Death by air compressor?

[6t8dart]

I came upon a very sobering issue yesterday that could have lead to my death or serious injury. Every once in a while someone posts about an exploding air compressor, yesterday it almost happened to me.

Ten years ago I bought a wonderful craftsman professional series horizontal air compressor. It has power my air tools and even helped me paint my 68 Dart. Yesterday I was in the garage doing some general cleanup, organization, and tool maintenance in preparation my Mark D's visit in a few weeks to help me with my MK4. I have not used it in quite a few months, mainly for tires, etc, I would turn it on for a few minutes, then turn it off again. It had been leaking air so decided to clean a leaky bypass valve on my compressor to try and fix it, while I was at it, I changed the oil and did some other minor maintenance to it. I put it back together, switched it on for a minute to check for leaks...I heard hissing. I started to feel around at all the fittings, but nothing. It sounded like it was coming f on the bottom, i thought maybe the drain was leaking, but felt no air coming out of it. I pulled the compressor out from under my workbench and flipped it on its end, that's when I saw it...drops of water coming out of the middle of nowhere. It hit me that the inside of the tank must be so rusted that it ready to come apart. I started thinking about the pictures of destroyed cars and garages. I realized that I was so lucky, it could have been very bad for me and my family.

You can see the two drops n the center of this picture
IMG_3886.JPG

I highly recommend that everyone regularly drains their compressor and replace it every once in a while. I got lucky that I was listening for leaks and that I just didn't turn it on and go about my business.