The document provides instructions for maintaining breathing air compressors used by firefighters. It discusses the importance of getting annual fresh air certificates for station compressors and ensuring the certificate is displayed. It also describes how to properly open and close the black plastic fill knobs on the cascade system to avoid damaging valves. The document emphasizes the need to drain the condensation muffler weekly to prevent backups, and to run the compressor for at least one hour each week to lubricate internal components and prevent costly repairs from condensation buildup.

1. Front Line Firefighter
Let’s talk for a minute about breathing air compressors, morespecifically station
compressors,Squad trucks and thelike.
I get a call once a quarter or so fromsomeone asking abouttheir fresh air
certificate for their compressor. I air sample, ship off, receive by e-mail and send
out by inter-officemail the certificates for Grade E/NFPA 1500 breathing air with
specific instructions to disposeof the old expired certificate and place the new
certificate on or near the fill panel of the compressor or in the fill log for all to see.
If the certificate is getting lostin the mail, I can always e-mail a copy of the
certificate to you. Remember only breathing systems with a compressor areair
sampled becauseSalvage Trucks, Ladders or storageonly type vehicles are filled
fromalready certified sites.
The fill panel on your cascade system has black plastic fill knobs on it. If you over
tighten these black plastic fill knobs, they will obviously strip very easily. Simply
close the valve enough to stop air flow and that is it. The valve seats behind the
black plastic fill knobs are suppleand do not require excessiveforce to stop air
flow. Conversely, do not fully open the black plastic knobs until they stop or you
will crush the nylon valve packing washers in the valvestem. If the valve packing
washers becomecrushed, the valve stem will back away fromthe valve seat
disconnecting the stem fromthe seat disabling that fill station. One, maybetwo
turns open with the black plastic fill knob is all that is required to allow sufficient
air flow into the SCBA cylinder during fill procedures (500psiper minute).
The breathing air compressor willrun for ten to fifteen minutes, purge
condensation, build air up again and continue this cycle until the final stage has
reached its cut off pressure –about 6000psi. When the compressor purges each
ten to fifteen minutes it is expelling water and oil into a large muffler that needs
to be drained once a week unless you choseto leave the valve open with a catch
container underneath. If you do not drain this condensate, it will back up into the
systemand causecostly repairs. Both station compressors and Squad trucks have
this condensatemuffler system and it must be drained at least weekly.

2. The breathing air compressor should berun constantly for one hour per week
minimum, did you catch that? Open a fill knob slightly so the hosewon’t whip
around violently, close the fill chamber door, turn on the power to the
compressor, leavethe door open to the compressor room so it doesn’tget too
hot inside and run compressor for one hour minimum. If you do not run your
compressor for onehour a week, condensation will build up inside the
compressor block and drip down into the oil and the internal o-rings won’tget
sufficiently lubricated which means they won’tlast as long as a lubricated one
would but more importantly, your compressor may notwork when you need it
to. We justfinished putting over a thousand dollars into a compressor becauseit
was not run for one hour a week and the condensation was never drained out of
it.
If you have any questions as usual, please feel free to contact me.