Thoughts???

[Goose]

I have a 60 gallon upright air compressor in a storage building. I bought it on a consignment auction maybe 10 years ago.

It doesn't get used a lot, just whenever I need to air up a tire or blow some dust off of something. It always worked OK until recently. Now when pumping up, when the pressure gets to about 80 pounds it trips the circuit breaker.

Would this be the motor or the pump? Opinions?

 

[wh]

Will it restart when you reset breaker and finish pumping? Is motor hot to touch when it trips breaker? Is it possible the tank one way valve is failing and allowing tank pressure to get to pump and overload it?

 

[used red MN]

Will it restart when you reset breaker and finish pumping? Is motor hot to touch when it trips breaker? Is it possible the tank one way valve is failing and allowing tank pressure to get to pump and overload it?

The tank one way valve is for the purpose of unloading the compressor discharge when the compressor shuts off. The one way/check valve holds the compressed air in the tank and a bleed off valve triggered by the electric pressure switch or mechanically triggered by a centrifugal weight system releases pressure against the discharge of the compressor. Correctly working discharge reed valves for the individual cylinders would hold any compressed air from re-entering the compressor as you are suggesting. Normally failure of a cylinder reed valve causes that cylinder to not pump.
My question to Goose would be what was or is the normal cut out pressure that it turned off at? Meaning that at 80 psi it has probably not shut off and tried to restart? Have you checked the compressor oil level?

 

[SPMN]

Is it a single or two stage compressor? How long does take to build up to 80 lbs?