Time to fill air compressor tank, ? standards?

Oct 28, 2007 5 Replies

I recently purchased a used compressor and when I cranked it up the first time it seemed to take longer than I expected to reach a full tank @ 100psi. My prior compressor did have a smaller tank but also had a smaller compressor size. Are there any standards of how fast a compressor that does about 10 scfa/m @90psi should take to fill a 25 gal tank?



25 gallons is 3.34 cubic feet.

What's "scfa"?

No. Purely a function of horsepower versus tank size, which are independent variables.

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Sorry, I didn't see you specified the cfm and tank volume.

Time to fill should be approximately:

Volume * pressure in atm / volume rate, or

25 gal x 0.137 cu ft per gallon * 90 psi / 14.7 psi ambient / 10 cu ft per minute = 2.1 minutes.

So it should take several minutes.

Thanks! This is about what it's doing; First 240 v compressor I'd had so I really expected it to be speedier. Good URL reference

Well, next saga of the Black Max compressor. Didn't seem to be working quite right, still, and I took off the felt air filter and could feel some air coming out of the port not just being sucked in so I figure the reed plate is toasting. Took off the head; cylinder walls look good so I'm getting a new reed plate. Now If I could just figure out how to get off all that old gasket material!.

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