A lot of the lower cost air compressors on the market have cooling fans made out of plastic. The plastic fans tend to weaken and break more often than the metal cooling fans, and eventually the air compressor needs a new fan.
Like many of the smaller, low cost compressors, there are not too many sources for real original equipment manufactured (OEM) parts. What to do when the air compressor needs a new fan.
Air Compressor Needs A New Fan
The first piece of advice is do not run your air compressor if the motor cooling fan is broken or disabled.
The fan is a must have for the compressor to run properly, and for the compressor motor not to overheat. Rest assured that if the fan was not necessary it wouldn’t be there as the compressor manufacturer will not spend a penny installing a part that isn’t critical to the compressor operation.
A typical plastic compressor motor cooling fan is shown.
Finding Your Compressor Cooling Fan
- Remove the existing fan or remainder noting the direction of air flow from the fan blades
- Check your compressor manual to see if there is a fan listed and what part number it is
- If not found, measure the O.D. of the existing fan
- Measure the shaft hole diameter
- Count the number of fins
If you use Google and the search string “motor cooling fan for xxxx brand and xxxx model air compressor” you will find a host of sources.
Don’t get hung up on what the fan is made of. In following these steps, we would always opt for a metal fan over the plastic variety, but if plastic is all you can get, then that’s your choice.
Install the new fan in the same location on the shaft as the old, making sure that the fan blades are moving air in the same direction as the old one was.
Air Compressor Needs A New Fan? That’s how to take care of that little issue.