60 Gallon Upright Compressor in Basement

[Homewrecker]

Hey all.

I'll be moving into a newly constructed home in the next couple of months. I had the builder add a 'cold cellar' to the foundation under the front porch. It's not really 'cold' by any means but that's what they call it.

Anyway, I had an old CH 20 Gallon Compressor that served me will but this time I wanted to go all out and get a 60 Gallon 230V upright unit. My intention was to put it in the cold cellar and run Rapidair piping to the garage.

These things run 250 lbs and up and I was wondering how difficult it would be to drag this thing down the stairs. Has anyone done this and how many people were needed to lift it. I was thinking about removing the pump and motor assembly from the top to bring the weight down.

 

[zkling]

I was thinking about removing the pump and motor assembly from the top to bring the weight down.

Depends on what 60gal unit you are talking about. They are extremely top heavy as they sit. So, the person that has to carry the top down stairs gets the raw end of the deal. Taking the motor off is a good start, pump also is a good ideal. Again depending on what model you get. The pump on a 60gal vertical compressor can weight anywhere from 20-300lbs. I'd personally take it off just in case you accidentally drop the tank and hit the pulley. The tank alone is not very heavy, just awkward. Very easily done with 2 people.

 

[thebeekeeper1]

As above, they are top heavy, but an appliance dolly will easily do it with two men working on it.

 

[Homewrecker]

Thanks for that. Not sure what unit I'm getting yet. They always go on sale at TSC and Princess Auto. They ones I looked at weight between 247-285 lbs. I always thought the tank was the heavy part until I saw some of those cast iron cylinder assemblies.

Getting it off the pick-up truck will also be a pain. They come mounted on a wooden skid and then loaded with a forklift. Easy to get it on but I don't have a forklift at home to get it off. Maybe I'll leave the tailgate down, back into the garage, throw it into drive and slam on the gas lol.

 

[thebeekeeper1]

You can get them out of a truck by laying them on their side and sliding them down a piece of cardboard. You can then "walk" them where they need to be. Down a staircase is best done with an appliance dolly, as I said above, but you can slide them down cardboard with three guys to maintain control. Once at the bottom you can then "walk" it into position.

 

[CNGsaves]

If house is still in process of being built, I sure would plan a black pipe steel run from cold cellar to the garage. Build it to last if you're commiting that space to compressor. You'll need to handle water that you'll get when draining tank (likely not much in that controlled environment) so it could just be a line into a jug. If you run black pipe steel from cold cellar to upper perimeter of garage, then bring drops back down, you will have some DRY air which is exactly what you want.

+1 to also take the compressor apart into 3 pieces (motor, compressor and tank). Put compressor in some sort of padded wooden box that you strap to appliance dolly and haul down stairs. Do same with tank by ratchet strapping it to dolly to take downstairs.

For unloading from pickup bed, I'd recommend driving into a ditch near driveway to get tires in hole and tailgate as low as possible. Then just use appliance dolly to ramp down to driveway using plywood sheet with blocks underneath for support.

Post up some pics of your air system setup once it's underway. Good luck.

 

[Conductor562]

They aren't as bad to move as you're thinking. I've been jockeying a 60 gal. around during the moving process the last couple weeks. 3 of us unloaded it from the bed of a 4x4 pickup with 1 of us guiding the top and the other 2 actually doing the lifting.

 

[WhoWhatNow]

I had movers out when I put my 80 gallon Quincy in the basement. I took the pump and motor off the tank. They strapted the tank to an appliance movers hand truck and took it down the stairs. Two guys took about 15min to move the tank downstairs. Both of them were above the tank. Don't let anyone be down ladder in case it slips.

 

[Homewrecker]

Thanks for all the replies. I picked up a Rapidair plumbing kit on sale awhile ago. Would it be better to stil run black pipe? I'll be drilling through the foundation wall to enter the garage instead of drilling slightly higher into the framed wall because it's very cramped with water lines and electrical. Black pipe and concrete don't play well together over time I would think.

The cold cellar has its own floor drain so I can just drain the tank onto the floor since the drain will only be a few inches away.

There's no ditch around anywhere so I'll just slide it of the end of the truck using some carpet instead of cardboard. There's tons of carpet around in the construction waste bins from the other houses being built. The only crappy part is that the stairs to the basement do a 90 degree turn 2 steps down from the top. I have the same setup in my current house but if I can get a 400 pound treadmill down these stairs I'm sure a compressor won't be any more difficult.

Would removing the pump and cylinder assy void the warranty somehow? I guess it would depend on the individual manufacturer.

I'm not permitted to add anything to the of the house until I own it but the builders allowing me to add insulation and vapor barrier to the parts of the garage that do not require it as per code.

 

[Homewrecker]

Should I be using black pipe for the plumbing or is the RapidAir kit good enough?