Need recommends for continuous duty compressor

ASGAR · Dec 20, 2007

I have talked to the actual IR engineers in person that worked on these compressors. The one you show is a good one. If you want better the V cylinder 'type 30' are more expensive but are also more longer lived and easily re-built. To put it in perspective, I ran a cheap $300 5hp speedaire twin cylinder single stage compressor non stop for over a month at at time running air cylinders in a test lab and it never failed. It gets really hot, and blows oil now but it never burnt out. If anything go to synthetic oil, IR sell it as T100select or something like that. At only 5scfm you should be really ok with 1/2 inch hose at 100 foot. I bet if you put a pressure gage at the snowmaker and adjusted the regultor at the compressor high enough to get 90 on the gague you could get by with 3/8 hose. If you get lucky you will find good used compressors out there. All the names metnioned are execellent, IR,Quincy,Champion,speedair/daton. TP Tools & Equipment sells Quincy and Champion if you are interested in looking online. Grainger Industrial Supply sells speedair and dayton. The older compressors had better craftsmanship. It looks like the new machines have rougher castings, offshore motors, cheaper contactors, cheaper pressure switches etc... The WEG brand motors are actually pretty good. The tradeoff of buying an older compressor is the re-build cost if you ever need to do it and not knowing how rusty the tank is. I just tossed a really nice wayne / leroy 1970s vintage 5hp compressor because of the tank rot.

mopacman · Dec 20, 2007

most new air compressors run at high RPM and to nosie to run for that long. I would wount an older one that is low rpm and would put out the air amount you need without cycling on and off. A 5HP compressor will take about 5000 watts of power an hour to run.

rjgogo · Dec 21, 2007

How about a couple of York AC compressors run in series off an electric motor. You can get them at the junkyard for $35 to $75 each. I have one on my jeep for on board air. With the RPMs up it puts out some serious air. The Yorks have an oil tank and can be run without freon as a compressor. all of the others are rotary and work work in this fashion.

Do a google search for "york air compressor" or On board air. They are nice and quiet as well.

SPYDERLK · Dec 21, 2007

ASGAR said:
I have talked to the actual IR engineers in person that worked on these compressors. The one you show is a good one. If you want better the V cylinder 'type 30' are more expensive but are also more longer lived and easily re-built. To put it in perspective, I ran a cheap $300 5hp speedaire twin cylinder single stage compressor non stop for over a month at at time running air cylinders in a test lab and it never failed. It gets really hot, and blows oil now but it never burnt out. If anything go to synthetic oil, IR sell it as T100select or something like that. At only 5scfm you should be really ok with 1/2 inch hose at 100 foot. I bet if you put a pressure gage at the snowmaker and adjusted the regultor at the compressor high enough to get 90 on the gague you could get by with 3/8 hose.

USE the larger hose to prevent having to run the compressor at a higher pressure. A very small investment to guarantee longer compressor life and lower power bills.
larry

TractorDale · Dec 21, 2007

Yes this will be expensive snow, and noisy to make. The gasoline power washer is obnoxious-I always wear hearing protection and will try to enclose the unit to be a good neighbor.

At any rate I like the idea of getting a big compressor and investing in some airtools like an orbital sander and that little reciprocating saw looks handy.

Dale

Harry c · Dec 21, 2007

Depends on how much snow you plan to make. I picked up a used Craftsman recently for $85. 110 volt, 6.5 cfm@90 psi, 5.5 horsepower, 30 gallon tank, hose, regulator and wheels. It's ridiculously noisy but works fine. It's an oiless compressor but it would probably run non-stop for a year.

Bird · Dec 21, 2007

Harry c said:
Depends on how much snow you plan to make. I picked up a used Craftsman recently for $85. 110 volt, 6.5 cfm@90 psi, 5.5 horsepower, 30 gallon tank, hose, regulator and wheels. It's ridiculously noisy but works fine. It's an oiless compressor but it would probably run non-stop for a year.

Harry, if you'd gotten the manual with that compressor, you would have found out that the manufacturer says you should never run it continuously to exceed 10 minutes. And if you ever let it run continuously for one hour without it breaking down, it would be truly exceptional. Noisy? Yep, and the older it gets the noisier it'll get until it breaks. The good part is that you can completely rebuild it in less than an hour; 30 minutes after the first time. When I tried to use an oilless, the first time it broke, it was still under warranty, but then I had to rebuild it about twice a year until I got rid of it.

Harry c · Dec 21, 2007

You're right. I didn't get or read the manual. But I do have a little 1 1/2 hp Campbell Hausfield oiless that ran 14 hours a day for over 2 years maintaining pressure and airflow on an industrial processing machine during the off shifts. It still worked fine but we decided to replace it with high dollar Ingersoll Rand, 2 stage, 5Hp, industrial since we absolutely couldn't afford for the air to go off. It ran 5 months and broke a crank! It only ran about 15 minutes of each hour. Seems you never know!

Wayne_H · Dec 22, 2007

You have some good info here that people have posted! I agree, watch out for some of the Home Cheapo stuff that is advertised as 5 HP. I just bought/installed this IR T-30 compressor. It was on Craigs list and has a single phase 5 HP motor that required a 40 amp 220 volt circuit. It draws about 27 amps when running, and has its own motor starter. The compressor runs at less than 1000 RPM, so it is quiet! Now I can sand blast outside or with the cabinet and my pressure never goes below 150 on the tank. Before I would blast for three minutes and wait for ten for it to recover.

Wayne

excelagator · Dec 22, 2007

I had a compressor motor fixed in town by a retired electrician. He had a whole bunch Campbell Hausfield compressor heads/motors in the shop. He said the main problems is there is a lot of vibration and oiless with these units. He said the only way to go is a oil bathed type cylinder and a belt driven setup.

I looked into HF big compressors a while back. I know someone that has one and they are very happy, along with others. They are also built in the US too.

Dan