Is that breaker designed for fire safety or just to protect the
compressor from overheating?



It's probably the overload protector...if the power goes off and then
back on after a second or two, the compressor has to re-start against
the built up pressure and it can't.

so that device is designed to click off for a while until the pressure
dies down and it can re-start.

You should be able to find a replacement for it.

I would do that if I were you otherwise the compressor will probably
be runied one day when it tries to re-start.


Mark