Help: Agh! 2Nd Compressor In A Week!

[🪦 Darth Veach ●]

I bought the Harbor Freight 1/8 hp Airbrush compressor a couple weeks ago after I met a lady at a convention who owned one and loved it. Well, needless to say I am a little ticked because I am on my 2nd one after exchanging the first one and I cannot figure out what is going wrong. I have used all the correct attachments, teflon tape for the seals and these are my 2 main issues.

1) It is losing air SOMEWHERE because about every minute it turns on for a second and then shuts off. This was happening with the first compressor so I took it back.

2) No matter how high I set the regulator, if I hold open the airbrush trigger for more than say 3 seconds, it drops to 20 psi and never goes any higher, no matter what I do to the gauge. (this is a new problem unique to this compressor. Didn't have the problem with the other one) As soon as I let go, the gauge goes back up to 30, 40, 50 whatever I set it at, but no matter what, I can't spray any higher than 20psi.

PLEASE if anyone can lend me some advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Please refrain brand bashing if you happen to not be a fan of Harbor Freight! But at this point I think I will have to go with something a bit more higher end!

[🪦 Earl ●]

I have had this with 2 HF compressors myself. When I exchanged them for another it was fine. You probably just got a couple of faulty ones. None of them lasted very long though. Just not the best quality compressors.

[🪦 clownnation ●]

Harbour Freight is great for alot of things, but powered tools are iffy

[🪦 Darth Veach ●]

Sadly I think I am learning the hard way. It is so hit or miss. I know of 2 people who have that compressor and love it. Swear by it. I have been THRU 2 and both have given me issues!

[🪦 Jluck ●]

One thing about these small compressors is they contantly run w/o a tank and are not made to run more than 20-30 min increments, with and hour cool down in between or they'll burn out real easy. Any 'oil-less" compressors are not made to run long at all. Not saying that's the issue, yours sounds faulty, but just a heads up.

Hopefully you just hit a store that has a bad batch of them.

~Jonny