I do not recommend this product - IR 5HP TS4N5 Compressor

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Maybe motor starter switch. When it fell back to the starter winding the contact didn't make. Had that happen on my 2hp 120vac once. Took it apart... think a sharp rap or two on the end would have gotten it going again though...

Actually several things it might still be per this manual page:

In case your warrant doesn't take care of it...

A better copy, maybe newer manual here:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Got it about 2/3 of the over to the shop, and a wheel fell off.

I guess 29 years in the Arizona heat is a bit much for those plastic wheels.

I downloaded it, but right now I'm looking for a new wheel to put on the CH roll around.

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Maybe motor starter switch. When it fell back to the starter winding the contact didn't make. Had that happen on my 2hp 120vac once. Took it apart... think a sharp rap or two on the end would have gotten it going again though... Leon Fisk Grand Rapids MI

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The start assembly on my 50 year old Maytag washer sometimes hangs open, but the stalled run winding current is around 40A and would trip a breaker if I didn't kick the motor to shake it free. I split the power cord for an Amprobe that shows the problem immediately.

One quick fix that works often enough to be worth trying is to POWER DOWN, turn the pulley a little by hand and power up. My father had an unguarded belt-driven bench grinder that always need to be hot-started by hand. For that reason alone it had a buffing wheel on one side.

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It could easy be I don't remember this right or two different episodes happened. I had a similar problem as you describe too. I do remember checking a lot of stuff like Bob has done. One final thing I did was while the motor was opened up I pulled a circuit board loose to peek at the opposite side. It worked okay after that. A contact had been exposed on the back side and I burnished that to be sure it was okay as long as I had it opened up.

This was maybe 10 years ago, memory isn't what it used to be ;-)

I considered a spin start, but this compressor cycles on and off half a dozen times in a shift in the shop. I'd have to wire up a pressure alarm (which isn't a bad idea anyway), and wander back to restart it periodically.

I have not tried a spin start, but there is zero reaction to electrifying the motor. No click. No hum. Nothing. Its possible there is a simple failure, but an internal motor failure seems most likely. Ultimately a better quality motor will probably be a better solution.

In my searches I've found a crazy number of warranty and just out of warranty failures reported by other customers. One guy claimed he took one apart and found they had aluminum windings. Another claimed all these mid size IR compressors are consumer grade junk made in India. I have to say that's an insult to consumer grade junk. My Lowes Kobalt compressor lasted longer than this IR, and the first failure was really my fault.

Ohm check?

If you are unfamiliar with Ladder Logic symbols, M in a circle is the contacter (>10A relay) coil and the capacitor-like symbols are its Normally Open (not energized) contacts. OL is a Normally Closed contact. The letters/numbers beside wires are the labels at their ends.

It's called Ladder Logic because in the control section AC hot and neutral are vertical lines and each set of contacts feeding a relay coil is a rung.

------------ Internet wisdom:

"Aside from the obvious oversights such as a disconnected power cord or a deactivated power switch, a compressor will typically fail to start when it lacks sufficient air pressure. If the cut-in pressure is not proportional to the amount of air pressure stored in the tank, the compressor will often fail to start. Check the cut-in setting on the pressure switch and adjust the level accordingly."

When the connection cover of the motor is open and leads of a meter are connected across the incoming line power leads (L1/L2 NOT L1/N) causes the meter to display the correct and same line voltage as reading across the bus bars in the breaker panel one should assume that neither a failure of the pressure switch or a disconnected power cord is likely to be the issue.

If there is a centripetal (or centrifugal if you believe centripetal is not a real word) switch that is failing it may be start-able by spin starting or by beating on the switch, cleaning its contacts, etc, but when there is zero observable reaction (heat/smell/sound) its clear that whatever the issue it is "within" the motor. A spin start or beating on the switch may cause it to operate for a single cycle, but it does not resolve the issue in a real manner.

At this point there is a 2 year extended warranty which should be in effect, and therefor the issue should be resolved by the warrantor. (Maybe not a real word). At this point opening the motor further may cause the warranty company to deny a claim. ie: Breaking the paint on the motor case screws. Cap covers and power connection panel did not require breaking any paint to open.

I will probably purchase a new better quality motor regardless of the resolution offered by the warrantor. I may or may not dig into the existing motor to determine if it has "aluminum" windings, bad start switch, or other cause.

Ultimately though it boils down to this. IR seems to have whored out their name and sold out their customers with what used to be a quality mid range compressor. Multiple reported instances of motor failures upto and including flames shooting out of them allegedly. Many failures withing warranty, claims made that the "newer" motors (mine is newer than the report) are better and then subsequent failures seems to back this up.

