Air Compressor Recommendation Please
Discussion
Not sure if anybody knows anything about air compressors and could point me in the right direction, it's main use will be for car / bike tyres and would like it to do then fairly quickly ........ a lot quicker than the ones you plug into cigarette lighters and maybe for spraying models as well. In a ideal world would like something as small as possible although there's no point in getting something that can't "do the job" would this be any good
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141739312441?_trksid=p20...
or will I be waiting just as long as the cigarette lighter plug in ones
alternatively this, although it's only 5 ltr tank but 10 bar (not sure if that makes much difference over 8 bar) but is small and can be wall mounted out of the way
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131571967184?_trksid=p20...
One of those would be my preferred but If neither is man enough and I do go for something bigger I guess I could use it for spraying the fence, a nail gun and sander and in which case are any of these going to be much better than the other ... the Stanley seems the lowest powered at 1.5hp, the Hyundai the highest at 2.5 hp but I'm not sure how much difference that'd make and in what way??
http://www.screwfix.com/p/impax-im201-24l-24ltr-co...
http://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-8216035scr011-24...
http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/2-5hp-Direct-Drive-Ai...
Any advice would be much appreciated!!!!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141739312441?_trksid=p20...
or will I be waiting just as long as the cigarette lighter plug in ones
alternatively this, although it's only 5 ltr tank but 10 bar (not sure if that makes much difference over 8 bar) but is small and can be wall mounted out of the way
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131571967184?_trksid=p20...
One of those would be my preferred but If neither is man enough and I do go for something bigger I guess I could use it for spraying the fence, a nail gun and sander and in which case are any of these going to be much better than the other ... the Stanley seems the lowest powered at 1.5hp, the Hyundai the highest at 2.5 hp but I'm not sure how much difference that'd make and in what way??
http://www.screwfix.com/p/impax-im201-24l-24ltr-co...
http://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-8216035scr011-24...
http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/2-5hp-Direct-Drive-Ai...
Any advice would be much appreciated!!!!
You need the biggest motor not holding tank.
The motor is what fills the tank/ tyre with air (once the tank has run out), This is defined in HP.
The Bar/litre of tank is what the tank can hold (think of it as the amount of fuel you can get in a car)
The Flow rate is another thing but not one you need worry about(only if you use air tools for periods of time that need certain pressure), essential how much air it can supply constantly. Linked to motor power really.
The largest I have ever had on a standard 3 pin plug is a 3hp motor. Once you have done that then you worry about tank size (the reserve of air you have before the motor has to kick back in).
I had a upholstery company so had a 250 litre tank filled by a 3 hp motor. It would cut in a few times a day and fill the tank.
You don't want a tank of any real size as it takes time to fill it and they are heavy. Great in a workshop but rubbish if you need to move it ever. Get a small tanked one with 2hp or ideally 2.5hp if you can find it. You won;t get that size motor on a nail gun compressor though (that is what those are really designed for, we used them onsite when doing upholstery repairs).
The ones you have there will both easily do the job, although with them being oil free they are noisy as s
t, but easy to move about.
Get the lightest, smallest, cheapest one out of the two, make moving and storing it easier. That would be the one without the tank,it is useless for anything else other than blowing up stuff so just a slightly glorified 12v one,
edited - scratch that, just saw you want to spray stuff as well, you will need a tank to even out the flow of air, get the one with the tank and try spraying, then realise it is a arse having the motor running then get a 25litre tank one with a 2.5hp motor and be happy.
£85 quid - small tank (lighter weight) bigger engine)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HYUNDAI-AIR-TOOLS-24L-LI...
The motor is what fills the tank/ tyre with air (once the tank has run out), This is defined in HP.
The Bar/litre of tank is what the tank can hold (think of it as the amount of fuel you can get in a car)
The Flow rate is another thing but not one you need worry about(only if you use air tools for periods of time that need certain pressure), essential how much air it can supply constantly. Linked to motor power really.
The largest I have ever had on a standard 3 pin plug is a 3hp motor. Once you have done that then you worry about tank size (the reserve of air you have before the motor has to kick back in).
