So, last Saturday night, my compressor (an Air Zenith OB2) quit working. Wait, back up to Saturday morning. I went out to the truck (which was laid out) to get my camera. When I push the button to turn the alarm off, nothing... Battery is dead as a door nail. (?) When I put the battery charger on it, the compressor starts to run (not good). Now, I've heard it kick on overnight before, but this time it killed the battery. Odd. So, later in the day, I go out with my buddies, and notice that the compressor runs for almost 15 minutes straight with no air use. I barely make it home, riding about 1" or 1.5" off of the ground. (I made the mistake of laying it out when we got to the hangout spot.) I took the compressor apart, and found that the intake reed valve had come apart. After getting the parts shipped to me, and reassembling the compressor, I finally added the tank gauge that I purchased months ago and found out that apparently this might all have been caused by a faulty pressure switch. Not knowing how accurate the AZ gauge is, I let it run until 220 psi just to give the switch a chance to kick it off, but nothing. Has anyone else ran into a bad pressure switch? This is my second one, the first was bad from the start, right when I completed the setup. Are there any switches that you recommend?
I dont know much about pressure switches and what brand is better but I know if you get a really really good airpressure gauge then just use a killswitch for the compressor. Thats what Ive always done till I got my red truck that has a press switch on tank. I still have a dead switch for the compressor though to turn off at work and overnight for such occassions as what happened to you.
ya those switches go out all the time, the adjustable ones even more. I ran the little brown 150/200 on off one and they last a year sometimes 2 if daily driven.
This is the main reason i won't run a presseure switch. I just run 2 switches turn them on when I need them an turn them off when I don't. I don't have to worry about then turning on randomly
I actually use pressure switches on every install, and have never had a single issue. I have had several come into the shop that did not work, but they where all wired wrong. The PS should never see much of a load. I always use an 80 amp relay to turn power the compressors, and I use the pressure switch to toggle the relay. I use a toggle switch in the interior to interupt the PS so that it can be turned off, but I also wire the PS to an ON position wire, so it will never run when the vehicle is shut off even if you forget.
Yeah, I've got an override switch mounted in the side of my seat, and the pressure switch pulls a starter solenoid in and out. I went through 3 of the AZ "80" amp relays (which if I have any complaint with AZ it's that their "80" looks like everyone else's 30/40). I finally got frustrated and got a Ford starter relay and haven't had any problems with that since. It does however, pull 2 or 3 amps more of a load to hold it in..... The AZ "80 amp" relay would get hotter than crap and stick in the on position. I tried making sure it wasn't the connections to the relay by removing the cheap relay harness they sent and making my connections directly to the relay with crimp on connectors and then soldering them before I finally cut all of that crap off. AZ actually makes a great looking pressure switch that just won't fit on my truck right now, there isn't enough room between the bed floor and the tank. But, it is similar to the switch you would see on a commercial air compressor.
I've always had bad luck with the starter solenoids. They aren't rated for continuous use. You may want to change it out, I like the Stinger 80 amp relays. The nice thing is they have the same bolt pattern as the starter solenoid, and some wiring hook up, and are like $20-25 depending where you go.
What's strange about that is, the Stinger looks just like the starter solenoid on my riding mower. I haven't researched it yet, but like most other companies, I doubt they touch them. They probably just stick their sticker on relays they buy from some Chinese company like everyone else does, and take their chances on the reliability. Or they've tested all the ones they could and these were the most reliable. I haven't had any problems with my Ford oem part yet, but when I do, I'll try the Stinger. I'm finding that a lot of these little things aren't super reliable.
Ya I have done enough bag jobs now where I have found reliable parts and I just stick with them. When people bring in their own parts, I usually will not use them, and try to explain that there will be an issue down the road. I've never had an issue with the Stinger relays. They are cheap enough not to bother. Funny thing that we where talking about this, someone came in with a Ford solenoid that wasn't working today, and I sent him away with a Stinger relay.
