Huan Yang Vfd, Any Good?

Eddyde

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Hi All,

I need a 5hp rated VFD for an air compressor. I am tempted to try one of the Huan Yang or Huanyang VFDs listed on eBay, as they are less than half the price of the Hitachi or similar top brands. I don't need it to control speed or use any other features other than single to three phase conversion. Anyone have experience with these drives, are they any good or are they a waste of time?

Many Thanks.

Eddy
 
Well the price is right. I have set up a couple of them in lower powers, they worked, but I don't know about the overall quality. There are a lot of them in use.
 
This has come up before, short answer is probably not recommended. These VFD are notorious for being over rated, and compressor provides a very difficult load for the VFD for a number of reasons and a compressor increases the ripple because of the uneven load from the pump. Combined with the increased ripple from using single phase it probably won't last unless you have a 10Hp VFD. At that point it would be cheaper to get a single phase compressor motor, or consider building an RPC. If you do decide to use this VFD, I would suggest using their 7.5Kw model. This is shown in the attached video driving a 5Hp compressor.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/transformers-phase-converters-and-vfd/vfd-compressor-283185/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UPDATED-7-5...BLE-FREQUENCY-DRIVE-INVERTER-CE-/260995721432
 
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I should note that I'm putting a 15HP VFD on my 5HP compressor. Having said that, if I didn't already have one I wasn't using, I would have bought a single phase motor instead.
 
Thanks for all the input, guys. I know buying a new single phase motor is the more sensible route. However, I'll think I might try the 10 hp VFD. The compressor has a centrifugal unloader so it won't be starting under very heavy start load and I can set the tank pressure on the low side, say 125 psi, so it won't max out the motor, also, it will only be lightly used. We'll see, I paid scrap price for the compressor so even if I fry the VFD and have to get a new motor I'll still be ok.
 
I bought one and it would not keep the values I had it set for. The company was not interested in replacing it, just returned it and fortunately got all My money back. Another forum thought it was being used as an 90 day interest free loan. I was polite and got the money back others got scammed.
 
I think the 7.5Kw model would work fine at full load on a 5Hp compressor, just wouldn't undersized it running on single phase. At around $250 shipped for this model, you could always use it for something else if you change your mind. I would buy it from a US vendor in case it is DOA. Let us know how it works out.
 
I have two Huanyang VFDs both 3hp (2.2kw) models both running 2hp motors with no problems yet. I will buy a 3rd if needed.

One I use for variable speed, added remote fwd rev and speed pot the other is used only one speed on and off.
 
I believe when Huanyang VFDs first came out many years ago, their build quilty was pretty poor. If you look back at old posts in forums, you centrainlay get a lot of info on failures.
However, I've got 5 of them driving all sorts of machines (not a compressor though) and have never had any problems. I use them at their rated maximum power a lot of the time. Even use them to restrict the output of some motors that ore bigger than I need - hogher motor rating than VFD. Still no problem.
I know of forum members who use them on compressors and have used them for a long time. They set the on-ramp to something like 5 or 10 seconds so the compressor doesn't cause a huge startup current in-rush. THey are happy with them too.
For the price, it is a small gamble.
Let us know how it goes, please. Up to date experience is always more helpful than old information being repeated over and over.
Cheers,
Joe
 
So I bought the 7.5kw Huanyang VFD. The manual was easy to follow making installation and programing go pretty smooth. My only complaint is the Power terminal block doesn't have a clamp type arrangement that allows direct connection of the stripped wires, making it necessary to use crimp on spade terminals. The spaces in the block are just wide enough to fit a #10 ga. spade and the mains in require #8 ga. wire. I barely got the terminal on the heavier wire. That aside, So far, it works perfectly.
 
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