Gardner Denver rotary screw compressors, including the Electra Saver and VS/VST lines, are run by the AirSmart controller family, and the generation decides the language on the screen. The first-generation AirSmart shows numbered codes: SHUTDOWN #1xx and #2xx faults that stop the machine, and ADVISORY #3xx warnings that it keeps running through. The AirSmart G2, the colour-display successor, drops the numbers entirely and shows text fault names such as High Discharge Temp, Change Separator and DIN Motor Fault. If your display shows words with no number, you are on a G2; if it shows a # number, you are on the original AirSmart. Many packages on either controller pair it with a variable frequency drive that the controller supervises, which is where the Drive 1 Fault messages come from.
How to read the display. On the original AirSmart the number range tells you the severity before you read the words. #101 to #165 and #201 to #202 are shutdowns: the machine has stopped and stays stopped until the cause is fixed and you press Stop/Reset once it has come to rest. #301 to #316 are advisories: the machine keeps running, and you acknowledge them with the Enter key. The same condition often has both, at different thresholds. The separator is the clearest example: ADVISORY #301 flags the separator element at 8 PSIG of pressure drop, and SHUTDOWN #202 stops the machine at 15 PSIG. Acting on the #301 is how you avoid the #202. On the G2, shutdowns reset with the STOP button once the machine has stopped, and advisories clear from the Gardner Denver logo button in the upper right of the home screen.
Temperature is the big one. #128 HIGH DISCH TEMP is the classic 240 °F airend discharge trip, with #316 as its advisory and #137 as the rapid-rise version. The G2 reports the same protection as High Discharge Temp. In practice these trace to cooler airflow, room temperature, or oil, all of which plant staff can check before a service call. Anything inside the electrical cabinet, the drive, or the pressurised separator tank is documented as technician work.
Knowing which controller you have keeps you from chasing a code number your machine will never display. Every code in the tables below links to its own page with the documented threshold, the likely causes, what plant staff can safely do, and where it becomes a technician's job. Each page cites the Gardner Denver manual it was verified against.
Five Gardner Denver codes to know first
- SHUTDOWN #128 HIGH DISCH TEMP (Gardner Denver AirSmart controller): High airend discharge temperature shutdown.
- SHUTDOWN #202 CHANGE SEPARATOR (Gardner Denver AirSmart controller): Separator element pressure drop too high (shutdown).
- ADVISORY #301 CHANGE SEPARATOR (Gardner Denver AirSmart controller): Separator element pressure drop warning.
- SHUTDOWN #105 EMERGENCY STOP (Gardner Denver AirSmart controller): Emergency stop button pressed.
- High Discharge Temp (Gardner Denver AirSmart G2 controller): High airend discharge temperature shutdown (G2).