Lidl Compressor

Lidl have this compressor

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on offer at £80 next Thursday.

Is it likely to be any good? [It's quite a lot cheaper than a (roughly) equivalent jobbie from the likes of Machine Mart].

I've often toyed with the idea of having a compressor - so this looks like a possible opportunity to 'stick my toe in the water'.

How many of you own one? How useful is it - particularly one of this size?

Reply to
Roger Mills
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An air compressor? Me.

Very. Another one of those "how did I manage without this" tools.

Mine looks very similar to the Lidl one.

Reply to
Huge

: : I've often toyed with the idea of having a compressor - so this looks : like a possible opportunity to 'stick my toe in the water'. :

Before anyone can answer your questions you need to tell us what you intend to do with the compressor, inflating your car tyres, using a nail gun or repainting a car or house all need different spec's of compressors...

Reply to
Jerry

what have you done/managed to do/failed to do with it?

Cheers Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

And me (4 actually).

I've a 50l / 15cfm jobby when I really need some air and don't mind the noise and a Bambi / Wolf 25l / 2cfm hybrid that is virtually silent when I need a bit of air and want it without the need for earplugs (or it's late).

Then I have the lightweight oil-free portable (240V) jobby that is handy for blowing the dust out of stuff and tire inflation and a similar pump on a 25l reservoir that the daughter uses up in Scotland, mainly for the blowgun and tyre inflator.

Very handy when used with a rattle gun, air gun and tyre inflator.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

I've got a Bostitch of about the same size. It's main use day-to-day is as a blow-off gun for quickly clearing dust and debris away from a work area, but I also use it to drive a nailer and for occasional air- brush use.

dan.

Reply to
dent

It actually looks quite reasonable - a 25L receiver is about the minimum size for getting useful amounts of work done in a range of applications. It does not spec a free air delivery or input power, but from the displacement I should guess its about 1 to 1.5 hp. It has auto switching which some of the bargain basement ones lack.

I have a similar spec SIP unit, and use if for a reasonable range of jobs including: nail guns (framing and 18g brad), tyre inflation, blow gun (dusting, and inflating low pressure stuff!), medium sized spray gun which I used for furniture finishing, impact wrench, plus a couple of less often used things.

Its not going to be well suited to jobs that need continuous supply of lots of air like running some rotating air tools, or bigger spraying jobs.

Reply to
John Rumm

The truth is that I don't really know! It may be the case of a solution looking for a problem - or a case of let's get one and see what I can do with it! Hence my request for other people's experiences.

I guess that primarily I would use it for inflating tyres and blowing dirt off things. I might get attachments such as a nail gun and/or impact driver - and possibly sand blaster. I don't expect to do much - if any - paint spraying.

Reply to
Roger Mills

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You could easily justify the cost on one job alone. I used mine to lay new T&G floors using 'T' nails which are almost invisible unlike screws or flooring brads.

There is a good range of air tools available and they're surprisingly cheap but generally well made so you might find a use for some of them.

The Lidl version you pictured looks good and appears to be a reasonable specification although I doubt if it will be powerful enough for much sand blasting.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

Funny the page I see says "Air displacement (1lr/min): 270" that's about 9.5 cfm but it doesn't say if that is free air or not. The item is called "2.5HP Air Compressor" so I'd guess it's a 2.5HP jobbie. B-)

But I don't see any mention of that on the page I see. Weird.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

: > : > : : > : I've often toyed with the idea of having a compressor - so this : > looks : > : like a possible opportunity to 'stick my toe in the water'. : > : : >

: > Before anyone can answer your questions you need to tell us what : > you intend to do with the compressor, inflating your car tyres, : > using a nail gun or repainting a car or house all need different : > spec's of compressors... : : : The truth is that I don't really know! It may be the case of a solution : looking for a problem - or a case of let's get one and see what I can do : with it! Hence my request for other people's experiences. : : I guess that primarily I would use it for inflating tyres and blowing : dirt off things. I might get attachments such as a nail gun and/or : impact driver - and possibly sand blaster. I don't expect to do much - : if any - paint spraying.

