Remote Air compressor setups?

[Fireguy50]

Anybody else separate their Air compressor from the take and remote mount it outside for peace and quiet?

I have a 24 x 24 x 24 cube that I placed my compressor and 240vAC motor inside. I started with an old window AC conditioner for the proof of concept, and that was too small, nut had a couple or good ideas.

I had a 1/8" steel galvanized base plate formed to my desired size, I drilled out 4 hockey pucks for my stands to keep it up off the concrete. I'm going to wire/plumb this outside next to my: Generac emergency generator, and the garage's Mini-Split outdoor AC condenser. I'll pour a 6ft x 4ft foot pad out for these equipment to sit safely tethered to the ground.

The 1/8in base plate has a 2 in lip bent up 360 sides for the sides to lap under the side panels and keep water tight. I found some nice house vents than are 12x12 and will allow air flow without any bugs on all 4 sides. I replaced the standard discharge line with a custom Stainless corrugated line with stainless braided outer jacket. The heavy driven belt pulley was replaced with a glass reinforced plastic pulley with no pretend air foils. It no longer has those angled arms that pretend to be a fan, BUT I added a 120vAC fan that will run on one leg of the 240vAC circuit. It also has an oil heater under the pump (since this will be outside. I will have a controller that turns on the oil filter when its under 35°F (2°C). I haven't figured out the fan logic yet, each will have a temperate probe. Maybe when the input on the radiator gets above 50°F (10°C) then he fan will kick on?

This should make future upgrades easier if I need a stronger 240vAC motor, different pulley sizes, better cooling of the air before it enters the garage tank, or a bigger displacement pump.

Attached are some of the photos from the proof of concept before I paid a metal ship to bend the base. I should be able to bend a 16ga top, but I'm NOT sure if my kids will think it's a cool box to stand on.

 

[cvairwerks]

You will have a heat dissipation problem with the cooler mounted like you show. Those tiny holes will not allow enough airflow to be of any use.

 

[racecougar]

I concur. This also seems like a lot of effort when a larger/lower-rpm arrangement would have netted a significant sound reduction without all of the moisture and temperature concerns.

 

[pcmeiners]

Have to agree the cooler has very limited air flow, ice in the cooling coil may be an issue in winter. As a plus the crankcase heater is needed for outside use.

 

[CraigStu]

Each car dealer shop I have worked in had the compressor outside. Usually it was under a shed roof and a couple had cyclone fence around it. Maybe it was because of the heavy use but I don't remember any concern at all about the weather.

 

[BillK]

I know several guys that just built a small compressor shed add on to their garages and put the whole thing outside. When I first bought my business we had two compressors and they were both outside under a "lean to" roof. Never had an issue with them. Like Craig said almost every dealership around here has them outside too.

 

[Bodj Built]

I have mine mounted outside behind the garage in a small shed with some sound deadening material. Makes working inside the garage AWESOME. Unfortunately the tank has a tinyyy leak somewhere, and it'll kick on (right outside our master bedroom wall) in the middle of the night if I forget to shut it off before going in for the night.

 

[pcmeiners]

Virginia and Maryland climate is a lot milder than Michigan, granted he has a good chance it will not form ice within the cooler, but if it does he will end up with a cracked cooler.

 

[engineer2]

I put mine in the basement and piped it to the garage. Two advantages.
The inlet air is air conditioned eliminating some moisture.
I barely hear it running in the garage. The wife does and I've noticed her hearing isn't so good anymore.

 

[PoorUB]

I don't see putting a compressor and tank outside all year in Michigan like some here suggested.

I had a 20 gallon horizontal tank compressor in the attic for some time. I had problems with ice in the pressure switch and relocated it. Even so, in the spring the tank would have a few gallons of ice that I would drain out when the temps got warmer.

I suppose the motor and pump could be outside, but I would put a magnetic block heater on the pump and run thinner oil in the winter. Also the OP's air cooler might freeze up with ice in severe cold, as might any air lines running outside. all air lines need to be down hill, into the shop with a drain inside.

I solved the noise issue by building a closet in the corner 5/8" sheet rock on the inside, and insulated, with a solid core door. The compressor is still noisy, but not as bad as it was just sitting in the shop.

IMO, putting the pump outside in a cold climate will create some problems, that is why mine is back inside.

