Air compressor recommendations

[SHALER]

I have done this backwards.....over the years accumulated some air tools. that is, paint sprayer, air nailer, and 1/2 inch impact wrench. I do not have a good air compresor however. I do beleive the half inch impact wrench would be the tool that would use the most air, which I think is 5 CFM at 90 psi. I would like to get a portable (wheeled ) compressor that would run my tools. Do you have a recommendation? This is for home / small farm use, not commercial or every day use. I think the sweet spot is 8 to 15 gallon, 90-100 PSI, and 5 or 6 CFM.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Most of your air tools are rated at 90PSI at the inlet which is a far cry from 90PSI tank pressure. Depends on what you want and need out of your tools performance wise. I has never happy with my air tools until I upgraded my compressor to a 150Lb 2 stage. At the end of 25 foot of 3/8 hose and a 100PSI tank pressure your impact probably isn't seeing 60-70psi, easily conformed with a gauge at the tool. I think your compressor suggestion is a bit small but like I said, depends on what you expect out of the tools, performance wise.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Are you thinking 120 or 240 volt? I would recommend getting a 240V unit, since you can usually find some place to tap into 240, while you'll be seriously limited with a 120 volt unit. I have a pancake compressor, but if I need more volume than it can provide, my 240V unit is also (more or less) portable. It's a 25 gallon single-stage Maxair compressor I bought ten years ago from Home Depot.

 

[RobCons]

I have several air compressors. One is an old 120 volt 25 gallon Campbell Hausfield that works great for the occassional uses you described except the paint sprayer. For that I use my 60 gallon 240 volt unit.

 

[wp6529]

I have a prior variant of this:

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-MAC24...572237&sprefix=makita+com,aps,132&sr=8-4&th=1

The performance is remarkably good, it won't keep up with high demand tools continuously, but for general shop/farm use it does just fine since you aren't running the tool continuously and it has time to catch up while you inspect, reposition, etc. I run a 60A plasma cutter, spray gun, air nailers, air hammer and a few other odds and ends and never have an issue waiting for it to catch up.

The plasma cutter is by far the largest air hog and I can get a good 30 second long cut before I go low pressure, which is nearly always more time than I need to complete a cut or have to stop and reposition anyway.

 

[caterpillar guy]

I believe your paint sprayer will use more air. Over the time it takes to get a painting job done unless it is just small parts on occasion. Never had an air compressor to big. Hose is cheaper than trying to move a bulky compressor around. I have about 200 feet of air hose for remote locations and then if it is so I can reach it in the field I just use the trucks air compressor for those things. You will want more air than a 5-8 SCFM will give and more pressure is a good thing get up in the 150-175 and it serves better since you will not need to have the compressor coming on and off all the time. Mine is in the 15 SCFM range with 175 and works good.I also have 2 lines from it a half inch for the 1 " air wrench and a 1/4-3/8 for the rest of the stuff.

 

[Steve in IL]

For portability, I’m a fan of getting the largest 120v portable compressor you can find and handle. Yes, 240v systems are more powerful, but finding 240v power will limit your usability.

 

[Destroked 450]

I have done this backwards.....over the years accumulated some air tools. that is, paint sprayer, air nailer, and 1/2 inch impact wrench. I do not have a good air compresor however. I do beleive the half inch impact wrench would be the tool that would use the most air, which I think is 5 CFM at 90 psi. I would like to get a portable (wheeled ) compressor that would run my tools. Do you have a recommendation? This is for home / small farm use, not commercial or every day use. I think the sweet spot is 8 to 15 gallon, 90-100 PSI, and 5 or 6 CFM.

The impact gun wants a lot of volume for a short time so tank storage is more important for it, paint sprayer doesn’t use as much at one time but will use a lot of air when painting a tractor chassis or such, a small compressor with a small tank is going to run a lot heating the air and creating moisture in the air stream
Not portable but for home and a small shop a single stage compressor making 9-11 cfm and 120-130 psi on a 60 gallon tank will handle all but the biggest air consumers
A couple of surprisingly big air consumers are air sanders and air die grinders, they use 7-9 cfm but will be running for several minutes at a time

 

[Mule Meat]

I would like to get a portable (wheeled ) compressor that would run my tools..

 

[MarkB_MI]

As usual, the responses are all over the map. Oh well, whatever you buy you can say it was highly recommended on YT.

 

[Watthour]

The only advice I can offer is to avoid any oilless compressors. I've installed piston kits in a few of those, and while that is relatively easy and inexpensive, my oil-filled 2-cylinder just keeps pumping along while the oilless units drop like flies in February.

 

[MarkB_MI]

The only advice I can offer is to avoid any oilless compressors. I've installed piston kits in a few of those, and while that is relatively easy and inexpensive, my oil-filled 2-cylinder just keeps pumping along while the oilless units drop like flies in February.

The only advice I can offer is to avoid any oilless compressors.

That would eliminate most, but not all, of the 120 volt units.

 

[sotxbill]

I have done this backwards.....over the years accumulated some air tools. that is, paint sprayer, air nailer, and 1/2 inch impact wrench. I do not have a good air compresor however. I do beleive the half inch impact wrench would be the tool that would use the most air, which I think is 5 CFM at 90 psi. I would like to get a portable (wheeled ) compressor that would run my tools. Do you have a recommendation? This is for home / small farm use, not commercial or every day use. I think the sweet spot is 8 to 15 gallon, 90-100 PSI, and 5 or 6 CFM.

