Are Air Compressors still necessary?

[jblnut]

I’d say leave it behind or sell it and get an 80gal two stage unit when you get to the new place. Never a better time to upgrade lol.

Everyone’s uses are different but I can not imagine not having air in my shop. I use it daily to do all kinds of things.

 

[gahrajmahal]

Monday I used mine with an old Sharp spray gun filled with Landau top adhesive to install new headliner fabric in my 13 yr. old Honda. Later this spring I will use it when I continue to repoint our stone retaining walls. I will be using my air chisel with a 12” long chisel to chip out the old and crumbling mortar.

 

[mike93lx]

If you live in a region with cold winters and need to blow out sprinkler lines, a compressor pays for itself vs hiring a sprinkler company to blow out the system every year.

This is the sole reason I have a 26 gal comp in the shed.

I use a smaller aluminum tank one for pneumatic nail guns... Too many and too infrequently used to justify moving those to cordless, plus the pneumatics are so much lighter

 

[Notgrownup]

I have to have one.

 

[CraigStu]

Don't forget blowing dust off your wife's knickknacks.

 

[mike93lx]

Don't forget blowing dust off your wife's knickknacks.

 

[ShiverMeTimbers]

I have a cordless inflator and it takes forever to add more than a few PSI to any tire larger than a lawnmower.

Try the Milwaukee M18 inflator... it easily does 80psi for my 5th wheel and truck tires.

 

[ShiverMeTimbers]

We moved in December, and I moved my 80 gallon 2 stage. I still haven't gotten mine hooked up, there is just so much to do (and getting the old house finished was a MAJOR undertaking). But I often curse not having it. That said, I do have a pancake one that has saved my bacon a few times. Even on the MTB, having it is nice to help set the beads on the tires, which is hard to do without compressed air, and I try to not use the CCO2 except for trailside flats. I also use it to get the foam style grips on and off the bars.

But overall, even though you don't use it often, you will miss it if you don't have it. If you had a big one like mine, I'd tell you to sell or leave it, and get a smaller one. I'd be more than happy with one the size of yours, but since I have painted a few cars, and I have a bead blaster, having the large one is nice.

In your case, you could probably have a larger pancake style one do the job, but since you already have the one you have, and it presumably is semi-portable, I don't see a reason to get rid of it.

Yeah, I MTB often... setting the beads sure is easy with the air compressor.

Thanks all for the thoughts, I'm going to keep it for the move. I've carted it around for 20 years, what's a few more?

 

[The Cobbler]

plus the pneumatics are so much lighter

I agree 100% . I had guys on jobsites telling me I'm behind the times because I was still using pneumatic staplers & brad guns.
That's OK. I am good with that .
Pneumatic is less bulky and built a lot better as well.

 

[Aaron_W]

I think there is a lot more nuance to air or no air. Air is handy, but how useful depends a lot on the individual. Unless you do nothing more than air up tires, I think the 1-6 gallon type will always have a high value to cost ratio (both monetary and space). The proliferation of relatively inexpensive quiet compressors just increases their utility. Perfect for blowing stuff out, running a nailer, air brush etc.

On the other end 60 gal + with a good compressor is great if you run high demand air tools, but if you are not already invested in air tools many uses can easily be replaced with cordless tools. Paint sprayers similar situation as there are now quite a few good airless sprayers available, although I'm sure there are still uses where a spray gun and air is preferred. If you want to do media blasting though, then that is a good reason to still have air tools since you are going to need a big compressor.


That middle size, the wheeled mobile compressors of 10-30 gallons are probably the least ideal. They are not particularly cheap, they take up a fair bit of space, they are far less mobile and convenient to use than a 6 gallon or smaller, but still usually fall well short of the tasks you would use a large, static compressor for. Not useless, there are still tasks they are very good for so I don't think they will go away, but that niche is shrinking. I think these are probably also the size with the highest regret factor. Too much and not enough for a lot of people.


Tire inflators have gotten really good, but I'd never want to be completely without any kind of air compressor.

 

[The Cobbler]

Tire inflators have gotten really good, but I'd never want to be completely without any kind of air compressor.

I wonder how well tire inflaters work to seal a bead on a tire?

 

[mike93lx]

I wonder how well tire inflaters work to seal a bead on a tire?

I bet most people, even here, have never needed to seat a tire bead. I definitely haven't beyond a bike, and a manual pump will do that.

 

[MOwens]

I honestly hardly use my air compressor at my home shop as it’s typically easier and quicker to just grab the Milwaukee battery powered compressor for most small jobs like airing up a tire. Most casual tinkerers don’t need an air compressor anymore especially with the introduction of better and better battery powered tools. Also another thing that gets overlooked is pneumatic tools are the most expensive utility in a shop. My machine shop is a different animal though and if my Kaeser SM10 Aircenter died I would go out and buy a new one tomorrow. It has saved me more in utilities than the compressor cost me roughly 20 years ago. 3 phase demand charge. Plus it’s been impeccably reliable. I have a few machines in my shop that require constant air and if the air goes down the machines cannot run.

