I tried to decide if this should be in O/T or Tech as it’s the Air Compressor in my garage that I and many people use to fix their Fiero's at my house. So it is technically Fiero repair related.
So here goes.
P]
The back story, my main compressor quit about a month ago, and I borrowed one to keep me running for the time being. Our neighbour who is a steel worker and drag motorcycle guy is moving and offered me a small compressor he only put about 20hrs of use on at a job site.
Well I brought it home, hooked it up, and fired it up, and it caught fire!!!! I don't know how long it had been sitting, he honestly doesn't remember. It’s been sitting in the back of his garage/shop for years.
Initially I was going to run 2 compressor side by side set at different "fire up" pressures. Running the main with a 90psi fire up pressure and the 2nd one would only fire is the system pressure drops below 80psi. Found out quickly that the garage breaker would kick out if both were running at the same time for more than 2mins.
So I went only to the new compressor. Everything was looking good; it was up to about 120psi with a 145psi shut down pressure. I was running the air line out to the driveway as I was going to test it inflating a few tires. As I walk back to the garage I am kinda looking down at the pressure gauge and I hear a POP, there is a 4" tall flame coming out of what looks like a giant capacitor on the side of the motor, I quickly rip the power cord out of the wall and pull the compressor away from the garage wall, the fire goes out on its own.
After a few mines to relax from what could have been a really bad situation, because I leave my garage compressors powered up at all time, if this would have happened while I was say eating dinner inside the house, it could have been really, really, really bad.
I called up Dr.Fiero aka Watts, and spoke to him; he said it sounds like the cap failed.
My old compressor has something that looks similar, only with the addition of a reset button. I was thinking about taking it from my old compressor and moving it to the new one. However without hearing from some people that are more familiar with 110v motors. I know enough to know, that I should ask before I proceed. So from the pics below can anyone offer any input.
P.S. The compressor feeds a much larger 20 gallon reservoir tank, with a manifold to feed the air lines/tools.
Does anyone recognize the brand "Friend" or know where it would have been bought new? Dan honestly does not remember, it was only bought as they needed a small portable compressor for a job site, it was bought last min for $200, got about 20hrs of use on the site then tossed in the corner.
Compressor
Hood removed, showing big white cap/tube thing
The flame was from the end of the tube, I think the pop I heard was the end of it popping off
Tried to show the guts
Kinda Ironic to find a Special BC decal saying it’s inspected to be Fire Safe.
This is the similar unit on my other machine, was thinking of moving it over if it would be safe to do.
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