Monday, May 9, 2011

Quincy 230 Compressor on a Water Well

Quincy 230 Compressor, late 60's/early 70's model, operating a water well with a 3HP Baldor L1408T motor. 




This is a short video of our old Quincy 230-32 Compressor, Serial Number 722418 . The tag on the unit also says it is a size 3 1/2 x 3.

The old compressor has been operating with a new 3 HP Baldor motor (that was the size and model on it originally) to pull water from a 600 foot water well. The motor starts the compressor up fine, but when the float valve shuts the unit down, it is 10-12 hours before the motor can successfully start the compressor again. The motor would either do nothing when I attempted to get the compressor going, or it would try and the compressor would stop and start, the belts moving then pausing. Also, when the compressor was idle in these periods, you could attempt to turn the belts by hand and they would stop with very little play in the pulley, like there was pressure preventing movement?

This burned up the new 3 HP Baldor replacement motor within about 2 weeks.

There is not an unloader on the top of this unit. Various photos I have found online indicate there ought to be. Could this be part of the problem? Or is an 'unloader' only required when this compressor is used as an AIR compressor?

Oil has been checked, it is fine, that's about all I can clearly see how to do on the compressor.