compressor in cold weather?

[Tony Miklos]

I spoke too late.

How do they do it? They are rating todays amps at peak power, not RMS. Sure a newer amp can put out 5k watts... for a hundredth of a second.

[nospambob]

I bought non-detergent oil at HD as instructions say DO NOT use detergent.

[Pop]

And how about rating vacuum cleaner power in AMPS?

| >

| >>My new Coleman "6 HP" compressor is louder and barely produces half the | >>air that the old Quincy did, and the Quincy only had a 1.5 HP motor. | >

| >

| >

| | Nice article. Now when will someone get on the case of the true output | of audio devices? Most 25 watt amplifiers from the 50's will blow away | a 50 watt or higher rated amplifier made today. They used to measure in | RMS (root mean square), now they normally rate the peak wattage. It's | been a joke for many decades. | | What this has to do with a cold compressor I don't know. ;-) | | -- | Tony

[m Ransley]

Synthetics flow better when cold and are better. Commercial compressors use synthetic, contact a few companys to see what they recomend.

[Tony Miklos]

I just happened to notice a compressor at Wal Mart. It is labeled 5 AMP (and in small print is says "peak horsepower". Then it is also rated for what I think was "continuous duty" at about 1.7 horsepower.

[zxcvbob]

Five amps at 120V is less than 1 horsepower even with a very efficient motor. An honest 5 HP motor draws something like 28 amps at 240V, so a

1HP motor should draw about 5 amps at 240V, or 10A at 120V.

Bob

[Lawrence Wasserman]

If it's small enough and you have the space you could put it in a heated area during cold weather. If that's not practical, check the owners manual for cold weather oil recommendations. IME most compressors call for straight 30 weight oil, often non-detergent.