Decide Me an Air Compressor

[bwringer]

My Grandpa's ancient Montgomery Ward air compressor needs a new pressure switch. In the course of extracting the switch, the general poor state of the tank and plumbing caused me to let out a little wee of fright. After a little investigation under the grime and rust, I found a date of 1976 on the tank. It's been 50 years... I'm tired, boss.

If faint memories of family lore is correct, it's a bit of a Ship of Theseus situation. The pump was replaced some decades ago, and it is frankly very tired. The motor is fairly recent replacement, probably in the 2000s. It's yer usual 2-cylinder parallel twin pump and 3(ish)hp 240VAC motor.

Anyway, it's clearly time for replacement.

Like many of you, my cordless tools have largely replaced most of my air tools. My main air uses are in changing motorcycle tires and the air cylinder that raises my motorcycle lift. I don't really paint. I've used an air die grinder on a few occasions, and of course air is often used to blast the gunk off things, etc.

I have two candidates in mind:

For $570, this 29 gallon, 165psi, 5.3SCFM McGraw unit at the Harbor Freight a mile down the road has a lot of appeal:

https://www.harborfreight.com/29-gallon-165-psi-oil-lube-belt-drive-shopauto-air-compressor-58507.html

Plenty of air for my purposes, and the motor can be easily reconfigured to run on 240V, so I wouldn't need to fart around rewiring the breaker and outlet. Belt drive and oil lubricated should give it a pretty good lifetime (probably not 50 years...) and overall it would sort of a lateral move; it should do everything I've come to expect from a compressor. Noise level is given as 75dBa, which is typical for a belt drive, and much better than most oilless compressors.


However, in this corner we have a different philosophy entirely; an ultra-quiet "Fortress" compressor from HF for $290:

https://www.harborfreight.com/10-gallon-175-psi-ultra-quiet-oil-free-horizontal-shopauto-air-compressor-57328.html

About half the cash, much smaller tank, less noise at 69dBa (how much less that is in practice I dunno, but I do know these Fortress compressors are impressively quiet.) On the downside, it's "oil-free", which usually means much less life-span. And it's 120V, so I'd have to fart around in my breaker panel, install new breakers, new outlet, and move some wires around. Probably about $20-$30 worth of **** and a half hour or so, plus re-setting the coffee maker. And SCFM is only 4.3. I think it would blow up tires and run my lift just fine, but it would also run a lot more.

I've perused Northern Tool (it's less than 2 miles away) and all the usual home stores (Menard's, Lowes, Home Despot) and farm stores (Rural King, TSC), and so far all their options in this range are far more expensive or far less capable. They're all Chinese compressors with different paint colors, and no, I don't plan to double or triple my budget to buy the megasaurus yellow, beige, etc. options.

I'm already sick of not having freshly squozen air on hand, and I'm buying an air compressor tomorrow.

Also, would joining the stupid ITC help save me any money? Should I succumb to the stupid "extended warranty" hard sell?

What say ye, components of the GJ Hive Mind?

 

[driftpin]

I am a HFT ITC Club member and I save more-than the cost of joining over the course of a year to justify the expenditure. I don't buy the extra warranties.

I have a Saylor Beall 705 compressor, I like using air tools though I'm only taking care of my own things. I have an old Campbell Hausfeld 30 gal. tank, 240V wheeled air compressor I bought from a friend, the original purchaser, it stands silent. I tried to sell it but I refused to sell it for what was being offered, two digit $$. If I got $100 for it I'd be OK, but I'm not going to give it away.

Get the better SCFM, I suggest. It's not a big difference, but more is better for an air compressor. If you're tight for $, go the cheaper route.

 

[Citation]

How much air do you really need? For around $150 or perhaps less Walmart is dumping the Hart quiet compressors. It's, I think, 8 gallons, 135 psi, 2.4 cfm.

Robot or human?

It might be marginal for your needs or it might be plenty. It's quiet, small, cheap. So not much to dislike there. While the low CFM means refills take longer, unless you have a high demand job, most of the time that just means you have to listen to the pump run longer. That's not so bad if the dang thing isn't loud. Note that Walmart is discontinuing Hart so deals might be had if they are in stock.

The Fortress on your list is also attractive in my book. Similar to the Hart in terms of lower air capacity but quiet. At nearly 2x the price I might consider a pair of Hart compressors first.

The last option is similar to what I have. If you can get it for some type of discount this might be the best. With a good intake muffler these belt driven pumps can be reasonably OK to be around. Mine is louder than the CAT 5510 I also own but it's quiet enough. The extra tank and flow can be handy but do you need it? If you really do need it are you better off just getting a 240V 60gal 3hp compressor. Often those 240V models cost only a bit more yet deliver almost double the flow rate and have much larger reserves. This last point is why I generally don't suggest getting one of these expensive 120V compressors. They cost as much as entry level 240 models yet they can't do things like small blast cabinet or DA sanders etc. A 3hp 240 compressor is likely to keep up with most needs including extensive zip wheel use, painting, blasting etc. Even a good 120V model will struggle with most of those jobs. Why not just get something smaller and less expensive?

I will note, I got mine when battery impact wrenches weren't really a thing and it was used so my price was much lower. If it were stolen tomorrow (but the rest of my tools weren't). I probably would just use my low flow CAT compressor instead. The CAT can't do a zip wheel or air drill but it can do short impact bursts. It would also save me a good bit of space in my very small garage.

 

[u2slow]

You can get 20-30gal portables that put out ~10scfm @90psi. (also 3hp)

Based on your old machine, that's where I'd start again. Would NOT consider an oil-less unit.

 

[bwringer]

Update:

I bought the McGraw belt-drive oiled compressor and rewired it with a new cord for 240V per the instructions (I used the cord I installed on my old compressor a few months ago). This was easier than replacing and rewiring my compressor outlet, and supposedly the motor runs cooler running on 240V or something. I'm no electromotorologist. It does seem to spin up faster on 240V.

I completed the break-in run (half hour with the outlet open), and some normal usage, and so far so good. About the same amount of noise as my old compressor, and far steadier air delivery because it runs a higher tank pressure and has a regulator (my old compressor didn't have a regulator).

Best of all, I was out the door for far less than I expected, $502.40 with tax, with some extra ITC benefits to boot. (List price for the compressor is $569.99, so I expected $609.89 with tax.)

The manager signed me up for a two year ITC membership for $44.99, and this got me a $142.50 (25%) discount on the compressor, netting a savings of $107.49, plus I'm now in the ITC gang for two years. The store is literally a mile from my house, so I do tend to be a frequent flyer over there. I think I can make the ITC membership worthwhile.

It's funny; I don't know the manager's name, but I've been there (and at the other store where she used to work) so much we sort of know each other, and she's helped me find stuff quite a lot, always says hello, etc.

I've put it to use doing some cleaning and blowing out cobwebs and such, and using my motorcycle lift, and so far it seems to cycle less than my old compressor.

 

[Rinspeed]

I am a HFT ITC Club member and I save more-than the cost of joining over the course of a year to justify the expenditure. I don't buy the extra warranties.

I'm not a big HF shopper but I did buy the ITC when I bought my Predator 9500. It allowed me to get into the sale early, I was slightly concerned they might sell out. I think it was a $500 off sale. I did renew it a couple months ago because there are some decent sales and some free **** now and then.