I had a upholstery company so had a 250 litre tank filled by a 3 hp motor. It would cut in a few times a day and fill the tank.
You don't want a tank of any real size as it takes time to fill it and they are heavy. Great in a workshop but rubbish if you need to move it ever. Get a small tanked one with 2hp or ideally 2.5hp if you can find it. You won;t get that size motor on a nail gun compressor though (that is what those are really designed for, we used them onsite when doing upholstery repairs).
The ones you have there will both easily do the job, although with them being oil free they are noisy as s
t, but easy to move about.Get the lightest, smallest, cheapest one out of the two, make moving and storing it easier. That would be the one without the tank,it is useless for anything else other than blowing up stuff so just a slightly glorified 12v one,
edited - scratch that, just saw you want to spray stuff as well, you will need a tank to even out the flow of air, get the one with the tank and try spraying, then realise it is a arse having the motor running then get a 25litre tank one with a 2.5hp motor and be happy.
£85 quid - small tank (lighter weight) bigger engine)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HYUNDAI-AIR-TOOLS-24L-LI...
Edited by Tampon on Thursday 31st December 01:24
To summarise, basically you pay for:
-Flow rate (amount of air)
-Tank size (amount nof buffer)
Most will be similarish pressures and more then you need. Very crudely horsepower relates to flow rate. Almost anything will blow up bike/car tyres faster than a cheap fag lighter job, most will run a hobbie spray gun.
Daniel
-Flow rate (amount of air)
-Tank size (amount nof buffer)
Most will be similarish pressures and more then you need. Very crudely horsepower relates to flow rate. Almost anything will blow up bike/car tyres faster than a cheap fag lighter job, most will run a hobbie spray gun.
Daniel
Sorry had to jump in there - Bar is a measure of pressure, not volume....
8- 10 bar is about standard.
The size of the tank, or "receiver" is just how much capacity the air system has, before the pump kicks in. It's like a pulsation damper.
A 2.5hp compressor will deal with most of your requirements, but will kick in/off under sustained load more than if you had a bigger receiver. A bigger receiver would just make the same compressor kick in less frequently.
Hope that made sense....?
:-)
8- 10 bar is about standard.
The size of the tank, or "receiver" is just how much capacity the air system has, before the pump kicks in. It's like a pulsation damper.
A 2.5hp compressor will deal with most of your requirements, but will kick in/off under sustained load more than if you had a bigger receiver. A bigger receiver would just make the same compressor kick in less frequently.
Hope that made sense....?
:-)
This is one of the stanleys you highlighted blowing up a tyre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l77gvpjvhrQ
30 secs filling the tank then the motor constantly working to blow it up.
I don't think there is much in my decent 12v tyre compressor to be honest. Take into account getting power to the compressor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l77gvpjvhrQ
30 secs filling the tank then the motor constantly working to blow it up.
I don't think there is much in my decent 12v tyre compressor to be honest. Take into account getting power to the compressor.
As others have said, the volume of air is dictated by the power of the motor. The more volume of air you want, the bigger the motor required to pump it. The biggest pump you can run on a domestic supply is 15cfm, which needs a 4hp (3kW) motor. 15cfm is 15 cubic feet of air per minute (before it's compressed, obviously) and it will run most air tools. However a 15cfm pump is heavy and expensive and generally comes with a big receiver, which adds further weight and expense. You can get away with half this for (most) sprayguns, half again for tyres and hail guns. So if you want something of modest size, something with 1.5 or 2hp with a 25L tank will do a great job. This need not be hugely expensive and even the cheap compressors will do decent service, it's not as of you are running a paint shop.
Cheers for everyone's responses is much appreciated ...... Tampon ( what a great username 
) funnily enough the link you provided to the Hyundi is the same model as I linked to in the original post and then I did a search and found the exact one you linked to 10 mins after I started the thread on e-bay and bookmarked it .... great minds and all that :-)
Seems like the 5 ltr ones may be a bit of a waste of time as they're neither one thing nor the other, I can't honestly see as I've never spray painted fences in 52 yrs that I'm about so suddenly start just because I've bought a compressor that can and I wonder if I was to use it for spraying models if it'd be as noisy as F... inside so may be better off getting the 1st one I linked to or one of these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E9APNW2/ref=wl_it_dp...
for car / bike tyres ... I just wish I knew how quickly they'd take a tyre from say 20 to 44 psi, if it was like 20 seconds it'd do what I wanted it to for it's primary purpose and I'd get one specifically for models at a much cheaper cost and probably a lot quieter as well.
