Should I buy an air compressor, if so, which one?

[blueST]

If you want to stick with a portable 12v one that's robust, have a look at 4x4 equipment suppliers. They won't run off a cig lighter, they have crocodile clips to go straight on the battery or you can rig up annAnderson plug quite easily. T Max and Britpart do some reasonably priced ones.

[Dave.]

Mr2Mike said:

Dave. said:

If I were buying again, I'd probably go for the next one up with the small receiver tank.

If it's only for inflating the occasional tyre a receiver will make things take longer, since you have to inflate both the tyre and the receiver. OTOH if you want to use air tools you absolutely do need something with a receiver, but most air tool s need a higher volume of air than the tiny compressors mentioned in this thread can deliver.

I was thinking more of run the compressor, fill the receiver, then take outside to top up the tyres.

Not sure how much you'd get out of it though, depends how much the tyres need, etc.

[PositronicRay]

Life just got complicated.

[CrutyRammers]

Davie said:

To be honest, the best use it's had late is blowing up one of those massive yoga balls for her and double airbed for me when I asked if the ball was big enough.

[Skyedriver]

One of these, on offer at he moment?

https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-2-5hp-air-compress...

I would think the tank & rate of fill not suitable for panel spraying but I might be wrong. Would do tyres etc. I had a Clarke one until recently, bit bigger than this, belt drive, that would spray a small car/pressure wash a rendered wall/etc but struggled with an air die grinder strangely.

Might get one of these at £79.99 unless anyone can aim me at something better. Maybe second hand is a better option.

Comments?

[justinio]

Skyedriver said:

One of these, on offer at he moment?

https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-2-5hp-air-compress...

I would think the tank & rate of fill not suitable for panel spraying but I might be wrong. Would do tyres etc. I had a Clarke one until recently, bit bigger than this, belt drive, that would spray a small car/pressure wash a rendered wall/etc but struggled with an air die grinder strangely.

Might get one of these at £79.99 unless anyone can aim me at something better. Maybe second hand is a better option.

Comments?

Depends what you want to use it for. It's a good compressor (with a good warranty) for what it is.

It will do very light paint work (maybe the odd panel), but it will be frustrating waiting for the tank to refill. Forget trying to use it with an air sander, die grinder etc. The reservoir just isnt big enough.

It will blow up tyres, operate a nailer and (if you have a good impact gun) undo wheel nuts etc.

[Drew106]

Skyedriver said:

One of these, on offer at he moment?
https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-2-5hp-air-compress...
Might get one of these at £79.99 unless anyone can aim me at something better. Maybe second hand is a better option.
Comments?

I went for this one in the end: https://www.sgs-engineering.com/air-compressors/bu...

They also do a 24l: https://www.sgs-engineering.com/air-compressors/se... which is a little cheaper than the Aldi one.

The 6l bundle I got is a good little package with various attachments etc. I would say though the air line is a little short at 5m. So I'll probably order a longer one.

Delivered next day, so had a little play about with it last night. Seems very good build quality (out of the box anyway) and great pressure. It's pretty quite loud, but I guess they all are. It fills very quickly though as it's a small tank.

[paulrockliffe]

I had an issue with one tyre slowly leaking air, needed topping up every few weeks. I injected about 20ml of Stans fluid into it and went for a drive, that sorted it out. Stans is mountain bike tube-less tyre sealant, it's basically latex. The drive spins it all around the tyre, the pressure forces it through any small gaps and it solidifies to plug the holes.

Did this 3 months ago, and not needed to put any air in since, so it's probably worth a try.

[Drew106]

paulrockliffe said:

I had an issue with one tyre slowly leaking air, needed topping up every few weeks. I injected about 20ml of Stans fluid into it and went for a drive, that sorted it out. Stans is mountain bike tube-less tyre sealant, it's basically latex. The drive spins it all around the tyre, the pressure forces it through any small gaps and it solidifies to plug the holes.

Did this 3 months ago, and not needed to put any air in since, so it's probably worth a try.

Had thought about some sort of sealant, but heard it's not too good for the tyres.

I would love to get the bottom of it though, I don't know why they're losing pressure. I was back to the tyre place last week and they couldn't find anything wrong with the tyres which is very frustrating.

They refilled the tyres with nitrogen to see if that solves it, but it doesn't appear to have. I will have to go back again when I have time.

For now I'm just topping up with my new compressor!

[GreenV8S]

Drew106 said:

They refilled the tyres with nitrogen to see if that solves it

The problem that Nitrogen inflation cures is that the garage owner's wallet does not have enough money in and yours has too much.

[Drew106]

GreenV8S said:

The problem that Nitrogen inflation cures is that the garage owner's wallet does not have enough money in and yours has too much.

lol. That was always my thinking about nitrogen fills as well. It's a bit of a gimmick to increase add-on sales with new tyres.

Reading about it online though there does seem to at least be a scientific basis for the nitrogen fill possibly preventing pressure loss - as nitrogen molecules are larger than air.

Anyway the garage hasn't charged me for any of this, so no harm in trying. Been back twice since having the tyres fitted in July. Fitted new valves last time, this time they did the nitrogen fill.

