Thread: Compressor Question

We are looking to buy an air compressor here at the house. Just lookin to get some pointers on some. As far as how many gallons I should look for, PSI.. HP and such. Don't wanna go out and buy one that is just good enough for little household use. Thanks guys

What do you plan on using it for, and/or what kind of tools will you be using on it, and how heavily?

for general everyday use, filling tires, and the occasional impact tool, something around 5 gallons should be fine... but if you plan on using anything like a die grinder or a lot of air tools that require high volume, you'll want to make sure that the compressor can handle the volume. Nothing sucks more than waiting for a big compressor tank to fill up, fire up the die grinder, cut for like 30 seconds and wait another 5 minutes for the compressor to catch back up.

my neighbor across the street does upholstery sometimes and uses a staple gun...
he has a 15 gallon compressor and he hates it. It turns on all the time, every couple minutes.
Its also noisy as hell, according to him.
its a campbell brand....
He's gunna buy a 60 gallon compressor. That way it wont turn on every couple couple minutes.

It won't be used that much.. on weekends mainly, but I would like to use it mostly to break bolts off the car, like exhaust studs, when doing suspension, and of course the wheel lugs. I would also most likely buy a grinder for it, but prolly wouldn't use it often.

Originally Posted by thomas91169

go to sears. their compressors will show what kinds of tools they can use, in easy to read labels. and usually the tool employees know what theyre talking about. at least at my sears, they were more knowledgeable than the home depot/lowes guys that didnt know what a DA sander was.

i was going to buy one for around 250 that could do a DA sander for 100% of the time(as in, no having to wait for the tank to get above 90psi to use it). i think it was like 6cfm or something.

Well, don't go by what the sears compressor has. I am borrowing a 6 star sears compressor, which is supposed to be able to run most tools. I don't know what they rate a DA or mini grinder, cutoff tool and such, but it pretty much has to stay running all the time to keep up. Believe me, if you are going to DA a car or even go through more than one piece of paper on the DA, get at least a step or two above what sears recommends.