Hmmm ... can't decide, the one that "does it all" is still tempting.
Thanks for everyone's input though and a Happy New Year to all !!!
) funnily enough the link you provided to the Hyundi is the same model as I linked to in the original post and then I did a search and found the exact one you linked to 10 mins after I started the thread on e-bay and bookmarked it .... great minds and all that :-) Seems like the 5 ltr ones may be a bit of a waste of time as they're neither one thing nor the other, I can't honestly see as I've never spray painted fences in 52 yrs that I'm about so suddenly start just because I've bought a compressor that can and I wonder if I was to use it for spraying models if it'd be as noisy as F... inside so may be better off getting the 1st one I linked to or one of these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E9APNW2/ref=wl_it_dp...
for car / bike tyres ... I just wish I knew how quickly they'd take a tyre from say 20 to 44 psi, if it was like 20 seconds it'd do what I wanted it to for it's primary purpose and I'd get one specifically for models at a much cheaper cost and probably a lot quieter as well.
Hmmm ... can't decide, the one that "does it all" is still tempting.
Thanks for everyone's input though and a Happy New Year to all !!!
I have a wolf Navajo compressor used primarily for tyres. It has a 1.5Hp motor and an 6litre tank. It is ideal, tank fills very quickly and inflates tyres extremely quickly. It is so small and light it can be easily lifted one handed and moved in a car boot if needed. It is quite noisy and the compressor kicks in often whilst inflating a tyre from flat, but it keeps the tank topped up and pressure does not drop.
I have not used it for spraying but I think the tank may be a bit too small for any serious size jobs.
The closest I can find is this one from machine mart
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-bandit-iv-8...
It has a lower rated motor than mine and a slightly larger tank so not quite as good as the wolf Navajo, but I t would be a lot better than many of the smaller ones you have posted and a lot lighter than the larger tank models.
I agree with many comments above, it is the motor rating you want, my experience is that with only 1.5 Hp even a small tank is sufficient for inflating tyres but may be too small for serious spraying.
I have not used it for spraying but I think the tank may be a bit too small for any serious size jobs.
The closest I can find is this one from machine mart
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-bandit-iv-8...
It has a lower rated motor than mine and a slightly larger tank so not quite as good as the wolf Navajo, but I t would be a lot better than many of the smaller ones you have posted and a lot lighter than the larger tank models.
I agree with many comments above, it is the motor rating you want, my experience is that with only 1.5 Hp even a small tank is sufficient for inflating tyres but may be too small for serious spraying.
Edited by jkh112 on Saturday 2nd January 00:02
Quite a few 'What compressor' threads if you do a search.
Here's one for you and one of my posts from it.
"As with all 'what compressor' questions the answer is to decide what air tools you want. Factor in that you might want to buy others in the future & look to see what their air consumption is. Then see what size compressor will run them. Things like rattle guns need a LOT of air delivered at sustained high pressure & small compressors won't cut it without frequent stops to let them build up pressure again..
Remember that many compressors are advertised with their output shown as displacement. This is AFAIAC a con. The important figure is Free Air Delivery (FAD) and this is a lot less than the displacement figure often between 50 & 75%.
The figure you give for your gun as 7cfm is a bit misleading as not only does it require 7cfm it requires the air to be maintained at the correct operating pressure whilst spraying, so you need a compressor that can continuously deliver at least 7cfm at that pressure or as I have said above you will keep having to stop to let the pressure build again. Not a good idea if you're painting a large panel.
If the pressure drops too low the gun may start to spit, again not what you want.
If you don't want to buy a big one, consider getting all the parts prepped then hiring a compressor to do all the priming & painting."
