Home air compressor

[Henryporsche]

Can anyone recommend a good home or portable air compressor that can maintain accurate tire pressures? Most service stations now charge for air and the units are not well maintained. Do most of you have home air compressors?

[Driven97]

I think what you want is a nice gauge. I use one like this for autocross and daily stuff - nicely graduated and with the bleed valve makes it quick and accurate.

[toddu]

Bought an Ingersoll Rand "garage mate". Love it. Can't paint a car or anything (tank is 20 gallon), but runs all my tools and it's nice and quiet.

Todd

[Targalid]

If all you need is to maintain tire pressure, get the $39.95 Harbor Freight pancake compressor and a tire filler with gauge, less than $50 total. If you want to do anything else except fill tires and run a nail gun get the high capacity 220 volt US manufactured compressor for twenty times as much money. Then you can paint, grind, sandblast and run impact wrenches with no fear. I have the little HF pancake compressor and it has worked for five years so far. It is light weight, easily moved to the car. I leave it full so I can carry it to the car, lawn tractor or whatever. I also have a high capacity US compressor for bigger jobs but it is heavy and cannot be moved easily.

[theclaw]

good used compressors are all over craigslist. just decide what your budget is and how much room you have to store it. however, once you get one, you'll want a bigger one! happens all the time.

[ParkerFE]

bought a 50 gallon compressor from Home Depot and put it in a small closet in my garage and connected it to a hose spool mounted on the garage ceiling so I can pull the hose to all cars in the garage and use it for air tools, as well as use it in the driveway in front of the garage.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by Targalid

If all you need is to maintain tire pressure, get the $39.95 Harbor Freight pancake compressor and a tire filler with gauge, less than $50 total. If you want to do anything else except fill tires and run a nail gun get the high capacity 220 volt US manufactured compressor for twenty times as much money. Then you can paint, grind, sandblast and run impact wrenches with no fear. I have the little HF pancake compressor and it has worked for five years so far. It is light weight, easily moved to the car. I leave it full so I can carry it to the car, lawn tractor or whatever. I also have a high capacity US compressor for bigger jobs but it is heavy and cannot be moved easily.

My solution exactly.... and be sure and use the HF 20% off coupon.

[HarryD]

I have the 2 hp / 3 gallon compressor from Harbor freight with a 25 foot air hose. It not only fills my tires but runs my impact gun. Got the compressor on sale for less than $100.

I have quick disconnects so I can switch between my air chuck and impact gun.

[uwanna]

Great suggestions so far! Two things every vintage Porsche owner needs to have in the
garage are a good battery charger and an air compressor. Ain't nothin like walking out to
your car to find a flat tire or a dead battery. Having the tools help relieve that helpless feeling!
By the way, the Craigslist suggestion is a good one. Bought both my compressor and battery charger
there for great deals. Also try pawn shops, cheap deals too.

[theclaw]

Originally Posted by ParkerFE

bought a 50 gallon compressor from Home Depot and put it in a small closet in my garage and connected it to a hose spool mounted on the garage ceiling so I can pull the hose to all cars in the garage and use it for air tools, as well as use it in the driveway in front of the garage.

I did something similiar. Used an old hose and ran it up to the ceiling.

[reachme]

read about home compressor explosions before you put a used Craigslist one next to your car.
In short compressing air takes the moisture out which deposits in the bottom of the tank. If the owner didn't drain it it corrodes the inside of the tank and you cannot see it weakening the tank.
I might be overblowing the risk but I maintain things well and have seen a blown tank as a 25 yr scuba diver so. . .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[theclaw]

Originally Posted by reachme

read about home compressor explosions before you put a used Craigslist one next to your car.
In short compressing air takes the moisture out which deposits in the bottom of the tank. If the owner didn't drain it it corrodes the inside of the tank and you cannot see it weakening the tank.
I might be overblowing the risk but I maintain things well and have seen a blown tank as a 25 yr scuba diver so. . .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Reachme is right. I can happen. If you buy used, carefully judge it's condition.

There are a lot of compressor junkies on the Garage forum. You might get some good info there too.

Garage Journal

[FastCarFan]

I bought a low-end Craftsman on sale (they often run promotions). I think I paid around $100 & it works great...although it sometimes pops the circuit-breaker when it tries to start up!

Like you, I only use it to "air" tires & it works well. However, the plastic hose it came with was not great & was too short (would only reach 1 of the 3 garage slots), so I replaced it with a longer rubber one. I wanted longer so I can "air" tires in any car in any of the 3 garage spaces.

[HawgRyder]

In a professional installation...the compressor feeds a vertical pipe assembly that has a "T" in the middle so that the water in the system falls to the bottom of the vertical pipe and the "T" feeds the tank.
We used a truck valve on my install...the type that automatically vents when water is present in the valve.
This is fed into a pipe that goes to a floor drain.
I did it that way so I didn't have to remember to drain the system regularly....(I'm lazy).
Bob

[rick-l]

Originally Posted by reachme

read about home compressor explosions before you put a used Craigslist one next to your car.

I would not worry about that unless it is some home built kludge. The tank can rust through and develop pinhole leaks but they don't explode.

[Dave Colangelo]

As mentioned if you are just looking to fill tires then your basic small harbor freight will do. If you want to use it with an impact wrench and other air tools (which have endless applications) I would advise any number of 15-30 gallon 120V style ones that can hold in the 120PSI range. There are a ton out there made by all the big tool makers so go with the brand you trust. In the end you will like these more as air tools can be very useful, air sockets make disassembly much quicker and who doesn't love an impact wrench!



As per the explosions, I have seen all the warnings, and yeah Im sure they can explode but I have never known anyone this has happened to. Like anything else people will always use these in ways not directed which will always lead to issues especially when working with things under pressure. All of the bigger ones I have used have some kind of a bleeder valve on the bottom that I always leave open a bit. This constantly allows a small amount of air out to avoid any issues. I also have one of those $20 inline moisture filters which seems to remove quite a bit of moisture but then again my Garage is very humid. The other thing to remember is to always drain the tank when you are done for the day. I would bet that some of the explosions occur when people are working on a cool night and leave air in the tank, the next day it gets hot out and the air expands with no where to go...


Regards
Dave

[Jrboulder]

I have a 5 hp 12 gal husky I bought used. For filling up the tires I just use my little 12 volt compressor I keep in the frunk. No sense in getting all the hoses and stuff out to add a few psi to a tire or 2.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Jrboulder

I have a 5 hp 12 gal husky I bought used. For filling up the tires I just use my little 12 volt compressor I keep in the frunk. No sense in getting all the hoses and stuff out to add a few psi to a tire or 2.

I bought my brother the HF pancake. The downside of the little guy is that it runs a long time to build pressure and it is loud.

However, walking it out to the car is really nice.

And unlike the 12V, it can fill one low tire as quickly as a regular compressor. Four flats? Leave a little time.

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by reachme

read about home compressor explosions before you put a used Craigslist one next to your car.

In my experience, it would be a pinhole leak, not an explosion....

I bought a used Craftsman in about 1977.....After painting 11 cars, powering nail guns to build a house and using several times/week, it's still going strong....Try that with some of the new ones....

[theclaw]

Originally Posted by rick-l

I would not worry about that unless it is some home built kludge. The tank can rust through and develop pinhole leaks but they don't explode.

It's rare but they can fail pretty spectacularly but it's usually the really neglected ones or a failure of the shutoff valve or as you say, "home built kludge".