IF... you want a 110 volt compressor,, any two cyl dual voltage compressor will work well. IF... you want to run impact tools. then you MUST have a 150psi compressor as my impacts dont work well unless I keep the line pressure around 120 lbs static so that they under flow,, have more than 100 psi going to them at all times. And auto painting for more than just a few minutes will also be hard on the 110 volt compressors... SO... you have to decide if you need to just air up tires and do occasional work as I did for 20 years or so the 100v will work... but if you go to big impacts, tire machines, tractor repair on large bolts 1 inch and bigger. Then you must bump up to a 150 or 175lb compressor, 220 volts. And after going through several ingersal Rand systems two stage system with a big lug and a small lug... running horrible out of balance,, I bumped up to a fully balanced 4 cyl Quincy for about a $100 bucks more than the IR compressor's. Odd thing is that the 4 cyl balanced Quincy compressors have twice the service life between failures and run super quiet.. ie they can live in the shop and be just fine.

Remember a two cyl 110volt 2hp Cambell Housfield will run around 13 amps draw, so cant be run off an extension cord or on a heavily loaded circuit. But you can do a lot till you get to the bigger shop equipment. Where the 220v will require a separate 30amp circuit or so.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I have done this backwards.....over the years accumulated some air tools. that is, paint sprayer, air nailer, and 1/2 inch impact wrench. I do not have a good air compresor however. I do beleive the half inch impact wrench would be the tool that would use the most air, which I think is 5 CFM at 90 psi. I would like to get a portable (wheeled ) compressor that would run my tools. Do you have a recommendation? This is for home / small farm use, not commercial or every day use. I think the sweet spot is 8 to 15 gallon, 90-100 PSI, and 5 or 6 CFM.

I regret buying this single stage air compressor.
It does everything I need but,
It is noisy as hell-o.
So my recommendation is 2 stage only and a 5 HP should get it done.

 

[Hobo,NC]

I regret buying this single stage air compressor.
It does everything I need but,
It is noisy as hell-o.
So my recommendation is 2 stage only and a 5 HP should get it done. View attachment 87758

I regret buying this single stage air compressor.
It does everything I need but,
It is noisy as hell-o.
So my recommendation is 2 stage only and a 5 HP should get it done. View attachment 87758

Yep a very true statement... The take away is you had the power supply and could have done way better and probably for less money than that yeller thing. Yeller is eye candy BTDT. I started out with a used one like this as I moved up I kept it as a poor boys backup. Like old teller I got a lot done but it had its limitations.

Campbell Hausfeld VT6290 2-HP 20-Gallon Belt Drive Dual-Voltage Cast-Iron Air Compressor 120/240V 1-Phase

Buy Campbell Hausfeld VT6290 Direct. Free Shipping. Check the Campbell Hausfeld 2-HP 20-Gallon (Belt Drive) Dual-Voltage Cast-Iron Air Compressor (120/240V 1-Phase) ratings before checking out.

www.aircompressorsdirect.com

I put a true 2hp motor on it and had a 4" motor pulley made for it, it sings. I think I used up all my spare head gaskets as it would get one every not and again. It was the cost of boing business.

 

[Destroked 450]

Even the new 2 stage pumps today are noisy, they use smaller cheaper pumps driven by motors turning 3400 rpm so the compressor is running twice as fast as the older units with big pumps driven by 1750 rpm motors with the pump chugging along at 900 rpm or less
You can still get the larger slower operating compressors but they are commercial units at prices the average home owner or small shop would have trouble justifying

 

[kencombs]

Even the new 2 stage pumps today are noisy, they use smaller cheaper pumps driven by motors turning 3400 rpm so the compressor is running twice as fast as the older units with big pumps driven by 1750 rpm motors with the pump chugging along at 900 rpm or less
You can still get the larger slower operating compressors but they are commercial units at prices the average home owner or small shop would have trouble justifying

You hit the nail on the head! compressor noise is mainly due to speed not pressure or number of stages. My 5HP 2PH Champion is really quiet running at about 700 rpm at the compressor, 1725 motor.

I bought it from a closed shop with a failed 1ph motor and installed this 3ph Baldor. That slow speed along with a heavy cast iron pump really keeps the noise down.s

edit: When I installed this one I used 12ga THHN in conduit, about 50 ft from the box. I only had some 40 and 15A breakers on hand so hooked the 12ga to a 15a 3pole breaker, Old square D bolt on that came with my panel, 6 years ago and still running that way. At 175PSI too.

 

[Destroked 450]

Yea my 325 Quincy is pretty quit
I like the old Curtis pumps too

 

[caterpillar guy]

Saylor Beal bought used and is at the 175PSI and probably in the 15scfm range. 1750 spins the motor and is pretty quite as air compressors go. I like the Saylor Beal made in ST.Johns MI so local to find parts if need be. With 1/2 inch trailer air line to run a n 1icnh impact will tighten 1-1/2 bolts for the disc just fine .

 

[DWF]

I have a 5hp Champion 2 stage air compressor that the motor runs @ 3450 rpm, but the pump only turns @805 rpm. Very good compressor and very quiet.
DWF