The Lidil compressor should be fine for the first three uses (providing that you are not planning to 'nail for Britain' in a house building competition. Both impact and most certainly sand blasting could be a problem if used constantly as it doesn't have a very large (24lt) tank capacity, and thus you would be more reliant on the displacement of the actual compressor (the Air Displacement figure). That said, for the price, this unit should be good to get started if used sensibly. Always wear eye protection is using a compressed air supply for blowing dirt off/out of things, the average elf and safety inspector frowns on such use for understandable reasons!

Reply to
Jerry

At the risk of being boring, its amazing the uses you find for a compressor once you have got it After I damaged the metal garage door, I spray painted its replacement - I could never have got it that good by other means and when the neighbours are at work I can polish it! It is useful for changing wheels especially when you are rather old! An air chisel is useful but it uses a lot of air. Don't forget to buy decent sockets for use with air ratchets because the cheap ones can fly apart.

Alan

Reply to
Roberts

With compressors they can never have too much free air delivery or too big a receiver :-).

I've just bought a new one -- the biggest I could get that would be on wheels and would run off a 13 amp socket. 200 litre receiver and huge starting capacitors and an automatic decompressor to allow an easy start. And belt driven.

As has been pointed out to you, small compressors don't have much puff. And direct-drive oilless compressors don't tend to last as long. However, there are some jobs for which being able to bring the compressor to the job is very important and providing the tool is small and of low consumption, they'll do fine for occasional use.

Pneumatic nailers and (especially) staplers are brilliant tools.

As someone else has pointed out, air tools are delightful to handle, cheap and generally quite well made. With no electric motor they're compact and reliable.

The Lidl compressor is probably a good enough buy if you regard it as a "taster" to see whether air tools are for you.

John MacLeod

Reply to
John MacLeod

My weatherboarding garage has a surface area of 60 square metres. Sounds like a biggish job to me. What would happen if I were to use the Lidl compressor to spray it with timber treatment? Would it run out of puff after a few sq m, or would it keep going for an hour or so?

The house (semi-detached part of a converted barn) is even bigger. One of these day's I'll measure it and frighten myself at the cost of treating it.

Reply to
Peter Twydell

I love the idea of buying one of these for "blowing the dirt off things"... I fear SWMBO might require a little more justification than that... ;-)

David

Reply to
Lobster

I saw the displacement figure - but that is not the same as the free air delivery which is usually a bit less.

I did not spot the 2.5hp, but if it is 2.5hp then it ought to be good for 7 cfm free air delivery which is plenty to be useful.

It did not spell it out, but the fact there are two pressure dials is a good clue.

Reply to
John Rumm

Since its 2.5hp, then a free aid delivery of 7 cfm seems plausible - that will run a fair size spray gun. Its rare to keep the trigger held down for that long at a time anyway when spraying, so there are natural breaks to allow it to recharge. I can't see 60m^2 being much problem in that sense. (although for wood preserver a pump up garden sprayer is probably as good or better - you don't normally need the fine atomisation (and hence fine finish achievable) of a high presure sprayer for that.

Just don't spray on a windy day, else you will be treating the neighbourhood at the same time!

Reply to
John Rumm

Well it has to be said, that a blast of compressed air can shift crud that is otherwise hard to shift!

Tell her she can do the tyres on the car without having to go to the garage and do it under the watchful eye of a load of strange blokes!

Reply to
John Rumm

An HVLP sprayer would be much better for this sort of job. The blower is light weight and hangs off your shoulder on a strap with just a mains lead to tow behind you. I was quite pleased with the performance power one from B&Q - about £50 4 years ago. I expect they still do them maybe with a different badge.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Neighbor has a large compressor (twin cylinder job) recently had it running so his 5yr old son could play with air hose. No safety kit, not even any shoes on.

So he was happily blasting away stones, sand, water, cement dust etc. from his not yet laid drive .... does make you wonder how risky that is.

Reply to
Rick Hughes

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