Who has an air compressor with a phase converter.

[LD1]

As the title says, would here is running a 3 phase air compressor with a phase converter.

I acquired a joy twistair ta010. Not sure the cfm but it's pretty good. It will charge it's 80 gallon horizontal tank from 0 paid to 120 paid in about one minute flat.

But ran low on oil and locked up. So I am gonna look into a rebuild as it is a nice compressor.

It has a 10 hp motor.

I am no stranger to phase converters and vfd's.

I have a 10hp rotary that is running a mill and lathe currently. And another 15 hp rotary not used now. And a 5 hp vfd I use for the log splitter.

If I need to use the mill or lathe, it's no problem to just push the button and start the rotary.

However....the compressor I just want to be like my current one. Plugged in ready to do it's own thing whenever it needs to charge. Don't want to have to worry about starting a phase converter Everytime I want a little air, or Everytime it needs to kick on. But also don't want to leave the rotary running 24/7 either.

So those that are running a 3phase compressor off a converter.....what setup are you using?

 

[ultrarunner]

Just rotary here that only runs when I need to have 3-phase which can be days or weeks in between now.

 

[LouNY]

With an electronic VFD type converter you can use the air pressure switch to tell the VFD to run and then have a fast ramp up start which will work like a soft start.

 

[triptester]

I would recommend calling American Rotary or Phase-matic for proper setup.

 

[MickeyDBC]

Probably not going to work. Inrush current when starting is very high on old compressors and you will let the magic smoke out of the caps in the phase converter. I tried running a 10HP Quincy off of a 50HP American Rotary unit and it would barely handle it. Only hope is to put a programmable VFD on the motor that has a soft start option, but I would check with the VFD manufacturer first to make sure that you will not pull down the control voltage side and have it drop out. Might want to start watching out for a 10HP single phase motor on craigslist.

 

[LouNY]

Automation Direct has an GS4-2030 which will handle a 3 phase 10 hp motor with a single phase 220 volt input it will not be nice to your pocket book, start at $1600+

 

[MickeyDBC]

One more thing that I forgot. Phase converters often introduce harmonics into the motor windings, especially heavily loaded ones. This can make windings loosen up and knock the "varnish" off of them causing them to overheat and eventually burn out.

 

[CincyFlyer]

$500 will get you a 10-hp single phase motor ...

 

[TMGT]

As stated it will be easier an cheaper to just change the motor to single phase, just make sure it has adaquate capability to start under load.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Consider an open delta transformer system. Plenty of info on google. I grew up in the HVAC industry in Phoenix AZ. when air conditioning demand grew for residential use; the power companies resorted to configuring house drops this way as only single phase power was in the streets. It had its drawbacks but worked till years later when they upgraded the utility to 3 phase. Due to harmonics I would not operate anything else except the 3 phase load it feeds. You have the motor and this is the most economic answer. If you are being inspected you will probably run into an inspector that does not understand the system as it is not common today.

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