Dewalt Emglo Compressors

[jorp_porp]

Hey y'all. Looking to buy my first compressor, and I'm hesitant to buy a disposable pancake. I found this ..non-oil-free Dewalt Emglo compressor on marketplace for a hundred bucks that piqued my interest. Guy said that it's well maintained, but power hungry. I'm on a 20a circuit, but I share it with my living room.

Thoughts on how this would stack up vs other compressors in say, the 1-200$ range?

Some things to note - I only need a compressor for occasional home shop use. I don't even have any air tools yet, aside from a blow gun. But I like the prospect of future capability.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[Citation]

I've got a similar Emglo. My feeling is this isn't the best ~$100 option. What's good is those are very solid, long lived compressors. However, they are also loud, trip breakers rather easily when cold. I like that it takes only a minute to go from 0 psi to full and just 15 seconds to refill.

However, for home shop, light duty use I would probably get one of the quiet compressors from Walmart (or other places). I picked up a Goodyear branded one a few years back. It was really good. The flow rate wasn't as high as the Emglo but having an 8 gallon vs 4 gallon tank was nice. Sure, it took 3x as long to fill up (lower flow rate and larger tank). But, it wasn't as loud thus I didn't care about hearing it run in the background. If I were buying new, low cost, light duty for the garage, this would probably be my first pick
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HART-Black-135-PSI-Oil-Free-Electric-Air-Compressor-8-gal/5135218418
Walmart stopped selling the GY branded unit but this is similar in price and I've found Hart tools to be like Ryobi, clearly cost reduced but quite usable for a home user.

 

[GeoBruin]

I've got a similar Emglo. My feeling is this isn't the best ~$100 option. What's good is those are very solid, long lived compressors. However, they are also loud, trip breakers rather easily when cold. I like that it takes only a minute to go from 0 psi to full and just 15 seconds to refill.

However, for home shop, light duty use I would probably get one of the quiet compressors from Walmart (or other places). I picked up a Goodyear branded one a few years back. It was really good. The flow rate wasn't as high as the Emglo but having an 8 gallon vs 4 gallon tank was nice. Sure, it took 3x as long to fill up (lower flow rate and larger tank). But, it wasn't as loud thus I didn't care about hearing it run in the background. If I were buying new, low cost, light duty for the garage, this would probably be my first pick
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HART-Black-135-PSI-Oil-Free-Electric-Air-Compressor-8-gal/5135218418
Walmart stopped selling the GY branded unit but this is similar in price and I've found Hart tools to be like Ryobi, clearly cost reduced but quite usable for a home user.

HF alternative to that Walmart compressor has a much higher flow rate and much higher max pressure in a similar footprint. It's also a quiet model. I realize it's more expensive but it's looks like it is frequently on sale or has a coupon.

10 Gallon, 175 PSI Ultra Quiet Oil-Free Horizontal Shop/Auto Air Compressor https://share.google/e0klNtRyBARclS53b

 

[Citation]

HF alternative to that Walmart compressor has a much higher flow rate and much higher max pressure in a similar footprint. It's also a quiet model. I realize it's more expensive but it's looks like it is frequently on sale or has a coupon.

10 Gallon, 175 PSI Ultra Quiet Oil-Free Horizontal Shop/Auto Air Compressor https://share.google/e0klNtRyBARclS53b

That would be a good, "bit more money" option. More flow and thanks to the higher pressure, more stored air.
Walmart also has this which is yet a bit more money with a larger tank

Robot or human?

This is garage forum so we need to always suggest something a bit bigger/more expensive that what the OP actually asked about.
This 80 gallon Champion is on sale for $4800. You will likely need to rewire your garage to use it but damn it's a good compressor

Champion VR7F-8 Two Stage Vertical Air Compressor – 7.5 HP, 80 Gallon, 23.0 CFM

Champion VR7F-8 7.5 HP vertical air compressor with 80-gallon tank delivers 23 CFM. Industrial-grade reliability from Compressed Air Advisors Online.

www.compressedairadvisors.com

With any larger tank it's really in your best interest to make sure it doesn't leak when you turn it off (disconnect the hose and/or turn the regulator to zero). If you let the pressure drain between uses you might be looking at a few minutes (2-6min) before you have usable pressure. That's annoying if you just want to top up that 80 psi bike tire. That is a benefit to a small 4 gallon tank. You go from zero to full rather quickly.

 

[jorp_porp]

I was looking at the Husky before seeing this used dewalt. It performed well in these tests.

 

[signcrafter]

I don't have the model you are looking at but have this one, https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-4-5...MNLSD9kj9AOFV-aILChW3x1hR5n8hkKxoCJWMQAvD_BwE.

I've abused the **** out of it for the last 15 years and it keeps going. Mine is oilless so different then the one you are looking at but I've been happy with my dewalt/emglo. I spray texture with it and spray paint with HVLP conversion gun and it runs for very long times and gets really hot. But has done everything I've asked of it. It's heavy and loud but works good for a portable jobsite compressor. I've also used it in the garage for things like blow gun, die grinder, air hammer, etc. when I didn't have my bigger one hooked up. It will run out of air with the smaller tank but it gets the job done.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I found this ..non-oil-free Dewalt Emglo compressor on marketplace for a hundred bucks that piqued my interest. Guy said that it's well maintained, but power hungry. I'm on a 20a circuit, but I share it with my living room.

That appears to be a a D55152 which has been superseded by the D55154. Looks the same, but with wheels and a bigger frame. Over $450 new at Ace.



For $100, you can't go far wrong. It will NOT run a sander or sand blaster. Impact or short bursts of an air hammer.

 

[lardy1]

I have an olde Emglo that I bought in the early 90's. It has held up remarkably well. I was a building contractor back in the air tools days and it worked very well for that. Still does when I ask it to. As for a shop compressor, they don't have enough volume to do much of anything but nail guns. I have a larger Craftsman I bought used for my shop. It's actually too small but it's what I have and now I' in my 70's and not likely to upgrade.

 

[theoldwizard1]

As for a shop compressor, they don't have enough volume to do much of anything but nail guns.

The D55154 (which I think uses the same motor and pump as the D55152) will run most 1/2" impacts and chisels (at least for a reasonable burst).

The specs are reasonable

• 1.1 HP (better have a 20A circuit)
• 4.0 CFM @ 90 psi

Pluses include oil lubed and cast iron cylinder.

 

[dnschmidt]

These were built for nail guns and perhaps blowing up tires. Any pneumatic tool will bog these down after 30 seconds. We had a posting here about Craig List dreamers. We should have another about air compressor dreamers. You need a big (some would say massive) air compressor to do any real work with air tools. The "joke" Champion mentioned above is what you really do need to run air tools in a shop and might be just enough to run a blasting cabinet. Physics doesn't care how much space you have, how good your wiring is, or what your budget is, in this day an age air tools are a luxury considering the cordless tools currently available. If you wanted a right angle die grinder or an air ratchet you had to buy the big compressor to power them. The only two tools still requiring a compressor, and I mean a big one, are paint guns and air hammers/needle scalers. Everything else can be bought from Milwaukee or DeWalt. Hypertherm even makes a self contained plasma cutter which was another tool that required an air compressor. If you fully commit to air tools, and I didn't have a choice since I like to paint cars, you need the big compressor. With my compressor I power my air sanders, air files and mug hogs along with my paint guns. With air go big or go home is the sad reality. I repeat, you can't **** with Physics.