Bird
Epic Contributor
Now how about oil lubed vs oil-less? How much is the life expectancy difference of the two?
An employee of a big air-compressor dealer told me to figure about 10 to 1 on the life expectancy. I don't doubt that at all. The oilless are just fine for a homeowner who only wants to air up a car or bicycle tire, or a child's toy, occasionally. When I was a full time RVer, I carried an oilless with a 2 gallon tank in the motorhome, and never had a problem with it, but there was never a need to run it more than a few minutes.
Then when I bought the place in the country, I bought an oilless with a 30 gallon tank. I kept it for about 3 years, but the longest it ever went between rebuilds was 8 months. The first time the reed valves broke, it was still in warranty. Now the good news is that you can completely rebuild one of them in less than an hour and probably spend $15 to $40 for parts, depending on how many parts need replacing.
I always tell people that pretty cowling around the motor and compressor serves two purposes: (1) if you could see what's under there, you wouldn't buy it, and (2) when it blows up, the cowling either stops or slows down the parts it tries to throw at you. But it sure does get noisy when the loose parts start banging around in there.