Compressor Buying Advice

[Dennisfly]

I need some input to select a compressor. It is for home use. Fill tires, blow out parts, blow off the mower. Should I consider something that can drive air tools? Portability wouldn't be high on my list. I was thinking maybe Sears in the $100 to $200 range.

I heard that the oilless ones don't last as long. Anything to that?

 

[sneaky_pete]

For the uses you list, an economical oil-less compressor from Sears will do fine. I've got one that has been doing all that and driving the odd air tool for probably ten years, with no problems and no maintenance. But be warned - compressors are like tractors and welders; once you have one, you will find more and more uses for it, and wish you had a bigger one. The good thing about a cheapy compressor (in my opinion) is that even if you end buying a bigger better one down the road, the cheapy is still handy to have around for portability and filling tires. etc.

 

[Bird]

Dennis, you can figure the oilless compressor at approximately one-tenth the lifespan of a good compressor with oil in a crankcase. Now how much are you going to use it? And especially how long will you run it continuously when you do use it? For many people the oilless is a good way to go; less cost, no oil to mess with, etc., but I think you'll find in the manual that you should not run it continuously for more than 10 minutes at a time. Actually, you'll find the same warning in the manuals for some of the aluminum compressors with shallow crankcases. I carried a small oilless compressor in the RV when we were traveling and it was just fine, but when I quit traveling and had a big shop building, I bought a big oilless, and it never made more than 8 months without breaking down and sometimes only 2 or 3 months. First time it was broken reed valves, next time needed piston and cylinder, next time the cooling fan broke loose and cracked the cowling, etc. But I was running it a lot! And of course, I got rid of it and bought a "good" compressor. Now the good part about the Sears oilless is that they come with a manual that includes a parts list, and it's relatively easy to completely rebuild one in less than an hour.

 

[beenthere]

My suggestion, is get one that isn't so noisy you don't want to hear it kick on. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Some are really bad and scream loudly (I have one!).

 

[kenmac]

I don't know big you want to go, but I have a 7.5 hp 80 gal. 2 stage 25.25 cfm @ 100psi compressor that I bought off the net. Great compressor . Will do all that I ask it to do. You can do a google search on compressors. check site this is the one I bought

 

[Dennisfly]

Thanks for all of the feedback. It helps.

Kenmac: That looks like a great compressor but very much larger and more expensive than what I had in mind.

 

[dmccarty]

Dennis,

I needed a compressor for years but I wanted and still want a big one to do work with but alas I have not money or room for such a beast.

Thus I need something small. Right now I really just need the compressor to do the work you have on your list......

I bought a $99 OIL lube compressor from Sears. You might be able to get it cheaper if its on sale. Its small light, quiet, cheap and uses oil. It does what I need it to do... I did not want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a compressor, use it for a few years and then buy a bigger one. The one I got seems just right for what I need currently...

Later,
Dan

 

[Boondox]

Dennis -- I have two compressors. The first was a small oilfree Porter Cable that I got for stuff like you mentioned, plus spraying fungicides on my trees, etc. Figured it would eventually die (everybody told me the oilfree compressors didn't last long) and I'd move up to the 60 gallon monster I really wanted. Well, I now have the 60 gallon monster for big jobs, but the little fella is still running like a champ. So I use the small one for small tasks like tires and woodworking nailers, and the big one for the air wrenches in the garage. I'm happy with both, tho the little job sure is NOISY!

 

[Bird]

Pete, all the oilfree ones I'm familiar with have a teflon coated aluminum cup for a cylinder. And as the teflon wears off they get noisier. But it's a simple job to replace that cylinder and piston ring.

 

[RobertN]

I have a 5hp 60gal upright oil-less. It is the NOISIEST thing in the world. It makes my slightly older Turbo-Cummins sound like a whisper /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif It is about 5 years old though, and has been well used. It still works fine...

 

[RobertN]

Hey Bird,
How do I know when to rebuild an oilless? I have a 5hp 60gal DeVilbiss Pro-4000. It's at least 6-7 years old. It's LOUD. It's been used for running sanders, air nailers, air ratchets, impact drivers ect. It seems to work fine, although, did I mention it is LOUD? I'm not sure how to decide if it's time to replace the teflon pistons.

A secondary question. I have the electric motor, shut-off, and twin-cylinder cast iron setup from my old compresser. The old one had the tank go bad. I threw the tank away, but saved the rest of the stuff. Could I use a 5hp motor to drive the old compressor cylinder, to a higher capacity that the 2hp motor did? Could a 5hp motor drive the compressor faster, or something? Would a 5hp compressor setup use bigger cylinders than the 2hp?

I have wondered about pulling the oil-less setup off the newer compresser, and using the old Sanborn twin cylinder setup(it was a Sanborn 2hp twin ccast iron cylinder, with I think a 20gal tank) with a bigger motor.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( How do I know when to rebuild an oilless? )</font>

I only did mine when it broke something. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif However, if it's getting noisier, it might also be taking longer to build up its pressure. Personally, I'd say rebuild it when you can't stand the noise anymore or when it doesn't work anymore. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

My experience has only been with "stock" compressors; never tried changing to bigger motors, etc. However, no reason the 5hp motor couldn't work on a compressor that had been run by a 2hp motor. If the pulleys are the same size so the compressor is turning the same RPM, I doubt that you'd notice a difference. I don't doubt that you could either adjust the pressure switch or replace it with one that would let a higher hp motor build a higher pressure, but I don't know whether the compressor would hold up for that or not. And I would expect a compressor that came originally with a 5hp motor to have bigger cylinders than one that came with a 2hp motor, but I don't know whether that's always the case or not. Of course, if I already had the stuff that you have, I sure might give it a try.

My brother once brought me a broken 60 gallon rig with a vertical twin aluminum compressor to see if I could fix it. The guy who had owned it had pulled the oil plug and could "see" oil (or at least he thought so), but it was such a shallow crankcase that he was just seeing the oily bottom. Those have to be filled right to the brim. So he had run it until parts started melting, and while I certainly could have fixed it, the parts would have cost more than just putting a whole new compressor on it. Instead my brother sold the tank and motor to a mechanic who had a compressor with a rusted out tank.

 

[slapshot]

Just my 2 cents on oil free compressors...a couple weeks ago my trim carpenter was using his Bostich oil free pancake compressor when the cylinder had exploded!
From the best we can tell the handle to carry the thing was directly attached to the top of the cylinder head, between the stress from carrying the thing and the piston it shattered!
I've never seen anything like it.
Unless you need you compressor to work on an unlevel surface, oiled compressors are the only way to go.

-dave

 

[_RaT_]

Robert, I'm selling my 5 HP 80 gallon IR. Its practically new. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Bird]

Dave, in addition to broken reed valves, worn out piston ring and cylinder, one of the things that happened to the last oilless one I had was that the plastic squirrel cage fan broke loose once. If you want to hear one that's really noisy, wait until that happens. And it cracked that pretty black cowling before I could get it shut off. I posted a message back then that the cowling serves two purposes: (1) If you saw what was under there, you wouldn't buy it, and (2) it keeps it from throwing parts at you when it blows up. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[SonnieP]

I just replaced my old compressor (Black Max 10 gallon with a 3.5HP motor) of 20+ years... I think it was oiless because I never oiled it. That may be why it only lasted me 20 years. It got moderate use. I suppose if you figure 1/10th life then an oiled one will last you 200 years... lol.

I picked up a 15 gallon 1.7/5HP Campbell Hausfeld at Wal-Mart for $200. It's much quieter than the old Black Max. It has wheels and stand on end for space saving if needed.