Not really, Loma Prietta knocked over more than a few vertical file cabinets where I was working, and did little other damage. My house and my mother's were not damaged, but an antique armoir I had stored at her house fell over and busted to pieces. The shock waves are completely unpredictable.
I live between three major faults, Landers, Big Bear, and I can SEE the San Andreas from my house.
Thing is, any quake that will tip my squatty, 80 gallon compressor with it's light aluminum pump will take down the frame wall behind it.
Still, always a good idea to secure anything in Earthquake land. My compressor is actually safety secured by the two heavy hoses going to the wall mounts.
Don't bolt it to the floor. I called a local compressor shop when I first got mine and asked about integrity of the tank on older compressors. The guy said that most of the tank failures he has seen in 26 years in the business were due to tanks being bolted to a rigid support, i.e. a concrete floor. This is because when the compressor is on it vibrates. If you bolt it to something rigid the energy is dissipated by flexing the weakest point: the welds on the tank. Apparently, this is how tanks explode. He said a pallet should be fine because the wood will flex before the tank welds. Don't know for sure if this is true but it sounds correct. I am going to put mine on a stall mat and call it a day.
I've seen dozens of tank failures at the leg welds. I figure your compressor guy is on to something. All of them had been hard mounted.
I've got a 60 gal upright that isn't bolted or otherwise secured. It's resting on the concrete.
When it runs, it vibrates enough where it "walks" slowly away from the wall. Concrete is smooth, level and in like new conditionl, BTW.
I was thinking about bolting it into the concrete with a layer of rubber in between to dampen vibrations transmitted into the floor. Any thoughts?
That would worry the heck out of me. I have had them on epoxy, super smooth concrete and linoleum tile. Also of them on super slippery plastic blocks.
The super slippery plastic allows me to push the compressors around as needed.
None of them have ever walked under load. 60-80 gallon, 265-565 lbs.
There has got to be a reason it walks, I would suspect something way out of balance.
