Is A Noisy Compressor Bad?

Author: E. Silva (aka Mr. Awesome - The Niche Specialty Expert)

This question can be looked at from so many points of view, my friend. And if by ‘bad’, you mean, it annoys the heck out of your mind and disrupts your day ( or night , as you try to sleep, he he he he heh ) , then you should certainly think about it being ‘bad’ indeed and try to either : place it in another room where you can’t hear it as loudly, buy a quieter one ( they do sell them, he heh ) , install noise – reducing sorts of add – ons or other equipment nearby to it, or just dis – connect it from time to time. Now, then, if in terms of bad, you mean dangerous and risky, there are, yes, a few factors that you will want to have a look at. And I want to dive in there with ya and take a closer look. So let’s ….

Now first of all, what I would like to say to this here is the mere fact that, your air – compressor can be noisy as a warning, so to speak … and it can be telling you something. And here, more than anything else, you do need to listen to it. What is it trying to tell you? Perhaps it has been going off “louder than usual” lately? If so, that is a major red – flag, and you do need to pay some attention here. Do NOT ignore such a sign, and I will tell you further as to why ( as well as what can happen, if you do ignore it ) ….

Now then, on this very note here, I would like to just stress to you the fact that if it happens to be a noisy HISSING sort of sound, then uh – oh …. 9 times out of 10, a refrigerant leak is what you are possibly looking at. The louder that hissing sound really is, the bigger your problem is, with that. At least, now you know there’s not a snake living under your air – compressor, as you were initially beginning to think …. he he he he he he he he he hhe. Take a deep breath, now : Whew. It’s just a refrigerant leak issue, and more than likely, not a cobra nesting under your hot machine. Relieved to hear that? Good. I would be, too, he he heh ….

Now, furthermore, if it makes a loud screaming – like sound, turn it off right away ( even if the hissing is super loud and out of control, too ) . What you will find here is that it may be building up quite a bit of excessive ( key word here, excessive ) internal pressure on the inside, making it, as such, super unsafe to operate. In that case, you need a tech to come have a look at things ( someone certified / trained ) .