people who deal with compressors on a regular basis also verify that the newer I-R's are crap and should be avoided completely.

I don't mind bragging on products that are good and worth the investmet and I also will not hold back on telling people about products and companies that are not worth squat. I-R falls into the "not worth squat" catagory in my book.

Brands I will endorse:
Light duty only - Campbell Hausfeld, Emglo, Black Max, Puma & Coleman

Heavy Duty - Quincy, Champion, Saylor-Beal & SpeedAir.

My suggestion for anyone looking to buy a new compressor (except for those only airing a tire 3 times a year) for running air tools and such but not on a heavy duty basis, look at the major heavy duty brands first. These companies build thier smaller machines to the same quality standards as their extreme duty machines. From what I have seen, most of the prices are very reasonable too.

When you compare buying a machine that sells for $550 (average price for a decent sized light duty) and buying a high quality medium duty machine for $750 that extra $200 spent on the better machine will save you the $550 you wasted on a light duty one.

Light duty is just that, light duty. Low use times, slow recovery, and a very limited life span. Generally a light duty being used part time and weekends could be expected to last around 1 to 5 years before starting it's fatal degredation phase of it's life.

A medium duty machine built by a reputable company running in the same manner as the light duty will last around 10 to 20 years before starting to degrade. (assuming normal maintenance is done properly on all machines) The real benefit lies with performance. The medium duty machines will take a lot more abuse than will a light duty. Say you have a bigger job you take on like sanding a whole car. Air sanders eat up a lot of air and the compressor is going to run much harder than with things like and ratchets or impacts. These long running times create heat breakdown in the smaller light duty compressors. This is why a light duty built with an aluminum head and cast iron cylinder liners is much better than a full aluminum head or a full cast iron head. The AL allows the heat to disapate faster than a full iron head. The full AL heads die rather quickly and should be avoided for any uses.

Depending on the design, meduim duty's will have either a full cast iron or a cast iron lined AL head. Either is fine and is dependent upon the ratings of the machine including as to if it is pressure lubed or spash lubed. Everything comes together in the design and rating phase to ensure the unit is constructed for the maximum use value.

I have an engine drive Champion that is an iron lined AL head. This unit puts out 17 cfm @ 175 psi and sometimes runs for 12 to 15 hours at a time at 80% loading. 6 years since I purchased this unit and not hint of degredation however, it does get serviced at the recommended intervals.

In my view, it is better to spend a little more at the start than to spend a lot later. In my experience, the main killers of air compressors of any kind is lack of proper service. You change the oil and filters in your car every 3000 miles so why should you not expect to change the oil and filters in your compressor every 75 hours? Blowing out the air filter elements is not good practice. REPLACE them. This is when you must ask yourself what is better, buying good oil for $3 per qt and a new air filter for $6 or throwing away a dead compressor for $600 or more?

Word of caution: the knuckleheads at Northern have the item shipped directly from the factory. The trucking company never called be before they arrived in town because they weren't told to by the shipper. I had to scramble to make arrangements on how to get the item off the truck in 20 minutes. I was really peeved!!!!!

Overall, I'm very pleased with the unit.