[GreenV8S]

Drew106 said:

there does seem to at least be a scientific basis for the nitrogen fill

All the claims about leaking and tyre degradation and thermal stability and humidity and so on are utterly irrelevant. The scientific basis for all of these makes very tenuous sense if you have a budget of millions of quid and want every potential thousandth of a percent improvement in every single aspect of the vehicle. For the other 99.999% of the population it is complete hogwash. They offer it as an extra thing to put on the bill, and so that once you've paid you will take up their offer of 'free checks' etc so they have an opportunity to sell more stuff to you in future. The reality is that as well as giving no benefit at all, it also encourages people to think of tyre pressure as something that the supplier checks from time to time and not something drivers should be monitoring for themselves at regular intervals.

[finishing touch]

My choice would be the SGS 24L 9.6 CFM bundle for £83.32

Everything you need plus a spray gun for spraying shed & fence preservative, assuming you have a fence or shed.

Paul G

[E-bmw]

Drew106 said:

lol. That was always my thinking about nitrogen fills as well. It's a bit of a gimmick to increase add-on sales with new tyres.

Reading about it online though there does seem to at least be a scientific basis for the nitrogen fill possibly preventing pressure loss - as nitrogen molecules are larger than air.

Anyway the garage hasn't charged me for any of this, so no harm in trying. Been back twice since having the tyres fitted in July. Fitted new valves last time, this time they did the nitrogen fill.

Don't forget that all F1 teams use Nitrogen & they are always complaining about tyre temperatures dropping and reducing pressures, so although it is not to the same extent Nitrogen still has the same temperature issues as air.

[Drew106]

GreenV8S said:

Drew106 said:

there does seem to at least be a scientific basis for the nitrogen fill possibly preventing pressure loss

All the claims about leaking and tyre degradation and thermal stability and humidity and so on are utterly irrelevant. The scientific basis for all of these makes very tenuous sense if you have a budget of millions of quid and want every potential thousandth of a percent improvement in every single aspect of the vehicle. For the other 99.999% of the population it is complete hogwash. They offer it as an extra thing to put on the bill, and so that once you've paid you will take up their offer of 'free checks' etc so they have an opportunity to sell more stuff to you in future. The reality is that as well as giving no benefit at all, it also encourages people to think of tyre pressure as something that the supplier checks from time to time and not something drivers should be monitoring for themselves at regular intervals.

You left off the important part of my quote though. There is a possibility that it might prevent or slow pressure loss.

I am in agreement with you that it is unnecessary to fill your road cars tyres with nitrogen.

[Drew106]

E-bmw said:

Don't forget that all F1 teams use Nitrogen & they are always complaining about tyre temperatures dropping and reducing pressures, so although it is not to the same extent Nitrogen still has the same temperature issues as air.

I was pretty dubious that a nitrogen fill would solve the pressure loss issues and in fact it has not. I would imagine the difference in size of the holes, so that air can escape and nitrogen can not, would have to be pretty microscopic (Disclaimer: not a scientist )

But as they were not charging there was no harm trying. I even got some nice green dust caps lol.

[Mr2Mike]

Drew106 said:

I would imagine the difference in size of the holes, so that air can escape and nitrogen can not, would have to be pretty microscopic (Disclaimer: not a scientist )

Air is mostly nitrogen. 100% nitrogen in tyres is supposed to reduce the pressure loss due to oxygen migration, and it may do, but since oxygen molecules are only about 2.6% smaller than nitrogen the effect will be tiny.

[GreenV8S]

Drew106 said:

You left off the important part of my quote though. There is a possibility that it might prevent or slow pressure loss.

Air is already 80% Nitrogen so whatever differences it makes to leakage will only affect the 20%. And since Oxygen and Nitrogen molecules are almost the same size, the difference in leakage rate is minimal unless you are running extremely high pressures well outside the normal car tyre pressure range. For car tyres it really is a waste of time. Did they suck the fresh air out of your tyres before they inflated them with Nitrogen? If not, a third of the gas in the tyre is still fresh air in any case so you're only getting two thirds of whatever theoretical benefit they were claiming - don't suppose they mentioned that. Not that it matters - two thirds of nothing is still nothing.

[Greg_D]

justinio said:

If you want a compressor then get one of the Aldi ones on offer at the moment. Thats more than enough for blowing up tyres.

But, it sounds like you have an issue with your tyres/wheels. They shouldnt need topping up constantly like that. Air is escaping from somewhere, either when you are checking pressure, or your tyres or wheels are knackered.

Personally, I'd be checking to see where the air is escaping from.

get a soapy water solution and spray onto the bead and all over the tyres to see if anything bubbles up.

[Drew106]

GreenV8S said:

Did they suck the fresh air out of your tyres before they inflated them with Nitrogen? If not, a third of the gas in the tyre is still fresh air in any case so you're only getting two thirds of whatever theoretical benefit they were claiming - don't suppose they mentioned that. Not that it matters - two thirds of nothing is still nothing.

Yeah, purged and refilled.

It was just another thing to try, having failed to find other causes of the pressure loss. Don't think anyone was expecting miracles or 'claiming' huge benefits.