Last Easter I bought a twin cylinder air compressor off Ebay,
The price was great, around $70 with free shipping.
I soon found out that you get what you pay for.
Upon unpacking the box I found one of the plastic air filters broken.
No biggie these things happen and I thought I'd try it out anyway.
Connected the cables to the battery, flicked the switch and....
Nothing! It was dead.
A pleasant email was sent to the Australian seller and they asked for a picture of the problem.
I considered taking a photo of myself standing next to a flat tyre and looking sad as I didn't know how else to show it not working.
Instead I took a photo of the broken filter and explained the problem again.
No response.
Several more emails proved that they had no interest in replacing the compressor.
So I opened it up and took a look inside.
What I found was that the earth wire wasn't connected at all,
and the quality of the soldering of all connections was extremely poor.
After re soldering the earth it worked great. Inflated my 29 inch tyres from 10 to 25 psi in about 40 seconds.
Then the third time I used, it the power switch broke.
Here's what I did to fix it. It's a good reliable compressor now.
The offending compressor.
To open it up. Use an allen key and a small spanner
to remove the the two screws holding the triangular metal plate in place.
It's painful because it's threaded all the way through.
Push the plate up out of the way.
This is what it looked like the first time I opened it.
Disconnected earth.
Take the plastic cap off the green wire and solder the black wire to it.
Make sure you screw the cap back on after soldering as there's no insulation on the +12v at the switch.
I recommend replacing the switch to avoid an almost certain failure later on.
Jaycar part number SK0984 is a direct replacement.
However, it is only rated for 6 amps and as the compressor draws about 36 amps a larger switch would be a better choice.
You just need to increase the size of the slot in the plastic housing to do this.
A hand held nibbling tool would be ideal.
To remove the switch, slide a small flat bladed screwdriver down the vertical sides, and pull the switch towards you..
It's held in place by a couple of plastic tabs.
Mine disintegrated instantly. Check out the soldering!
Pull the wires out and solder them to the new switch.
Ziggy thought it was pretty interesting.
Install the switch by pushing it into the slot until you hear a click.
Reassemble the metal plate, and tighten the screws.
You now have a great (?) air compressor that should be reliable.
Most of these cheap compressors appear to the the same.
I'm guessing they all come from the same Chinese factory.
I hope this helps others who tried to save a buck and were left feeling ripped off.
