Ashton Crusher wrote:
My old Monkey Wards 2 piston, single stage, 6 gallon (guessing), 1 hp,
120V air compressor runs as hot as 180 degrees on the cylinder head
when I'm using it a lot. Is that a normal temperature for this kind
of compressor?

well, pv=nrt so it will get quite hot simply through adiabatic
compression alone. If you know the compression ratio of the cylinders,
you can calculate the theoretical pressure of the fully compressed air
with the piston at the top of the stroke. Obviously it shouldn't get
any hotter than that, and likely will stabilize at a lower temperature
due to the cooling fins radiating some of the heat to the atmosphere.

That said, that does seem a little warm; your average compressor will
get "hot" but I don't recall using any where it was significantly warmer
than, say, domestic hot water even after heavy use, but then again I
don't recall using any smaller than your typical roll-around 20 gallon
or so jobs.

nate

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