Air Compressor Oil

[Silver]

Hi folks - hope everyone's enjoying as nice a day as I am. Finally some sun in drenched North GA.

Ok so I bought this 8 GAL, 2HP air compressor from Harbor Freight a couple years ago. Filled it with uhh... Ingersol I believe... standard compressor oil as recommended. Ever since I've had it, it has sometimes thrown the relay when starting up until it finally warms a bit (?) then it'll keep running.

I don't even know how often the oil should be changed, but I'm sure after two years of even light use it probably needs changing due to moisture.

Anyway, should I use the standard stuff or could I use something like PP 0w30 that I use in my mower?

The compressor runs good and seems to not throw the relay near as much as it used to - maybe it just needed 'breaking in'. I just want thoughts on the best oil for it, whether it be the standard stuff or something more 'weird'.

 

[jcwit]

Checked this out a few weeks ago with our local factory authorised repair center. They recommended to use a non detergent 30 weight oil or better yet of course and oil sold by the service center.

There explanation was that dedergent and multigrade oils have a tendency to creat carbon deposits on the piston and head. I do not know for sure but they are the ones doing the repairs, and are factory trained, so I would think they would know what they're talking about.

 

[kballowe]

Mine pops the breaker on startup. I finally installed a 30 amp circuit. The 20 amp circuit would not handle the amperage spike at startup. Funny thing is that I have one 15 amp circuit that works just fine. Go figure. Maybe the circuit breaker has a momentary tolerance for higher amperage.

Many folks say that you need a non-detergent oil for compressors and I have read that very thing in a couple of the owner's manuals. I've had a Campbell Hausfeld 2.5 belt drive on a 22 gal tank for 15 years and run Mobil 1 5W-30 in it. So far, so good.

Just didn't know any better.

 

[oliver88]

Mine did that initially. i drained the IR oil and refilled it with Mobil 1 TDT 5w40...starts right up at below 10 degrees F perfectly!

 

[cronk]

I run Mobil 1 10w30 in my 60 gallon Campbell Hausfeld.
The factory manual called for either non detergent sae 30
or the Mobil 1 for heavy duty use.
Its been 3 years and no issues yet..
Amsoil also makes a synthetic compressor oil, should be good stuff.

 

[Craig in Canada]

My CH of approximately the same spec (8gal, "2"HP - although I don't believe you can actually get 2 real HP from 120V@15A but whatever - it's 5.4scfm@40psi and 4.5scfm@90psi). It's manual warns against using motor oil because of the formation of deposits. There are two exceptions, if you cannot find proper compressor oil - Mobil1 5W30 and Chevron full synthetic.

I'm using Amsoil compressor oil now, which is probably serious overkill. I don't get any breaker pops from 15A breakers below freezing - but I never did. I have, however, had it not run if it was operated on a short extension cord which wasn't super heavy duty. (Had to do it when loaning it to a neighbour to spray his fence - it just hummed and made the cord hot until I loaned him a heavier extension cord. I didn't have a longer air line and it wasn't worth buying one)

Keep in mind that compressor oils are viscosity-rated at lower temperatures than engine oils (40C comes to mind). All of the standard "conversion charts" out there are tailored towards dino. Oils with high VI, like Amsoil, throw the charts off horribly causing a lot of confusion or possibly for you to spec the incorrect oil.

The ISO rating should be used to select your compressor oil, not the SAE rating.

 

[mva]

I could not start my 2hp compressor when cold. I tried M1 5W50 but it was still tripping on cold starts. I changed the oil to Amsoil 0W40 and it starts great even at below freezing temperatures. The stock oil was ISO 150 which is close to a xW40 or xW50 at 100C.

I figure that the high load starts are pretty hard on the motor so a larger breaker is not a good solution.

Synthetic compressor oil is an even better solution, if you can find it.

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: mva
I could not start my 2hp compressor when cold. I tried M1 5W50 but it was still tripping on cold starts. I changed the oil to Amsoil 0W40 and it starts great even at below freezing temperatures. The stock oil was ISO 150 which is close to a xW40 or xW50 at 100C.

I figure that the high load starts are pretty hard on the motor so a larger breaker is not a good solution.

Synthetic compressor oil is an even better solution, if you can find it.


Royal Purple makes it,thats what I use.

 

[Superbuick96]

I bought a bottle of Sears compressor oil believe its 20w

 

[Steve S]

You can run a syn auto oil. Mobil 1 will work fine.

 

[Rand]

I replaced the stock oil in my harbor freight cheapie (2hp 8gal)

last summer.. its Ingersol rand brand compressor oil.

I was going to put air im my tires last week.. I checked the sight bubble and it looked like honey in there...

It did start but my garage has 8 gauge wiring run to it.