I borrowed some landscaping tools from my brother in law and he offered his old air compressor since he doesn’t use it. Broken tube. Easy normal part to replace.
Got a air compressor accessories kit on the way home. Replaced the hose and tip. Plugged it in outside. Left it for 10 minutes…
Never turned off. Hmm. Might be one of those that have a release valve and not auto shutoff.
20 PSI? That’s odd. Unplugged it. Hissing…
Air coming out the bottom. Maybe a puncture?
Found the spot. Got 80 grit sandpaper and 3300 PSI rated epoxy. Sanded and found rust.
Patched it and my spidey sense went off while looking at the epoxy…
Did a search:
A leaking air compressor tank—especially with a leak on the bottom where corrosion is likely—can be extremely dangerous, even if “repaired” with epoxy or other sealants. The primary risk is catastrophic rupture under pressure. If the integrity of the tank is compromised (for example, by internal rust or a patched-up hole), the tank can explode with explosive force, launching shrapnel and causing severe injury or death, as well as property damage
When tanks rupture, the velocity of air and shrapnel can be lethal. For example, a 60-gallon tank at 150 PSI can explode violently, creating 680 mph air blasts and extremely loud noise, both of which are highly hazardous for bystanders
Nope! Tossing it!
Dodged a nearly literal bullet there.
Bonus shots:
I agree that using this tank would be unsafe…
But now that you’ve mentioned that specific test regime, the seeds of a bad idea have been sowed lol. So to that end, I have to advise anyone who even thinks to try that: make sure you have a way to de-pressurize the suspect vessel, not because the tank would fail, but because it might pass.
Because if it actually achieves 100% of working pressure and you keep climbing but it still hasn’t failed… what do you do then? Just leave it there in the ground with over pressure? It would essentially be a hidden landmine, waiting for water corrosion to take its toll and set it off. And no one is going to get anywhere near a potentially-damaged pressurized vessel at over 100% working pressure, not without body armor.
This is definitely Mythbusters territory now.
The first thing coming to mind would be setting up an automatic pressure release valve. I’ve seen those used to do pressure tests on pipes. It would facilitate making small increments to the maximum pressure admitted.
For all we know, the tank may very well rupture when put to less than maximum normal service pressure