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I SMART repair professionally. My own compressors are 2hp direct drive with 50 litre tanks. Fine with small HVLP gravity fed guns and will JUST cope with a full size HVLP gravity fed gun. Will do tyre pressures. Won't run an air sander or rattle gun without frequent stop/start as I've said above.
Once you're into the realms of 3hp you're getting to the top end of single phase household electrics. Colleague of mine has one which is intended for use on single phase & he finds it does occasionally trip the electrics at customer's houses.
HTH.
Here's one for you and one of my posts from it.
"As with all 'what compressor' questions the answer is to decide what air tools you want. Factor in that you might want to buy others in the future & look to see what their air consumption is. Then see what size compressor will run them. Things like rattle guns need a LOT of air delivered at sustained high pressure & small compressors won't cut it without frequent stops to let them build up pressure again..
Remember that many compressors are advertised with their output shown as displacement. This is AFAIAC a con. The important figure is Free Air Delivery (FAD) and this is a lot less than the displacement figure often between 50 & 75%.
The figure you give for your gun as 7cfm is a bit misleading as not only does it require 7cfm it requires the air to be maintained at the correct operating pressure whilst spraying, so you need a compressor that can continuously deliver at least 7cfm at that pressure or as I have said above you will keep having to stop to let the pressure build again. Not a good idea if you're painting a large panel.
If the pressure drops too low the gun may start to spit, again not what you want.
If you don't want to buy a big one, consider getting all the parts prepped then hiring a compressor to do all the priming & painting."
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I SMART repair professionally. My own compressors are 2hp direct drive with 50 litre tanks. Fine with small HVLP gravity fed guns and will JUST cope with a full size HVLP gravity fed gun. Will do tyre pressures. Won't run an air sander or rattle gun without frequent stop/start as I've said above.
Once you're into the realms of 3hp you're getting to the top end of single phase household electrics. Colleague of mine has one which is intended for use on single phase & he finds it does occasionally trip the electrics at customer's houses.
HTH.
Edited by paintman on Saturday 2nd January 10:04
Edited by paintman on Saturday 2nd January 10:07
Two types - direct and belt drive.
Surprizingly the direct are a bit cheaper, but MUCH NOISIER!
I've had to enclose my direct driver in a sound insulation box or no conversation can happen in the workshop.
This means heat is enclosed as well, so if I use for prolonged jobs, I drag it out of the box.
Good thing I made a door in the box!
John
Surprizingly the direct are a bit cheaper, but MUCH NOISIER!
I've had to enclose my direct driver in a sound insulation box or no conversation can happen in the workshop.
This means heat is enclosed as well, so if I use for prolonged jobs, I drag it out of the box.
Good thing I made a door in the box!
John
Holy thread revival Batman!
I'm in the final stages of kitting out my super new workshop that is largely going to be hobby stuff, working on my cars and a bit of metal fabrication. I 'need' a compressor because of some reason so I'm trying to narrow down what. Is anyone able to advise whether something of this ilk would be sufficient for use with air ratchets, grinders and the like? I may even attempt some spraying at a later date...
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/airmaster-tiger-16...
Thanks.
I'm in the final stages of kitting out my super new workshop that is largely going to be hobby stuff, working on my cars and a bit of metal fabrication. I 'need' a compressor because of some reason so I'm trying to narrow down what. Is anyone able to advise whether something of this ilk would be sufficient for use with air ratchets, grinders and the like? I may even attempt some spraying at a later date...
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/airmaster-tiger-16...
Thanks.
Baldchap said:
As above, that's a direct drive, and similar to mine. VERY NOISY!I've moved my boxed-in compressor to the back of the second garage as it's still noisy, and fitted 1/ an extractor fan with a delay switch so it continues to run for a while after the compressor is turned off, that sorst the heat in the box. And 2/ a retractable hose reel between the two garages, so I can pull out for any job, inside or out. Much simpler and cheaper than running fixed piping and outlets all over.
John
https://www.toolstation.com/draper-150l-2200w-belt...
So this is belt driven and looks reasonable. Anyone got any experience of whether something of this spec would happily run a plasma cutter?
So this is belt driven and looks reasonable. Anyone got any experience of whether something of this spec would happily run a plasma cutter?
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