It is funny that you mentioned shipping condition: The compressor arrived in excellent shape, the box looked perfect. I think that the variable in this equation is your UPS driver. The box is small, but pretty heavy, (around 60 lbs is my estimate). Purchasing the compressor online, and having it delivered did more damage to my house, than the compressor. Let me explain that last point further. My girlfriend arrived home before me on the day that the compressor was delivered. It was a very windy day, and rain was threatening. So instead of leave it outside, she decided that she would put it in the garage for me. Now instead of opening up the garage door, *(which the box was sitting directly in front of), she tried to open the front door. The box was too heavy for her to pick up and open the front door at the same time; so she didn't have hold of the storm door when the wind ripped the door off of it's hinges. I arrived home to find my storm door swinging wildly back and forth with both glass windows smashed out! But my compressor was inside my garage. It never did rain that night either.
Nothing has broken on the unit, it hasn't been used that hard yet. This is the reason that I bought an oil filled compressor. They can take abuse better than an oil-free. My dad has chewed through 5 oil-free compressors, yet I cannot convince him to spend the extra $100 for a Makita.
The only thing that I had to do is add the oil to the correct level, run for a little while, then drain and refill. This is all in the instructions to the unit. Makita gives you an more than enough oil.