 

[racecougar]

The inlet air is air conditioned eliminating some moisture.

IMO, this is a significant advantage to drawing air from a conditioned space. The sheer volume of H2O in 70+F dewpoint air compared to 40F dewpoint air is huge. Starting with relatively dry air makes it far easier to end up with dry air at the end of the hose.

 

[Fav Onefour]

I put mine in the basement and piped it to the garage. Two advantages.
The inlet air is air conditioned eliminating some moisture.
I barely hear it running in the garage. The wife does and I've noticed her hearing isn't so good anymore.

I did the same thing. Mine is in the mechanical room which I insulated for sound. I don't hear it in the garage and in the house it is basically a loud hum. The biggest disadvantage is that it's easy to forget about the thing. I've gone down to turn off the compressor during the night a few times. I would do a pilot switch if I was doing anything different.

 

[engineer2]

Nothing like hearing it kick in a 2am and running to the basement to turn it off.
I now have my man cave in the basement so when I hear the air dryer running it reminds me to turn everything off.

 

[Hobby_Man22]

Nothing like hearing it kick in a 2am and running to the basement to turn it off.
I now have my man cave in the basement so when I hear the air dryer running it reminds me to turn everything off.

Idk, who cares if it does let it run. Just shut it off in the morning. How loud could it be in the basement?

 

[engineer2]

Loud enough to wake up the kids when they were little.

 

[1redTA]

we just went to a house that had a fire started by an unchecked/runaway air compressor. the house was mostly lost due to the nearest hydrant being over a mile away. I don’t have any more info on why or how just shut it off when you are done

 

[Fav Onefour]

Idk, who cares if it does let it run. Just shut it off in the morning. How loud could it be in the basement?

Mine isn't terribly loud. I just don't like leaving it on if not needed. I've had the thing for a quite awhile and wouldn't mind keeping it around.

 

[Hobby_Man22]

Mine isn't terribly loud. I just don't like leaving it on if not needed. I've had the thing for a quite awhile and wouldn't mind keeping it around.

I agree. I was just saying it's not something I would run down to the basement for at 2am. End up breaking an ankle or something doing that. Same thing happened to me, I just turned the button off later that morning when I woke up.

 

[AldeanFan]

*Edited for clarity
I built a compressor shack outside.
This is the same layout as we had at the autobody shop I worked at in high school, but on a smaller scale for home use.

Never a problem with cold here in Canada, sometimes the compressor blows the breaker if it’s too hot in the summer.

 

[The Cobbler]

I've never had freezing issues with compressor living in the shed , as well as a PVC air hose laying on the ground. Mind you I'm not a heavy user , painting cars etc...

 

[racecougar]

This is the same setup as we had at the autobody shop I worked at in high school.

I couldn't imagine the frustration of trying to use that setup for an autobody shop.

 

[The Cobbler]

^^^I think he meant similar set up for the shed, not the compressor

 

[cannuck]

My backyard shop compressor (ancient 3HP horizontal) lives in a sound deadened bay under work bench, fed outside air (from inside of my steel rack). It is only turned on when needed (i.e. a few times a week) and if a big job the whole front cover easily lifts off to allow cooling air. If I forget and leave it on when it starts it will dim house lights so easy to fix.

 

[AldeanFan]

I couldn't imagine the frustration of trying to use that setup for an autobody shop.

Sorry for the confusion.
The auto body shop had the same layout but 10 times bigger. The tank was like 6’ tall and the compressor had a motor the size of a milk crate and like 5 belts driving the compressor.

My setup is for a small home garage, I have painted a small car with it it was a challenge to time the flash time to match the compressor catching up.

 

[racecougar]

Gotcha. That makes sense.

 

[Sumboodie]

Mine was outside in a shed. No issues unless it was -30*, then it sometimes tripped the breaker in 1st startup.

 

[4x4Pete]

My Devilbiss is a remote tank design. The compressor, motor and controls are under the workbench on a remote style mounting platform in the attached garage with the tank up on the mezzanine. I ran piping to the detached shop underground and in each building I wired in 24v start/stop stations with an indicator led to show it's armed. Having compressed air in both buildings is great, the start stop stations are super convenient. I used to keep the attached garage heated all winter, but now I don't as most of my time is spent in the detached shop, there doesn't seem to be a problem for the compressor.