air compressor breakin required?

[SteveU]

I have already made up my mind to switch to synthetic compressor lube instead of the petroleum that it came with. All the manual states is to change out the breakin oil at 50 hrs or 30 days whichever comes first. Since I will not have over a couple of hours running time by 30 days, would it hurt anything to just change it out when the synthetic gets here & not wait? I looked at IR's directions online, they recommend using synthetic right from startup & their compressor is not much different than mine. How important is breakin to a compressor? If it is real important to have a few hours on first I could run it for a while with the motor in continuous run mode. Did you wait to change to synthetic & if not has it hurt your performance?

 

[04SpecV]

the one I got said to run it for 30min with the tank open to break it in. Didn't say to change the oil early tho. Came with synthetic.

 

[MN Driver]

Mine said the same as 04SpecV, to have as low as possible load to prevent damage to the components during wear in, it said no more than 30 minutes at a time as well as it makes extra heat when new. I've seen nearly the exact thing on my brothers oil-less compressor too. We had a compressor that lasted 30 years and a few years before we got rid of it(leaking oil and the electric motor was blowing a 20 amp breaker when it used to have no problem with a 15 amp breaker) and when we drained it before getting rid of it, the oil had a great deal of visible wear metal with distinct green and reddish colored specs. I don't think it ever got an oil change in its entire life and yet it still worked over such a long period of time. I'd say run it a few hours for 15 minutes at a time allowing time to cool off, and with no pressure building up in the tank in at least the first 30 mins of it running. Then you will be able to drain most of what damaging wear metal that would be made.

 

[1040 WreckerMan]

My last new compressor (about 9 years ago, an IR) it said to run at no load to break it in. I ran it for about 30 minuets with all the plugs out of tank so it couldn’t build any air pressure and then drained and refilled with dino oil. Changed after 25 hours, then 50 and then every 150-200 hours after that. After I used up my dino oil I started using synthetic. I changed it once a year usually now, although I’m running it less so it’s probably still around 200 hours. I’ve been running either Amsoil or Petro-Canada.

 

[SteveU]

I have been running this for 10-15 min every day or so to get some time on it. Manual states "All pumps are shipped with break-in oil. Oil should be changed within the first 50 hours or 30 days, whichever comes first." I figure this is geared more toward an industrial vs hobbiest application. Plan on changing over to the synthetic before cold weather gets here, hopefully will have close to 25-30 hrs run time on it by then. Had the regulator turned down to 10psi & had 3/8" fitting in the end of the air hose using it to make bubbles so my daughter could chase today. Did you notice any difference between the dino & synthetic? Where I'm at, temp will go down way below 45* F that I could run the dino at, pour point on the synthetic means I could run to -25* F, if its that cold I'm staying inside.

 

[Blue Bowtie]

Is this a piston compressor, rotary screw, or different type? Forced lubrication, oil fog, or splash?

 

[SteveU]

Piston, as to type of lubrication I'm not sure. It is an eaton 5hp 2 cyl single stage.