Air compressor's died.

Just be real careful playing around with the capacitors or you 'could' get zapped big time. Mine has two [maybe that's normal] so if not an obvious fault i don't know how you'd tell which one is crook--maybe remove one to see if it's still the same & if it is--then refit 'that' one then remove the other. I'm not an electrician so ask someone that knows. Mine is a Super Works Air Power [super cheap] 2.75HP 50 liters had about 10+ years maybe 15 years.

That is normal and acceptable for handyman rated power tools. Spending MUCH more money will get you a 100 percent duty factor with no caveats. Why do people not know and expect this? A $300 machine will NOT do what a $3000 machine will. All handyman power tools are NOT continuously rated, whether compressors, welding equipment, saws or planers. but do give excellent value for money within those design /price constraints. To expect more is just silly nonsense, thats why the CC would not have a "field day" , the products in question are clearly labeled as to the capabilities.of each one. Many brands have distinct colour changes to identify the product range, Makita for instance use blue, or green to differentiate between commercial and handyman markets, outwardly the machines would otherwise appear to be the same. Fortunately the CC also protects manufacturers from the ridiculous expectations of the buying public.who expect to purchase a cheaper item, and demand it perform as an expensive one. The nonsense in some of the above posts give an idea in what manufacturers have to deal with. NO, they dont dump air before starting, they DO start under an air load. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous. The low duty cycle is a direct result of the motor design being affordable in that hobby market, and can overheat if pushed for long periods. The manufacturer has done the right thing in pointing this out, many people dont read the instructions, let alone the data sheet, then blame the manufacturer for their own incompetence. Unfair China bashing is another common trend.

fungles: they might read the instructions, but comprehension of same instructions, well, thats another story.

do the cheaper compressors not have "unloaders" so the motor does not start under load i.e. having the pressure of a partially full tank to work against and therefore maybe not starting BUT just sitting there on the start winding humming away and eventually tripping the overload or worse burning out, and
with a direct drive, (this means) a trip to the scrap metal dealer and Bunnings for a new one.

All the low cost compressors I have repaired have unloader valves, they have to in order to enable a small single phase motor do the work, be cheap, and have a simple capacitor start. Capacitor start means low starting torque, so cannot start under any load. The capacitor takes a fair hammering and fail regularly The motors will always incorporate a thermal fuse buried within the motor windings to prevent any fire if stalled, for long periods, generally these will not reset, and will be the ultimate demise of the machine. These machines are elegantly designed to do one job cheaply and efficiently, but do have limitations.

And, to put this into perspective, the retail markup on these machines will be almost 100 percent, the distributor markup, GST, import duty and freight costs from the Chinese mainland would put the manufacturing costs well below the $50 per unit. Thats around the actual real cost of the machine. possibly even less, how do they do that?
I know when I was recently repairing MIG welders for a large NZ importer, a $480 welder, as sold at Mitre 10, the max warranty repair cost was $80, beyond that, I had instructions to dump it, it would be replaced with another new one. That actually says it all.

Meh tis only a toy tyre pumper fp
Get yaself a real Blow-Job
Sumfink dat can run a decent rattle gun at 150 psi ta tighten ya nuts Mon

haha, my nuts are tight enough. They dont need any extra tightening thanks.

Its only really used for blowing up the odd flat tyre, and blowing the dust out of computers. Gets bugger all use otherwise.

Then just throw another start capacator at it so it has enuff charged **Fang** ta rotate when it has some start load.

Damn thang probably sounds lyk a try hard with fat wommenzz in zee back of his rotary trying ta spin it's one wheel peelers.

LOL

One silly question for you, when you say you switch it off then restart and it hums, is that when you switch off at the wall or the pressure switch, if you switch off at the wall while the motor is running, it wont restart because the unloader won't operate, the other reason for the BRC77 non starting is the one way valve on the tank, if that isn't sealing the delivery pipe can remain under pressure, if you take the valve apart to check the seal, make sure the tank is empty first to prevent injury

replaced the capacitor with one from jaycar.

$25 and she's back up and running.

Thanks for the help guys, saved me some $ and a trip all the way to Penrose to get looked at.