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So i bought this compressor off of badgers bargain bin from their website. They reduced the price due to some cosmetic damage. As i was using it for the first time it ran smoothly for about a minute then began to turn itself off and on. It says auto shutoff on the compressor itself so i'm just wondering why it keeps turning off and on, on its own. Anyone else experience this?

It will most likely be designed to do that.

What most compressors will do, is have a small tank to store compressed air inside. When you turn it on, this tank fills up, and as you release the air so it falls below a certain pressure, the motor cuts back in again.

What shouldnt happen is that the air should escape by itself - not unless you havent connected anything up on the output, but in that case, it should never fill, as the air flow would be constantly coming out.

If its all connected up correctly (i.e. you have an airbrush on the end) as long as you dont activate the airflow on the brush, it should fill up to its working pressure (set by your regulator) and then cut out, cutting back in as the pressure drops as the air is used up.

Now if you mean its randomly cutting in and out without any obvious pattern, that could be a sign of a loose wire that is getting shifted around as the motor is causing the unit to vibrate.

Lomar4976 wrote:It will most likely be designed to do that.

What most compressors will do, is have a small tank to store compressed air inside. When you turn it on, this tank fills up, and as you release the air so it falls below a certain pressure, the motor cuts back in again.

What shouldnt happen is that the air should escape by itself - not unless you havent connected anything up on the output, but in that case, it should never fill, as the air flow would be constantly coming out.

If its all connected up correctly (i.e. you have an airbrush on the end) as long as you dont activate the airflow on the brush, it should fill up to its working pressure (set by your regulator) and then cut out, cutting back in as the pressure drops as the air is used up.

Now if you mean its randomly cutting in and out without any obvious pattern, that could be a sign of a loose wire that is getting shifted around as the motor is causing the unit to vibrate.

Ok i think it might just need to fill up with air before using the brush. I don't believe it was turning off when i wasn't using the brush. That makes sense though thanks.

The tank compressors are designed to charge the tank first, them YOU operate your tools off the air in the tank.

That way you get a constant non-stuttering flow.

Let it charge the tank first and try it again. How long it takes depends on the size of the tank (My tank lasts me an hour, but it's a small dive tank and my compressor setup is a frankenstein.