My 2 Year Old $2500 Compressor Just Died

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harrisonm

harrisonm

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My last compressor was a North Star 230V 5HP 2 Stage 80 gallon tank unit I bought from Northern Toos, and it lasted 15 years. I replaced it 2 years ago with a Champion compressor from TP Tools. I have a friend who has one, at it has worked well for many years. My new one is also 230V 5HP 2 Stage 80 gallon tank. Well, on Sunday, the motor shot out some sparks and smoked, and that was it. I called TP Tools and found out that the pump has a 5 year warranty, but the motor is only one year. I requested a supervisor and I told him how unhappy I was. I was very polite. I asked him how he would feel if he was in my shoes, and he agreed he would not like it. I told him that I had spent thousands of dollars there; tools, sand blasting cabinet, body work supplies, compressor..... I said I realized they would not warranty it out, but I expected that SOMETHING could be done. He said he would contact the supplier to see what they could do. The supplier said they would not warranty it out. I reminded the guy I expected that, but based on the amount of stuff I have purchased from TP Tools, and the fact the compressor was only 2 years old that something could surely be done. I am waiting for them to call me back. I'll keep you all advised. I will be very disappointed if they do nothing. I see no reason why they couldn't at least sell me a new motor for 50% off.
I took the motor to a well known repair shop, and was told the windings literally fried. The guy said that all the 230V motors on all the compressors being sold were garbage. The Chinese are slopping together motors that won't last. He said it was primarily due to how they do the windings. Something about the windings only being dipped in a minimum amount of resin and not being properly baked or cured.
 
That sucks.
I have a similar compressor, but single stage, bought it probably 20 years ago at Home Depot, so far it has been completely trouble free.
I hope that you are at least offered some help or compensation.
 
Sounds about right. I've never, ever understood why people cannot just step up and "goodwill" warranty something like this. You know DAMN WELL they make WAY more than enough profit to absorb it. All this "let me contact my supplier" bullshit is just that. Bullshit. You bought it from THEM, not their supplier. To keep a customer happy that's done a lot of business, they should just make it good and eat it. It's not good business otherwise.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Sounds about right. I've never, ever understood why people cannot just step up and "goodwill" warranty something like this. You know DAMN WELL they make WAY more than enough profit to absorb it. All this "let me contact my supplier" bullshit is just that. Bullshit. You bought it from THEM, not their supplier. To keep a customer happy that's done a lot of business, they should just make it good and eat it. It's not good business otherwise.
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Unfortunately it seems like those days are long gone.
 
Just contact them and if they wont cooperate, tell them you will bash them on the internet...that ought to get their attention...:)
 
The "Chinese" make what the manufacturer specifies.

Your beef is not with them or with TP tools.

It is with Champion.

They must know they are selling you a crapshoot motor or the warranty would be the same as the compressor.
 
YY1 said:
The "Chinese" make what the manufacturer specifies.

Your beef is not with them or with TP tools.

It is with Champion.

They must know they are selling you a crapshoot motor or the warranty would be the same as the compressor.
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More accurately, the beef is with people who shop only based on price (about 90%+ of shoppers).

I can personally attest that overseas producers don't build what you tell them to - they build what they build, and you're going to pay for it one way or another. If a domestic dealer finds out there's non-conforming material, they're now stuck with paying the bill regardless (under penalty of having to compete directly with the overseas supplier who WILL bring your exact item to market if you refuse or return parts) and not having any supplies with which to complete their production. So the choice is buy again and hope for better, or discontinue that item and try to re-vamp with new sourcing which can take years to establish. In the meantime, every retailer and dealer is demanding their shipments and if the manufacturer fails to deliver they can basically kiss their company goodbye.

The root cause is of course the off-shoring of procurement, but walmart-itis in customers is the motivation.
 
When the compressor was sold new it was sold with a warranty, it was agreed to bye the seller and the buyer or it would not have been sold.
When I bought my home compressor a 220volt 5hp 80 gallon tank unit I bought the extended warranty, turns out that I didn’t need it.
Seams like expecting something you didn’t pay for is the way the consumer thinks nowadays.
 
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I'm surprised at Champion having a crap motor. The home air compressor industry was bogged down by the "horsepower lie" lawsuit a few years back. Don't get your hopes up, the consumer did NOT win, and the web links I can find are dead.

If you can amp the motor, you can figure the actual HP. That and the frame, voltage, service factor will get you a replacement. Find a good motor shop and hopefully one made in the USA.
 
I hate to say it but buy a new motor from a local motor shop and move on. Rewinding the old one is not cost effective and getting a replacement from Champion will only get you another cheap motor from offshore. I’ve replaced my pool filter pump motor several times. The first one I got was from the filter manufacturer and the other was from a local motor shop. The one from the local shop was made in the USA and was half the price as was the one from the filter manufacturer.
 
