Air compressor regulator question

[fireguyfire]

I have a 220v 80 gallon air compressor that feeds copper supply lines around my 2 shops; it has worked perfectly for years.
I ran into an issue a couple of weeks ago and I haven't been able to figure out my issue; hoping someone on here might have a suggestion.
As I was spraying some parts for my challenger,I slowly started to lose air pressure and I could hear air hissing from the compressor. Turns out the inline regulator had failed and air was leaking out through the large adjustment cap on top of the reg.
I figured it was a pretty cheap regulator, and it had served me well but I should probably upgrade it, so I bought a decent $100 inline regulator and reinstalled it.
My system has a hard pipe out of the side of the tank, then the inline Reg; out of the Reg is a flex hydraulic line that connects to the 1/2" air rated copper pipe system, with filters and dryers inline.
I also have a ball calve directly before the Reg.
Anyways, I installed my new Reg and it is also pushing air out the top through the large locking adjustment knob on the top no matter what I set the reg pressure to.
It's brand new out of the box.
If I shut the ballvalve before the Reg where the air exits the tank, and slowly open the valve the reg is fine until a certain pressure is reached just before the ball valve is fully open, and air purges out through the top.

I see only 2 options; I am either missing something but it has me a bit stumped, or my new Reg is faulty out if the box which is possible but would be a pretty big coincidence.

Anyone got any thoughts/suggestions on what might be going on, and how to trouble shoot it?

[1 Wild R/T]

Sounds to me like your experiencing Kung Fu Crap....  Try another regulator..

[RUNCHARGER]

Yup: New regulator isn't any better than the old one.

[dodj]

I had that exact type of failure of a new Parker regulator. The incidence of new, out of the box failures is pretty high these days. Or I have bad luck.

Probably related to Wild's response.

[fireguyfire]

Thanks👍