Never heard of either...who actually makes them or are they what they sound like--no-name imports? Might be ok, might not, I've no data. I thought Lowes had been carrying DeVilbiss??? My experience w/ them has been they are adequate for home use (and they are US-built (or at least were)).
5.7 vs 5.8 cfm is no discernible difference. Larger tank in general would be better. I'd be looking at warranty information trying to figure out if one might possibly have an indication of longer lifetime...
look at the tools you are planning to use, find out the required air needed to effectively run them. 5.8 doesn't sound like much at all, sounds to me like if you use the air tools this compressor will be constantly running. I have an IR with 60 gal and 11.3 @ 90psi and when I get goin this thing still runs a good bit. But the IR is rated for continuous operation 24/7. You had better decide on the tools you will be using and go from there. An air compressor is a great thing and once you get to using it you will want even more air tools. Get one that will grow with you.
You won't be able to tell the difference. The bigger than will last longer, but the bigger tank will also take longer to get up to pressure.
What do you plan to do with air? If your needs are a nail gun, fill an occasion tire, either will do just fine. Run an air sander, spray paint trucks, neither is going to come close to filling your needs.
As for the brand, they are probably made in the same factory in China by the lowest bidder. I have no idea how they stack up to others. Ed
From the specs you described I wouldn't favor one over the other. I'd look more at price, warranty, portability if important to you, sound level, or other features. The tank size and CFM are so close as to be unimportant.
My inclination would also be to go with the Husky brand. Both units are close enough that the size of the tank and the difference in cfm are not going to be very noticeable. I'd be more concerned with duty cycle ratings, acoustic ratings, and warranty coverage.
Husky is Home Depot's private label of Campbell Hausfeld air compressors. Not sure who makes Kobalt for Lowes. The Husky is a CH with a different label on the tank. CH does not build spec compressors for retailers, they simply private label their production products.
Mox-Nix. Neither one is offering any measurable advantage over the other. Both ares low output, small storage compressors which can serve light duty useage quite well and won't take up a ton of room. I would be concerned for the 5.8cfm rating though. You're going to be very limited in what you can do with this compressor. The key is that these will support light duty.
What kind of automotive air tools? Impact wrench? 5.8cfm will probably do the job for short spurts which is how you typically use an impact, but that is really on the low side for any impact gun. Most want closer to 10cfm. Depending on the max pressure, you may not be able to break lug nuts though that have been torqued to factory specs. Die Grinder? Forget it. DA? Forget it. Air Ratchet? Maybe, but you can tax a low delivery system like you're talking about with an air ratchet. Air nailers? Should be more than enough. They are very small bursts, and it should keep up with them very easily.
I have a 100% duty cycle commercial compressor now that delivers just over18cfm and I can get it to run a lot, depending on what I'm using. But... before I got it, I had a small Sears 5HP(?...) 33 Gallon compressor. Talk about overworking a compressor! I used it for everything. I painted cars with it (I know all the secrets for dealing with water in lines based on over-running your compressor now), I air wrenched the crap out of things, etc. The only thing it really would not do was run the DA. But... this compressor delivered 12cfm@90psi. Much higher delivery rate than you're looking at. Point being - it would not be the recommended compressor for most of those jobs, but it did the job. It would run continuously sometimes, and that made for premature wear, and lots of water build up, but it was a trooper and it did the work. Used it for over 10 years. It's now doing much lighter duty work for my brother in law.
So - you can get more out of a compressor than you are supposed to. You'll pay a price in wear, but you can do it. I would recommend buying more compressor than you think you'll ever need, because you'll keep buying air tools and sooner or later one of those is going to require some air. 5.8cfm is really a very low delivery rate.
I don't think the size of tank or output is a real big deal for general shop use. I don't know who make the Cobalt but I believe Campbell Hausfeld (sp?) makes many of the Huskys. We helped our daughter buy one of the Huskys for her husband for christmas and the tag even said Campbell Hausfeld.
Interesting post. When I read it, I was surprised by this comment because here in Canada I thought that the Husky label referred to products made by Husqvarna (Sweden). I did a web search and found the following that seems to say that Husky is a brand name of Stanley (which might also own Campbell Hausfeld??)
The interesting part (but OT) is the back in '99 the FTC was suing Stanley for misleading claims that their tools were 'made in the USA'. Hard to know where anything is made I guess.
Yeah, I see now from the Home Depot web site that the Husky is made by Campbell Hausfeld. Still not sure about the Kobalt brand from Lowes.
I do know the Husky's are rated for 100% duty cycle. I'm pretty sure the Kobalt from Lowes is too. Not positive though.
As far as auto tools. Just as you mentioned. Impact wrenches, 3/8, 1/2... Ratchets, 1/4, 3/8... small die grinders, 3/8 drill, cutoff tool, impact hammer. What's a "DA"?
And in the future, maybe a dual action sander. I've seen specs for a sander that say "avg. 4 CFM". Is this misleading? I guess it's a spec for the average between load and no load. What would the CFM be during load? Though the compressor may be running continuously, would it be able to keep up with a sander like that?
I think the key is 120v vs 220v. The compressors mentioned by the OP are about average output for 15 amp units. Since both units he was looking at were 120v units, I'm assuming he doesn't have 220v available.
Actually I could set up a 220v system. It would be a little more work, but doable. I was concidering the portability of the compressor though. But thinking about it now, I guess it would not really be a huge factor for the compressor to not be on wheels.
I did read somewhere that you really should not use an extension cord to plug in the compressor. I guess you want the shortest power cord possible. This would basically eliminate the portability of a compressor on wheels if there was no convienent outlet where you needed the air.
What is the advantge of a compressor running on 220v?
The only other problem with going to a compressor that uses 220v is, it's almost a little to big for the space I have. But again, could be doable.
The next compressor up from the Husky I was looking at, is a 60 gallon 10.2 @ 90.
LRod, help me out here , but I think that running on 240 volts is that your compressor will draw half as many amps.
My uncle has a compressor with a tank somewhere in the neighborhood of
250 gallons. The pump and motor are inside, the skid tank sits outside. Just a thought.
gallon 10.2
As long as we're talking about it, why not just go for the gusto? I'm in agreement with Mike in that you should buy a bigger comprressor than you'll ever need. I saw one at the Borg with a 2-piston pump bigger than a Ducati motor. If I were going to buy a _serious_ compressor, I'd start from there and work up. I mean, it's only money, right?
Get the bigger unit if you can swing it. HD lists both as 7 peak HP, but the bigger unit has a much bigger motor.
The price difference between the two is minimal.
You will not be able to run the smaller unit on an extension cord unless you get a good 12 gauge one that isn't too long. My father's small Coleman compressor won't start at all on a lot of extension cords.
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