Air Compressor / second tank question

[timatoe]

Hey guys, first post here. I've got questions about running a secondary tank for my compressor.

A bit of background.

I had an old oil less 5hp 60 gallon Craftsman compressor for about 25 years. I forgot to shut it off prior to leaving for a couple of weeks and came home to find the casing exploded all over the garage floor.



I bought a new IR compressor at my local Tractor Supply (THIS ONE) and tossed the motor and what was left of the compressor assembly from the Craftsman, but kept the tank in case I may ever need it.



So fast forward to now; we've bought a new house and just completed a shop out back. I'm currently building a compressor closet in the shop and am thinking I could run a 3/4" jumper hose between the two tanks in the closet and then plumb it out through the shop from there.

With all that being said, my question is... Is this a bad idea? It seems to me having the increased volume of compressed air would be a good thing, but I'm concerned that it may be essentially overworking the compressor that was meant for 80 gallons now filling 140 gallons. What say you?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

It will be fine. The compressor will work to fill the air you use. There will be longer time between fills, and longer time spent filling. I did a similar thing using an empty tank, but had a smaller portable compressor and a large stationary filling the big tank. This was so I could take a portable with me when needed.

 

[b-dog]

Very nice! I had a very similar experience, minus the explosion, upgraded a 20+year old oil less Craftsman to a Quincy.

If you don't have any leaks in your plumbing, that's great. For the rest of us mortals, I have a suggestion... I put a 110vac ball value on the output of my compressor wired to the shop lights. When the lights go off, the valve closes and the compressor doesn't inadvertently turn on at 2am. When you turn the lights on, you have a full tank of air, no more waiting for the tank to fill. Cheers.

 

[dogdog]

Yea... did the same to increase capacity for the oil-less (smaller compressor) so I can spray.

one safety note.
*** make sure you kept the safety device. which is that safety pop off valve on the second tank.. Most compressor should have it. not 100% sure about yours./

 

[rust in the eye]

A friend's ancient old shop compressor also grenaded in similar fashion, only it was bigger and it happened while he was present. Be glad you weren't around.
He needed air to run his shop so I gave him a sweet deal on two 60 gallon units I had, one with a sketchy pump. He ran the good pump plumbed to both tanks. No troubles doing it that way. A ball valve between the two tanks prevented the compressor from working longer cycles when less capacity was needed.

 

[908Jim]

Your concern is reasonable but I wouldn't worry all that much. The total amount of air being pumped for a given task is still the same as long as the system doesn't bleed off. If you have leaks, you're pumping up a much larger volume of air every morning so it will add up to some extra hours over a long period of time. If you're worried, plumb the tank with an isolation valve and open it up when the capacity is needed for projects. It's the best of both worlds.

 

[johnre]

A friend's ancient old shop compressor also grenaded in similar fashion, only it was bigger and it happened while he was present. Be glad you weren't around.

The air pump coming apart from overheating - which is what this thread is about - is one thing; there's not a lot of stored energy involved. A tank explosion is yet another; that might be what happened to your friend. Iit will take out windows, walls, and anything close to the tank - including people.

 

[rust in the eye]

The air pump coming apart from overheating - which is what this thread is about - is one thing; there's not a lot of stored energy involved. A tank explosion is yet another; that might be what happened to your friend. Iit will take out windows, walls, and anything close to the tank - including people.

His tank didn't explode. This was an ancient old industrial compressor, the tank, motor and compressor were huge. Somehow the pulley wheel on the compressor side exploded sending shrapnel throughout his shop, damaging one car, no injuries but some soiled trousers.

 

[Citation]

Depending on your air needs it might be a "don't bother with it" sort of thing. Yes, it will result in a lot more available air but how often do you need a burst of air that is more than the current tank can handle but isn't "continuous" where you would need a bigger pump?

BTW, if you do add the second tank I totally agree with adding a blow off valve at the tank just in case.

Where I could see this being helpful is if you had two parts of the shop that were a long way apart (second building etc) and you wanted to run say a 1/2" line between the two. A 1/2" line will be more than sufficient to keep up with your pump when it comes to refilling the tank. A few high draw tools might have issues with pressure drop over say 100+ ft of air line so having a second tank at the far end of the line would be helpful. Just having the two tanks next to each other probably is only helpful in a few cases. An alternative might be to fix the compressor up. I feel like 10-20 years back you could find lots of tanks from oil free compressors that died early. More recently it seems like the issue is tanks that rotted but the rest of the system is still good (happened to me). Thus I would consider rebuilding that compressor with a new/used motor, pump etc. In my case the used tank I found was from one of those oil free compressors and the mount plate was totally different than my belt drive compressor. I cut the whole motor plate off my old, bad tank and mounted it to the new tank's plate. In my case I used a 3/4" plywood sheet as an intermediate part. If I had welding skills I would have done that instead. Either way, the old motor plate was secure on the replacement tank. If you want to use new parts I would suggest looking at HF's pumps. They are quite a good value for a home use 60 gallon tank.

 

[Shootinok]

I did a project with a dead compressor. Made the second tank portable.
It’s been a very useful. I keep it attached to my stationary primary compressor for more capacity, but can wheel it around the yard to air things up or use it for air tools.
I added extension plates to move the wheels back and a simple foot on the front. Here are some pics.