I need a compressor. I saw one today at Home Depot that was an upright on wheels. A 5hp 115v. unit. It was Husky brand.
Anyone have any experience with Husky? I want the piston type, as the others are just too loud.
I want to spend $4-$500.
I looked at IR, but they are expensive. Craftsman? Hausfeld Campbell? I need something that will run air chisels, paint sprayer, etc, so it has to be around a 2 hp. or more.
Suggestions and caveats, please.
Steve
I have a Craftsman 15 gallon 3.5 hp. It is big enough for me most of the time. When I media blast/sand blast. I use a couple of old oxygen tanks for extra volume.
I have a friend that bought a harbor freight vertical compressor and is enamored with it. It fit right into the area of his garage and is 5 ph. His wife spray paints frequently. Cost a lot less.
Look at the Max CFM that your air tools are going to use and buy a compressor that meets or beats that number, horsepower is less important. Choose the CFM you need and the compressor will come with enough hp to run it. If you don't have enough CFM you will have to constantly stop and wait for the air to catch up.
CR
For home use a Harbor Freight one should be OK.
If you buy a Coleman, get one rated at least 5 HP if you think you need
2HP. The ratings are exaggerated that much. (and Coleman admitted as much in a class action lawsuit, although they didn't pay anything) I bought a 6 HP Coleman a few years ago and it doesn't perform as well as the ancient 2 HP Quincy compressor I had.I don't remember who all else was a party to the lawsuit, but pretty much all of the consumer air compressor manufacturers use such exaggerated numbers the specs are all but worthless.
Best regards, Bob
Almost, but not quite. You should also consider the duty cycles of the tools and compressor.
For example an air sander may require 6cfm and you may expect to use it at an 80% duty cycle. So, in a sample 100 minute period it will be run for 80 minutes and consume 480cubic feet of air during this time.
Now if your compressor can produce 7cfm it will take about 68minutes to generate this amount of air. This equates to a 68.6% duty cycle. If your compressor is only rated at 50% you risk damaging it.
I would tend to derate the compressor cfm spec by its maximum duty cycle before matching to your expected requirement
Dave
well, i've got one in my garage that's broken and they can't find/get the parts to fix.
i replaced it with
you can get a 60 gallon 5 hp campell housfeild oil bath piston pump for about that or less if you look around. you really need at least
60 gallon tank to run air tools .80 is even better.
Ignore HP ratings! Your 5 HP Husky that runs on 115 volt is probably 1.5 HP. Look at CFM @ 90 PSI, that will give you a good comparison. As I said, the 5HP Husky is around 1.5 HP, the IR that you say is too expensive is probably as they state HP wise. If you want to buy a compressor once and never replace it, spend a $1000 or so on a IR and be done with it.
Semi-serious air tool usage will require a minimum of 10 CFM @ 90 PSI, anything less and you will be wishing you had bought something larger.
I have a "7HP" Porter Cable 60 gallon air compressor that size wise serves me well. Output is 9 CFM @ 90 PSI. I don't expect it to live for ever, but then I don't work in the shop like I used to either. This 7 HP unit is actually about 3 HP!
Motors will draw about 10-12 amps per HP at 115 volt, 1/2 of that at 240 volt.
Stay with oil lube. Better life, less noise. Most of the lower priced units are all abut the same for quality and price. Greg
Good point, but be aware that allot of tool manufacturers already consider average air consumption in tools specs! I have seen specs with average air consumption, and air consumption at 100% duty cycle. Some of the averages are so small that there is no way they are realistic. For example,
shipping, most states no Tax. I have an old 20 gal 3hp craftsman never had any problems. But my experience with there newer stuff has been bad I think there new add campaign is "If it's electric it will break if it's gas don't worry it won't start"
When I decided I needed more compressor than my origional "5HP" Craftsman, I was convinced by talking to "real" compressor shops to buy a used "commercial" cast iron compressor. The 5HP 2 stage compressor I ended up with delivers way more pressure and volume than the one it replaced, and the sound is way more bearable. I was told it would last way longer than any of the cheap compressors I could get at local "home inprovement" stores.
Bob
In my opinion the air tank capacity is much more important than the pump HP. unless all you want is something to pump up the kids bike tires once a month.
Get a unit with as large a tank as you can live with. The pumps are usually matched fairly well to the tanks.
AMUN
I'm a bit of a tinkerer. Seems like it oughta be possible to get an old 80 gal water heater. The propane comanies sometimes take out electric heaters, and then sell the family propane for the rest of thier lives.
Then, with a day or two to come up to pressure, (fill the tank the first time) just about any kind of compressor would do the job.
I've used a compressor off a refrigerator to compress air, in the past. That was well before the 1993 freon regulations. In theory, an AC compressor works nicely for an air compressor. But you have to change the lubricating oil. Many HVAC guys can do that, but few will want to mess with a small job. An AC compressor can be a lot quieter than the big compressor in the repair garage.
Well, have fun and keep us posted.
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