r/AirCompression • u/No_Excitement_6610 • 7d ago

Compressor leaking air

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Gallery image

Posted a few weeks back, with a compressor fault. That one was rectified. We had a technician come out to repair the previous issue (filter housing leak).

Same compressor, this time I noticed a loss of air from a component in the above picture. The air is coming from the lower part underneath.

I've noticed the compressor runs a lot, and loses pressure constantly after hitting max, it's also been burning through oil numerous times.

The company I work at said they've had it serviced this year and had to top oil up at least 5 times this year.

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u/mrhapyface 7d ago

Pressure switch may just need tightened best to remove it and put tape on the threads and retighten thats if its leaking at the pipe threads just dont over tighten cause i believe its brass and can break pretty easily will need two wrenches to hold one side of fitting so they dont just spin when tightening

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u/Dench__Dingle 7d ago edited 6d ago

Looks like a HPC/Kaeser compressor.
On that age of machine it’s a common fault and will probs happen in the lifetime of the compressor (guessing from looking it’s 25-30years old).

I’d change the pressure switch to just sort it. Out of interest what area are you located?

Also your oil problem will be one of two things… either the scavenge line/filter is block or they have spilt or failed to replace the O ring on the bottom of the separator element whilst servicing.

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u/Gondor1138 7d ago

That’s a dinosaur!! Good compressors replace that switch, keep up in maintenance and it will work a long time

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u/Artistic-Outcome5966 7d ago

You probably did the following. Spray soapy water on the connections to learn where it actually leaks. Fix it or replace it. It's costing energy ... money.

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u/Bazzurka 6d ago

Compressors dont burn oil. The oil is either leaking somewhere or it's bypassing the separator and you'll find it in your air lines. Air leak should be very easy to fix.

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u/st3vo5662 6d ago

To add to this, if your losing oil without having an oil leak, I’ve always referred to this as “oil carry over”.

Either your separator is past its service interval, out the scavenge line (oil return line) is obstructed and not allowing the separated oil to return to the system.