I have a pretty good Sears compressor that I'm not using much right now
(once every week or two) -- until I can afford some air tools.

Anyway the manual leads me to believe that when I'm done with it I should just leave it pressurized.
I've been bleeding it down -- since I use it so seldom.
(I just pop on an air gun and squirt it down. )

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

ford2go

 

I posted a similar question a few weeks ago. The general concencus was to drain it of moisture but to leave it pressurised

 

You need to drain the water out every time you use it, most people drain it down to nothing. Just open the drain on the bottom until water and air starts coming out, and walk away. Be sure to close it before you fire it back off again-

 

you can also buy a water air seperator for it, most of them are not too pricey

 

I always leave mine pressurized, simply because the time and energy wasted to recharge the tank is simply wasted.

 

Bleeding it down to nothing is simply wasting the energy you expended to pump it up.

 

I put a ball valve on mine to simplify blowing out the water at the bottom of the tank and shutting. I leave it pressurized. I find that when I need air, I need air and hate to wait for a 80 gal tank to fill.

 

if you blow down the tank too fast(as is easy to do with a ball valve) the air forces the water out of the way and you still leave water in the tank.

 

I don't open it all the way or rapidly. Those pet ***** are a pita to turn.

 

If you have high humidity you should bleed off the water daily. Where I am the humidity is so low that once a week is ok. But water laying in the tank does eventually rust the tank.

When I lived down by the coast I had a slow leak at the bleed valve. Drained the tank and went to replace the valve and the threads in the tank were rusted away.

 

I have seen compressors rust through, never to the point of actually blowing up, but I did have one blow out on me. It was a DeWalt engine driven compressor, at a rental shop, and it happened during routine maintenance. Everything at this place was in such poor shape and so neglected, I went through every single piece of equipment over the course of a week, did all the maintenance, inspected, and ran. I had just fired it up, and it was at about 75psi, when an almost round chunk about 1" in diameter blew out of the bottom of one of the tanks. Upon a closer look, the tank was less than 1/16" thick in that area, due to rust. I'm just glad it happened at the shop, under semi-controlled conditions, and not to a customer.

 

I don't want to scare anybody but this might be a good time to warn you all of the dangers of compressed air tanks. I have seen the remains of a 240 gallon verticle air receiver rated @ 200 PSI working pressure that was installed improperly and exploded @ probably 350PSI. Both heads blew off and the cylinder ripped open along the weld seam. The cylinder, now a flat 6' X 8' piece of 3/8" sheet metal flew through the air for at least 1/4 of a mile crashing through a roof of a neighboring manufacturing plant. Fortunately it was after hours so no one was hurt.

The compressor and motor were mounted on a base on the floor next to the receiver and piped into the receiver. When the receiver took off, the connecting pipe pulled the compressor, motor and base ( Probably 1500 pounds of pig iron ) and threw it over a two story building, clearing it completely. It landed in the empty parking lot in front of the building.

There is an immense amount of energy stored in an air receiver. While receivers have a built in margin of saftey in commercial applications, just what the "corrosion allownce" is in these new box store receivers is unknown. I have never seen it published.

Regards

Steve