Thread: portable air compressors

Is the fuse melting it the holder that the fuse sits in.......I'm guessing it will be small gauge wire either side of the fuse

I fitted a quality fuse holder and bigger cable never have an issue.....mine is permanently wired in though

Yeah its melting the holder and the fuse body as well. Last time it happend I had to pull the fuse out and just use a bit of wire in its place. Dodgy, but did what I needed at the time as didn't have a spare fuse with me. Now however, I can't even remove the fuse.
Will definitely look at upgrading the cable

If you use the compressor with the engine running the current running through the fuse will be less.

Most compressors say to use while the engine is running as there is usually 13.9 volts available vs 12.7 or less from a battery.

This means about 10% less current is passing through the fuse and can be the difference between melt and not melt.

I always idle the car when using my ALDI compressor which can drag 50 amps and have never melted a fuse. The flimsy wires also can have a voltage drop effect and thicker wires along with idling will almost certainly fix the problem.
Regards Philip A
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PhilipA - yeah I have always used it with the engine running, I'm paranoid about draining my batteries so anything auxillaries are usually only used/power up when the engine is idling. Still cooks the fuse though. As weeds said, perhaps it is the fusable link either side being smaller gauge and generating too much heat.

Hi, two reasons for heat build up like that,

1. too much current, but then the fuse should do it's job and 'blow'(burn out).
2. The usual thing in a case like this, is that the fuse is not tight enough in it's holder, the fuse blades into the connectors are loose.

Any arcing or poor connection will cause the build up of heat, it's almost like having a mini arc welder in there.

Replace your fuse holder with a good quality one and then use the smallest amperage fuse that will not 'blow' when using the compressor. Smallest amperage fuse equals greatest protection.

Regards


Mike

Ps. any connector that shows signs of melting or discolouring (heat stress) is likely to be caused by poor connection as described above.

Cheers

nismine01 - Cheers for that, makes sense, I probably should have thought about it a bit more Think I will head down to Jaycar in the next few days and see what they have got

Once you have the amperage determined from the fuse size then you could check the cable size using this site.

Handy Hints – REDARC Electronics

Was posted by AndyG a few weeks back.

Just an update - headed down to Jaycar yesterday and got a heavy duty fuse holder and swapped from a blade fuse to a glass fuse. $12 later, and all is good, compressor seems fine and nowehere near as much heat build up around the fuse or wiring, so probably was a dodgy connection in the fuse holder causing it to arc.
Glad it was a cheap fix.
Cheers
Brett