 

[Citation]

I honestly hardly use my air compressor at my home shop as it’s typically easier and quicker to just grab the Milwaukee battery powered compressor for most small jobs like airing up a tire. Most casual tinkerers don’t need an air compressor anymore especially with the introduction of better and better battery powered tools. Also another thing that gets overlooked is pneumatic tools are the most expensive utility in a shop. My machine shop is a different animal though and if my Kaeser SM10 Aircenter died I would go out and buy a new one tomorrow. It has saved me more in utilities than the compressor cost me roughly 20 years ago. 3 phase demand charge. Plus it’s been impeccably reliable. I have a few machines in my shop that require constant air and if the air goes down the machines cannot run.

I'm going to pick a nit. Air tools aren't the most expensive, often they are less expensive than electric options. The catch is that "air" as a power source is inefficient thus expense.

Running my 3" zip wheel continuously requires 115V (loaded voltage) at probably 12A (actual vs rated) so 1.85hp out of the wall. Even then I don't think my compressor quite keeps up. There HF electric equivalent uses 6A (perhaps lower in use). So at least half as much power. If course for the 5 min of air so wheel time per month I'm not sure the price difference matters much.

But, if I didn't have my zip wheel, $35 for the plug in equivalent is tempting. I like that air tools don't overheat in use but I don't like that you really need a 240V compressor to really keep up with a zip wheel.

One final thing, if you ever drill holes in aluminum sheet, a good air drill is still much nicer than any electric drill. They are so light and easy to work with.

 

[strutaeng]

If you ever do moderate/serious body work, I would say that's where you will need an air compressor. Even though they make cordless sanders, air file (in-line) sander, Bondo Hog, die grinder, Venturi air dryer, ion anti-stat guns, and spray guns are all still widely pneumatic.

I can't image what a spray gun with 20 oz of high build primer would feel like, overreaching that huge 70s hood you are painting, loaded with your favorite color 9amp battery would feel like?

 

[nh_yota]

I think for the average person in the average garage, most if not all tasks can be accomplished with cordless tools.

For the rest of us above-average garage users, most tasks can still be performed with cordless tools, but there are some tasks which require air tools or are at least easier to accomplish with air tools. Up here in rust country an air hammer is essential for many automotive tasks, and to the best of my knowledge there is no cordless equivalent.

I have a 1/2 Ryobi cordless impact wrench that I use for lug nuts and some other tasks, but the rest of my automotive tools are all air-powered because I bought most of them 20 years ago back before cordless tools were good enough to replace air tools. I'm only 45 years old and I'm sure I'll see even greater advancements in cordless tool techonology, so I don't have the urge (nor the budget) to go out and replace all my air tools with cordless tools right now.

 

[duneslider]

The big compressor in the garage rarely gets used, I use my small pancake compressor pretty regularly.

 

[Aaron_W]

I honestly hardly use my air compressor at my home shop as it’s typically easier and quicker to just grab the Milwaukee battery powered compressor for most small jobs like airing up a tire. Most casual tinkerers don’t need an air compressor anymore especially with the introduction of better and better battery powered tools. Also another thing that gets overlooked is pneumatic tools are the most expensive utility in a shop. My machine shop is a different animal though and if my Kaeser SM10 Aircenter died I would go out and buy a new one tomorrow. It has saved me more in utilities than the compressor cost me roughly 20 years ago. 3 phase demand charge. Plus it’s been impeccably reliable. I have a few machines in my shop that require constant air and if the air goes down the machines cannot run.

The thing is, if you have just one process where you need air, then you already have air and air tools are usually much cheaper with better ergonomics.

There is no cordless alternative that I am aware of for plasma cutting or media blasting and I'm sure there are others. Lots of people will still need to have a compressor and that changes the math.

 

[Metal-Marc]

I've had a 26 gallon air compressor for 20 years but we're moving and I'm wondering if I still need it.

 

[njk4o5]

I wish dewalt made a 20v air compressor that could do a couple bursts of 120-psi air for cleaning out a carburetor or keyboard

 

[tradesman]

no comment

 

[Upstater57]

You don't use compressed air for cleaning?

In the past week I've used my compressor to clean/blow off my lawn mower, chain saw, floor vacuum, and under the hood of my F150 before swapping the plugs and air cleaner. Sure, I could use a leaf blower, but they have a tiny fraction of the power.

Use mine the same way. High pressure air works great. Don't need it for air tools anymore.

 

[Glemon]

I had a big compressor (ok medium by you guy's standards) 8 years ago. It was wearing out and until I built my shop nowhere to put it. I sold it cheap and got a pancake compressor to tide me over. I don't do major restoration (body) work on cars anymore, but still a lot of mechanical.

I thought I would end up getting a new big compressor, but never have really felt the need

When I was young a ratchet was a luxury over a wrench, never really started using air tools for mechanical work even after I got my compressor and some basic air tools 25 years ago.