Anyone else have this issue?
Brand New Kobalt Quiet Tech air compressor (26 gallon) won’t work, hum, strange sound like capacitor blown. Works first time it’s turned on, then won’t work the second time. Returned for replacement, and the second new one behaves exactly the same.
Called Kobalt support line. Verified date of purchase, and the CS agent immediately set up a return for refund and gave me a reference number.
Do you have a wiring verifier? I thought a bad ground could cause that
I can check to verify grounding. Thanks! If that is the issue, I’ll be glad to have a working unit. Seems strange it would work and then not.
one of those plug type outfits with the 3 leds on it is best. It verifies ground and polarity. (Even though I didn’t think that ac had polarity, LOL)
Just used one last night!
You are the man. That was it. It was on a circuit that does not have grounding (internal wires are 2-wire only). I switched to an outlet with known good grounding, and it works! I am relieved. Thank you!
wow. I am not an a.c. wiz, so that is cool I was correct!
Nice VooDoo debugging. You didn’t have all the info or anything and you just used your magic to find the problem. Awesome.
This is a bit troubling in my mind… current is supposed to return to neutral not ground… unless the compressor itself is miswired!
Also fwiw, AC doesn’t have polarity but in the USA, we have neutral on the left and line on the right. You cannot mix those up when the device is grounded.
@truglodite
A few minutes after my relief that the thing works, thoughts of concern started along the same lines. I told someone here, the ground is not supposed to be integral to normal electric flow and essential to normal function, but rather is for when something is wrong. The fact that not one, but two of these same compressors, same model, both exhibit the same behavior, is concerning.
I was gonna suggest grub screws…
I searched and searched but could not find the grub screws on that thing. I still don’t know where they are. LOL. 
Well, there’s your problem! They must have escaped.
No doubt the escape happened when I opened the pressure bleed valve!
Or turned into moths or beetles yaa yaa yaa