http://airbrushdoc.com/tipstricks/as189-compressor- faulty/ May 27, 2013

AS189 – Is My Compressor Faulty?

Sergej Voronko

Some of you guys may remember that a fairly long t ime ago I published an air compressorreview and at that t ime I could not predict that it would be probably the only compressorreview on my website (at least for now).

I believe that it has helped a lot of people to make the choice. I feel a bit ashamed that I couldnot provide more reviews because there is many thing going on in my life right now. As youknow I have not writ ten anything for almost two months.

But recent ly I got an email into my in-box and af ter replying a few t imes I have realized that Ihaven’t made myself clear when I wrote that compressor review down.

I’m not going to post the whole conversat ion here but I’ll t ry to explain the whole situat ion f romboth sides in shorter form.

Question:

I’ve recently bought the as189 compressor. I would like to ask, when theregulator is set to max i.e. 6 bar and when the airbrush is depressed for a prolongtime, should the pressure drop on the regulator manometer? Because when Idepress the airbrush the pressure drops down all the way to about 2 bar. Due tothe limited time for exchange I’d really appreciate your insight. If my compressorfaulty?

My airbrush is using the 0.3mm nozzle right now, here is more info :

Model EAD-K431Feed Type Gravity & SuctionNozzle Size 0.20 & 0.30 & 0.5 MMNeedle Size 0.20 & 0.30 & 0.5 MMCup Capacity 7 & 22 CCWorking Pressure 15-50 PSIAir Hose 1.8 M (G1/8 Female connections)Adaptor G1/4 Female to G1/8 Male

And the compressor is the AS189, off course :

Air flow 20-23 L/minAuto start pressure 43 PSI (3 BAR)Auto stop pressure 57 PSI (4BAR)Max Pressure 57 PSI (4BAR)Air Tank Size 3.0 LPower 1/6 HP

The trigger on the airbrush is depressed and held depressed, air expels throughthe airbrush. The pressure on the manometer drops all the way to 2 bar andmaintains there. Is it normal?

You said about setting the working pressure, how to set it with the compressorand airbrush that I have.

When you do the AS189 compressor review, in the first video why is it yourpressure is only at about 2 bar and not up to full 6 bar?

So at f irst I didn’t got that the pressure drop wasn’t sudden but took a lit t le while, so Irecommended this:

Check for air leaks. It may be, for example, O-rings in your airbrush can’t handle 6 bar pressureand it ’s leaking somewhere inside.

Or it might be a loose connection on the hose.

But if you f ind any air leaks around manometer or regulator then it is compressor fault and youmay want to return it . The leak could be well hidden that you can’t even hear anything then ittakes even half a day to loose that pressure.

For example I started to not ice that even if I f inish working with my compressor and the tank isfull, next day it ’s empty. It doesn’t bother me that much because it holds the pressure when Ineed it and looses it only in a long t ime period which is f ine with me.

Also if you push the trigger on your airbrush it shouldn’t drop that much unless you have somebig spraying gun with big nozzle size.

When you sett ing up the working pressure, you should have full tank with max pressure of 6bar and then when you open the air channel of your airbrush the pressure will drop in a secondsbut let ’s say to something like 5 bars (not 2), then when the airbrush is st ill depressed you useyour regulator to set your working pressure to something like 2 bar. The point is to f indoptimal pressure for your work and minimal changes on the manometer.

All the t ime when compressor is on it is pumping the air into tank up to 6 bar and then it will shutof f but as soon as you start spraying it will drop to preset pressure of 2 bars.

He ensured me that there are no leaks when fully connected, with the valve on top of theregulator turned to ‘+’ fully. Compressor turned on and pressure builds up and the manometershows 6 bar.

The I got the video of act ions he took so that I would have better look on the situat ion.

To control regulator you have to pull the valve up, only then it will have ef fect (just see video).

At the start, the compressor was already running for at least 2 minutes. Theregulator is at the “off” position which is the ‘-‘ side.

As you can see at 0:32min I turned the regulator to the ‘+‘ all the way to full andthe manometer shows the pressure going up to 6 bar.

At 01:20min I depress the airbrush trigger. As you can see the pressure drops to 2bar and remains there.

At 03.37min I release the trigger and the pressure slowly builds up. When depressagain it drops to 2bar and stays there.

After watching the video my answer was:

Your compressor is perfect ly f ine ;)

I had 2 bar (not 6) because I have already set the working pressure up to 2 bar for theairbrush. You also don’t need to have it at 6 bar. You set it to 5 or 6 bar when you use biggernozzle in airbrush. For paint ing art and detailed work just regulate it to 2 bar and you gonna bef ine.

Do it while depressing airbrush in short periods.

When you set it up it means that it will release less air while you airbrush and it will last longerbecause the pressure in tank will st ill be 6 bar no matter what you set on regulator.

On your video everything looks f ine, compressor is OK, so don’t worry.

I misunderstood you that the pressure drop is sudden, like in couple of seconds.

That ’s all about explaining the funct ion but here one more t ip.

Because the tank is small, it gets empty very soon, it means the compressor has to workmore, so f rom t ime to t ime give it a break to cool down.

Also when you overheat it you are not just risking to burn it out but the heat creates watercondensate inside the tank so don’t get scared when it spits water. Just use someaddit ional moisture t rap.

Guys, if you have anything to add just leave a comment, I and all my readers will be thankful.

Cheers

How to Make Layered Stencil in CorelDRAW?I have posted art icle called "How to Make a Stencil in ...Street Art Airbrush from Per Corell Not that long ago I received a message from Danish Street Ar...Monster Energy Car from ZambiaToday's post is f rom my friend Joseph from Zambia. He has se...Airbrush a Tiger on The Car Hood Without Any Stencil