Phreakish said:
More accurately, the beef is with people who shop only based on price (about 90%+ of shoppers).

I can personally attest that overseas producers don't build what you tell them to - they build what they build, and you're going to pay for it one way or another. If a domestic dealer finds out there's non-conforming material, they're now stuck with paying the bill regardless (under penalty of having to compete directly with the overseas supplier who WILL bring your exact item to market if you refuse or return parts) and not having any supplies with which to complete their production. So the choice is buy again and hope for better, or discontinue that item and try to re-vamp with new sourcing which can take years to establish. In the meantime, every retailer and dealer is demanding their shipments and if the manufacturer fails to deliver they can basically kiss their company goodbye.

The root cause is of course the off-shoring of procurement, but walmart-itis in customers is the motivation.
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"They" may eventually bring that product to market anyway.

Yet none...NONE of the manufacturers even consider for an instant to reduce their own salary and offer a US sourced product, rather than trying to pass all of the associated cost increases to the consumer, despite decades of proof that the market won't buy a significantly higher priced, US made product even if the quality is better.

This is NOT the consumer's fault.

This is Corporate America's fault.

Yes the consumer is a willing accomplice, but the power lies with the manufacturer.
If there is no locally sourced, competitively priced product to purchase, the consumer is basically powerless.
 
YY1 said:
"They" may eventually bring that product to market anyway.

Yet none...NONE of the manufacturers even consider for an instant to reduce their own salary and offer a US sourced product, rather than trying to pass all of the associated cost increases to the consumer, despite decades of proof that the market won't buy a significantly higher priced, US made product even if the quality is better.
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You're right, they will. But give them motivation by handing them back questionable but valuable product that requires real additional investment, and they've got a huge head-start and reason to bend over the original customer.

I can say from actual in-person experience that your statement about manufacturers cutting their own salary is false. There may be those big companies, but most manufacturers effectively do this every day. I could give dozens of examples ranging from small shops to very large companies with hundreds of millions in revenue.

In the end, consumers are in a 'race to the bottom' because modern life is about having stuff, and getting it as cheaply as possible so they can get other stuff to go with their stuff. People buy knock-offs so they can play pretend that they're smarter than someone who paid a higher price, or that they're just as capable as someone else because of what they bought - this creates incentives for others to undercut quality suppliers by peddling junk - often actual garbage that just looks like the actual product. In fact, most of these undercutters aren't even manufacturers and have nothing but a variable interest loan at risk, versus the actual shops who have work forces and equipment. Then those manufacturers are forced to compete with the beltway slimeball. It's not the clearcut decision you make it out to be. Especially when regulations start to make certain goods unobtanium unless they're sourced from other countries who 'claim' compliance with those regs, but are just rubber-stamping bullshit to get it through customs.
 
YY1 said:
the consumer is basically powerless.
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So not true, the consumer knows the import products are of lesser quality and still buy’s them. The consumer has the power to spend its money on the lower quality and cost import or the higher quality, more expensive US made products. The consumer has the responsibility to know the difference in the products offered on the market.
The old saying that money is power holds true…
 
YY1 said:
Yes the consumer is a willing accomplice, but the power lies with the manufacturer.
If there is no locally sourced, competitively priced product to purchase, the consumer is basically powerless.
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When a beltway slimeball convinces his uncle to make a raw material into a boogeyman and impossible to source, I guess it really is the manufacturer who can't get supplies to make product who is to blame. Obviously he just needs to up the bribe to beat the slimeball ;)

There's a lot of variables in the system. "Corporate greed" makes a good headline, but at the end of the day it's a symptom and not a cause. Taking a more wholistic approach to imports and regulation could address much of it, but when congress paves the path to shitty behavior in gold, there's no other path a risk-averse insurance and banking industry will allow.
 
That's weird,I know of champion compressors from the 70s that are still running. I have a 5 hp 80 gallon emglo,tank says was built in 1987. I bought it used about 12 years later and (ab)used the snot out of it.
I sandblast with it in my cabinet alot. And it still keeps going. I did have a valve go bad in it once, I bought the rebuild kit and dingle ball honed it, put all new rings valves and gaskets in it, was actually pretty cheap.
I did have a problem with the motor once, $80 and a trip to the electric motor shop and it's as good as new, even that was around 6-7 years ago.
 
JDMopar said:
I wonder if the motor shop the OP took it to could just rewind it with good stuff? Then maybe get Champion to pay to have it repaired.
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If they cannot, they aren't a motor shop.
 
"Motor rewinder" is VERY highly paid labor position.

I wonder what the hourly rate is, or what the bill to rewind the OP's motor would be.

My guess is about twice the cost of a new motor.
 
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