What's up with Porter-Cable?

I am sorry that you are having a problem. However, being a Porter-Cable dealer for over 20 years it is not the factory service center that is a fault. Your dealer is responsible for customer warranty work or replacement. A new defective unit should have been returned to the dealer and the dealer should have taken care of your problem. Where and from whom did you buy your unit from? If you had bought it from me, I would have picked the defective unit up and brought you a new one.

Good luck, Mike from American Sycamore

--Had what I suspect is the same prob with my new P-C compressor. Turns out there's a nasty little "improvement" in the form of a combination intake filter and check valve that screws into the cylinder head; if it becomes clogged the force of the vacuum can suck parts of the damned thing into the cylinder, causing scoring and all nature of things. Somewhere in the manual, in a not terribly obvious place (it should be inscribed in inch-high letters on the cover IMO!!) it says to replace it every two months or so. They cost about $10 each, so add that to the overall operating cost and suddenly the P-C ain't such a deal. I was "lucky" enough to have mine fail while still under warranty, but I'll NEVER buy Porter Cable again..

I work in the service department of a tool store that sells primarily to contractors. I have not seen a drop in quality of most PC tools. The air tools and the compressors are the exception. Both suck in quality. I have had multiple contractors return the air tools in less than six months for replacement (PC doesn't offer repair on most of them). Also have fixed a lot of PC compressors under warranty. One contractor went thru two compressors and 3 repairs on the second one in less than 6 months. The good part is that PC always makes it right, but it still adds up to downtime.

Porter-Cable is owned by Black and Decker.

I don't know about their compressors but I have been slowing selling off my P-C power tools on ebay, I've been replacing them with tools that are smaller/lighter/smoother made by some other brand located on the other side of the earth. However, I've had no problems with P-C reliability.

Black and Decker has only owned P-C since October 4th.

I doubt Black and Decker has had time to make many changes to P-C yet.

Brian Elfert

A rather interesting tact to take. Product works fine but it's being replaced with something unknown. An adventurer perhaps?

UA100, who did get rid of his Porter-Capable biquick join(t)er but that was because it was crowding his Lamello...

Other than the 1970's technology NiCAD batteries in my PC Drill that die forever in six months. The B&D connection explains it all.

I guess it's possible but after all these years Black & Decker's yellow line of tools still seem pretty decent.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

Now you tell me......I just got a P-C 7550 compressor and just finished plumbing it into my shop and now I have to plumb the rest of the shop (everything from the compressor to the shop is galv. and everything inside is copper). I will be sure to keep an eye on the filter situation as one poster stated.

Mike

Now you tell me is right, I just picked up the pc compressor and 3 gun combo at the orange borg..... It's still going to work better than the old compressor, which is frozen ;-).

Joe C.

Porter Cable used to be part of Pentair, along with Devilbis compressors. I believe the business unit that Black and Decker bought included Devilbis.

Devilbis compressors are crap.

Their cordless tools are made in Taiwan now, and alot of stuff has gone down in quality, but they're still quite good.

Also bear in mind that PC doesn't make air compressors.

GTO(John)

My tank is Devilbis, so I'll bet the compressor is too. Too late to get my money back I suppose.

Mike

And, for that matter, I can't find anything wrong with the drill I bought Dad a couple years ago. B&D "Quantum Pro" from Wally World of all things. I've used it a bit myself, and I can't find anything to complain about. I borrow it whenever it's inconvenient to use a real drill with a tail, or when I need to drive screws. Plenty of power, metal chuck, rugged enough for my purposes. I had real reservations about buying anything under the B&D label, and I still do today, but this thing turned out to be a nice exception. I actually like it much better than the DeWalt it replaced, and this goes beyond merely comparing voltages.

Changes will most likely come, but I doubt anything has happened in the short four months B&D has owned P-C.

Brian Elfert

Epilogue: Turns out my compressor was shipped from the factory missing parts. Those parts have now been replaced, and the unit functions, but I am still less than impressed with quality. The regulator assembly still leaks a bit during tank fill, and I have been told it is not real bad... I do like the quiet operation, but I think I will look elsewhere when this one gives up the ghost...