aaah, I think there is a bit of excess "doom and gloom" here - I have a
quincy compressor with a 5 hp single phase motor running on a 20 amp breaker
set, no problem - I'd speculate that the three phase motor won't draw a
whole lot more power


"Jon Elson" wrote in message
rvers.com...
wrote:
Hi Guys,

Is it feasible to run a Quincy QT-5,5 HP Air compressor off of a phase
converter? Would I be better off changing the motor to a single phase
unit? Any help would be appreciated.

A 5 Hp compressor-duty motor (single phase) will cost a bundle, unless
you get real lucky. A compressor is a pretty severe load for a phase
converter, but this Quincy should have an unloader which will help
immensely. The remaining problem is the current draw on single-phase
240 V is going to be pretty high, couldn't be less than 18 A running.
Due to the high lagging current (low power factor) of rotary phase
converters, the line current is likely to be much higher unless you
use the power factor correcting caps, too.

Unless you do something to reduce the load (such as reducing the max
pressure switch setting or changing the motor pulley) you can't run it
from a "static" phase converter. These really run the motor on single
phase after starting, and you are lucky to get 2/3 of rated HP from the
motor.

Jon