Honestly if the price of a new Lowes Kobalt was the same as it was fiveish years ago when I bought my last one I'd replace this Ingersol Rand with another Kobalt. It hasn't quite doubled in five years, but its close. The 3.7 HP 60 gallon was 499 when I bought mine, but its jumped to 899 today. Sadly I made the mistake of repurposing the tank instead of putting a new motor on it and keeping it as a spare. My mistake. I made the egregious error of thinking a fine old name like Ingersol Rand would last atleast as long as a low bid contract box store compressor.

P.S. Some 30ish years (92/93) ago I was the person who implemented (at the initial request of a service manager at Sanborn) a warranty repair program for several brands of air compressors at the tool store where I was employed. I actually got started by convincing the guy at Sanborn to warranty an out of warranty compressor due to known low usage hours. They asked me if I would repair it saving everybody shipping costs, and they would pay book hours for all repairs. Like my later career in contracting I consistently did good repairs in less time then estimated.

Generally I found Rollaire to be the best manufactured compressor of the half dozen brands I serviced officially, and the few I serviced and repaired as not an official service center. Light industrial shops who purchased Rollaire from us had the lowest number of warranty or out of warranty repairs. We had them installed in places like tire stores, fabrication shops, and machine shops. Lower usage home shops had zero that I recall. That being said they were priced similarly to other top names in the compressor industry.

Yesterday I received a text message (he had seen this line of posts on Faecbook) from a buddy of mine who is a partner in a medium size farming operation (quite huge by midwest standards). He said, "We have had great luck with Rollaire compressors. The only issue we have had was with Honda motor on one of our portable truck mounted compressors. We have to rope start it now."

FYI: Of the gas engine operated compressors we sold and serviced Honda had the lowest level of service issues of all gas motors. In generators we found Yamaha was a close second, but I don't recall having any Yamaha engines installed on compressors. I still have one of those old Yamaha generators and it still runs on the first or second pull.

I guess I need to find out where I can buy a Rollaire if I really want a decent mid size (2 stage 80 gallon) or slightly larger compressor for my shop. A step up to a larger scroll compressor is out of my short or medium term budget.

I never serviced Ingersol Rand.

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Found some pictures I took while I had my motor apart in 2012:

Just an FYI, shows a lot of possible connection problems you can only get to by opening it up farther...

I searched on the part number for your motor earlier. They sell for somewhere between $1400 to $2400 new 😲

Hope you get some satisfaction with a warranty claim.

I found import replacements from $160 to about 240 and name brands from

250 to 699.

I certainly would not pay as much for a motor as I paid for the compressor.

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Read the quote carefully.

Can you easily isolate the motor and check for winding continuity? Recently I've fixed two electrical problems with the wire's end termination breaking off, which is repairable. The HF 240V spot welder had aluminum wire which I spliced to copper with a Eurostyle terminal block and "monkey snot".

This winter a storm brought down my TV antenna, which has been up for at least five years. I had replaced the rivets with aluminum screws and coated the cleaned connections with GB Ox Gard and they still measure 20 milliOhms or less.

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In this case the tank pressure was zero (well atmospheric).

In this case the tank pressure was zero (well atmospheric).

Bob La Londe

------------------- The quote states: "a compressor will typically fail to start when it lacks sufficient air pressure."

That implies they need to be pre-primed with some compressed air from elsewhere. The three I've assembled from separate components certainly didn't, they start just fine from empty. The only pressure related no-start problem I've seen is when the Load Genie unloader failed to depressurize the compressor head soon enough and the 1/2HP motor didn't have enough starting torque when run off a 3KW generator. The fix was to fabricate a keep-open cam lever that replaced the pull ring on the over-pressure relief, and open it before starting.

I shouldn't need compressed air during a power outage, except that the gennys the neighbors bring over to be fixed may have clogged carbs and flat tires. My generators are intentionally too small to run their loads.

Most reciprocating compressors are simple reed valve naturally aspirated pumps that absolutely never need to be "primed" and an unloader if anything when working properly "deprimes" them. If an unloader does fail my experience is they tend to fail in the open condition. Even if they failed in the closed condtion the motor would not do "nothing". It might groan, whine, get hot and maybe trip the thermal or more likely the breaker. It wouldn't do nothing at all. I have seen unloaders fail, but long term the check valve in the tank will always fail eventually. Again it doesn't make the motor do nothing. It just makes it cycle a LOT more often.

I'm not sure why this went off into the weeds like this, unless you are grining through your whiskey glass and seeing how far you can bait me. LOL. Terry? Did you put him up to this. LOL.

In any case I am going to:

a) Give the warranty company a chance to fix this. b) Order a whole nuther motor shortly anyway so I either have a spare on the shelf or have it fixed in a couple days either way. I do have a question regarding that, but I'll ask it in a new topic.