Questions about my new air compressor

[kkasson]

I picked up the black 8 gallon 125 psi compressor from Harbor Freight yesterday. I ran it through the 30 minute break-in period, and I have a couple questions now that I'm ready to start connecting things. This is my first compressor so these are probably easy answers, but I've never had to deal with it before.

1) I got a set of high flow fittings to use. At the moment I don't have anything that would really need them, but I figured I'd start with them so I don't need to upgrade later. I wanted to connect the coupler directly to the compressor to take the most advantage of it. I removed the coupler that came with the compressor from the regulator. There was some kind of thread sealant on it (it looks like dried loctite but it's dark gray). I cleaned out a little bit that came off easily, but I was in a hurry to make sure it the compressor at least works so I just connected the new fittings (with no sealant) to test it. It may be leaking a tiny bit of air but it seems to be fine. Do I need to clean the old sealant and/or put new sealant on this connection? Should I put some kind of sealant on the rest of the fittings I use? They all seem to be leak free without any.

2) I got the 1/4 inch ball valve from HF to install on the compressor as a shut off. It would go right after the regulator. Is this pointless? Can I safely just turn the regulator all the way down instead of having a ball valve?

3) The ball valve is brass. The threads on the regulator appear to be steel. My high flow fittings are aluminum. Will it be a problem connecting any of these together? I'll have to connect the aluminum fittings to the brass hose ends anyway, but if there's a problem with any of them I'd rather not damage anything on the regulator/compressor side.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I use thread sealing tape on my fittings. Just about any sealant is good enough.
I clean the old sealant off, just good enough. It shouldn't hurt anything.
The ball valve isn't worth it. Not sure why you'd want it. Just turn off and unplug the compressor. You can disconnect the hose if you are worried about leaks.

 

[71goldss]

I’m probably going to be the odd man out on this one, but I converted all of my air tools and hoses over to the high flow fittings and hated them. For me, they were way too difficult to quick release at high pressures, and I really didn’t see much, if any, improvement with my air tools and spray guns. I quickly went back to the standard quick release fittings. The high flows were the HF ones, so that could have contributed to the problem, but I’ve read of other people having the same issue with other brands as well. Just my experience anyway!

As already mentioned previously, I too have always just used the white Teflon tape. Quick and easy, and zero leaks!

BTW, my Quincy QT-54 came with a ball valve and I love it.

 

[Citation]

I would suggest skipping the high flow fittings as well. The standard fittings plus a 3/8" hose should be fine. For the most part, if you are driving a tool with an 8 gallon compressor a high flow fitting would drain the tank way to quickly to be of use. Unless you have a speciality application that needs a very short, hard burst it just isn't worth it.
To put this in perspective, my 20 gallon compressor would drive my air cutoff wheel for about 6 seconds before the pump hand to cycle back on (about 130 to 100 psi). That was with a 50ft 3/8" hose and standard fittings.