Is your compressor inside or outside your shop ?

[BellyUpFish]

I'll be putting mine outside of the new shop..

 

[sberry]

south fla here have the same harbor freight compressor i bought abought 10 yrs ago. it is in a rubbermaid plastic shed about 8ft w x 3 ft deep x 8 ft high. my airline is then run in copper thru the wall and straight up to the ceiling then pitches away from that point and i drain the ends of the main maybe 1 time a yr and get a 1/2 cup of water . the compressor has a ball valve connected to the drain at the bottom of the tank and that probably gets about a quart of water every few months. you can barely hear it run . it used to be in the garage and rattled throughout the house

I like this simple thinking.

 

[sberry]

Mine is on the inside... but I have one of the old slow quite compressors. It's a 1957 Curtis and it is so quiet that I can have a normal conversation standing next to it.

I like this layout. I might only used the tank valve. You have a super start in simplicity and it surely wont be a deal breaker but resist adding every fitting you can find. We already have a half a dozen extra and only went 5 ft.

 

[Iggi]

I have mine inside. I live in south texas so we do not get too much in the way of freezing weather down here. I am sure cold and humid air would wreak havoc on a compressor exposed to the elements.

 

[brownbagg]

mine been outside in the open for twenty two years.

 

[mburrus]

seriously considering building a room on the side of my new shop for the compressor... but debating on size.. any suggestions? originally thinking 4x4, now maybe 4 or 5 x 6??

 

[ilovevocs]

Mine went from inside to outside. Downsized shop and compressor had to go outside. I built a shed for it. It is quieter but their is allot of addition expense. It would not have been something I would do for anything other than spatial constraints. You can easily build walls that are designed to manage the sound and house inside. Plumb the intake into a soffit bay and isolate it from the attic in that section. I'm assuming it will be close to an outside wall.


My vote, unless your dealing with spatial constraints your money ahead inside.

 

[Botje]

Mine is inside, to keep it somewhat above freezing temps. It is in a small room where the well pump and other stuff is. With the door closed the noise level is quite low. 4 hp 2 cylinder compressor.

Thinking of adding a better intake filter, muffler and Helmholtz resonator to quiet it down a bit more. But before that proper air lines, got a bunch of Parker 1" tubing+couplings for that.

 

[ct03911]

Went with a California Air Tool 10020 compressor.
I will have it in the garage.
Supposed to be super quite.
It's in the box unwrapped.
Hope it is as advertised.

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

Compressor inside. Intakes plumbed to the exterior with Solemberg silencers/filters.

Security inside! Noise outside!

 

[BearsFan315]

All inside

 

[soj]

Went with a California Air Tool 10020 compressor.
I will have it in the garage.
Supposed to be super quite.
It's in the box unwrapped.
Hope it is as advertised.

The ultimate solution to the noisy compressor... leave it in the box!

Why didn't I think of that?

 

[Rodbolt]

I have mine in the attic. Wall switch in the shop and plumbed down through the ceiling to a hose reel.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[ATC]

Mine will always be inside. Old one is up front between the two doors. New one will be in the back corner of the garage.

A compressor is too damn expensive to be outside IMO. I also like to hear it for any abnormal noises, belt slipping or broke, and just to be sure it didn't trip the breaker, or overload on the motor and not start for some reason...etc...

 

[redmondjp]

I know that lots of people install them outside - at one business I used to work at, ours was outside (on backside of the typical concrete tilt-up industrial-park building complex). In the winter when it was below freezing, the thing just wouldn't start - you could hear the wires buzzing violently inside the conduit inside the building until the circuit breaker blew.

We would either wait until later in the day and the temperature rose, or if we really had to use it right away, we brought extension cords out to it and used heat guns to warm up the pump crankcase. This is my only reservation about having a compressor outside.

I am facing this same dilemma myself. I already have a Curtis E-57 on a 80-gallon horizontal tank mounted outside my garage (not plumbed or wired in yet). But last year I got a killer deal on my bucket-list compressor, a vertical Quincy 325 with factory intake silencer and aftercooler (complete with air temperature gauge). This compressor is just too nice to stay outside IMO, but space-wise, it really should be outside.

Synthetic oil in the compressor can help. They also have heaters (used for refrigeration compressors in cold ambient conditions) that can be added onto the compressor.

Plus, the vertical Quincy that I have would need to be on a slab if it was outside - it weighs almost 850 pounds! So I would have to pour one outside and then figure out how to get the compressor onto it w/o it falling over and/or killing myself. This thing is a bear to move, and top-heavy to boot.

The horizontal Curtis that I have is still on its original 4x4 skids, and it is easy to move - lay down OSB on ground, then use several 3" round fence post sections underneath it and one person can move it, like the Egyptians moved huge rock blocks. That's how it got to where it is outside now. The Quincy is already standing up inside the garage, so it can be joggled around on the floor to move it.