HF Air Compressor

The oil sight window has no meaning to me. It's a round plastic deal with no gauge but a red dot in the middle. I put in the recommended 25 oz of oil. It fills to just below the dot. The instructions say to check the level by viewing the oil level window.

Why won't people tell the truth?

The instructions were very clear that fooling with the pressure switch voided the warranty.

It would have been nice if the instruction manual would have explained the site window. To me just below the red dot was weird. I only knew that because I carefully added the 25 oz of SAE 30 non-detergent oil.

It would interest me what other compressor motors look like when the shroud is removed. Do any other manufactures ship with out a metal case on the motor.

For $10 less HF has a similar model with the 85/115 pressure switch. I can pick it up locally at the HF store.

One of they great things about being unemployed is I have time to fool with this. I have time to publish it on the web.

I'm kind of a rookie farmer. The story I hear is that I'm a price taker. The only hope I have is to cut my costs. So I try for cheap.

The other sad thing about being a rookie farmer is that one needs a whole lotta expensive tools in a big hurry.

The compressor had some nice features: thermally protected motor, oil bath compressor, twin caps and only 62 lbs. The claimed cfm at 90 psi should have been enough to run a quality 1/2" impact wrench.

People on this and other boards think HF stuff works as long as you don't need great quality or dependability. I have a bunch of HF stuff. Some I've had to rework. Some has been terrific. Some hasn't worked out.

This old timer I used to work with always claimed - "Columbus took a chance"

There was no name plate on the motor. So I could not determine the service factor or what the motor frame was in case I burned it up and wanted to replace it.

There was no metal case to the motor either. One could easily see the stator. I suppose that helps keep the weight down. But provides very little protection if it fell over in the truck.

Overall the workmanship looked good to me.

Handling charge was an issue when I returned the impact wrench they advertised as UL listed. What they shipped was a different part number and bore no UL label.

If you want to find out about the real HP rating on electric motors, go to an electric motor rebuild shop. There's a big difference between the input electrical conversion (2 HP =1492Watts) and 2 HP at the output shaft. If the cut-off switch was supposed to be for 120PSI and the one on the compressor is 115, maybe they can send the right one. If the whole rig is incorrect, they should refund the total.