[kaddylowrider]

After 4 days of searching, I finally purchased an air comressor for my garage. I went with a 115v compressor because I'm not able to hook up a 240v since I'm renting my place. My landlord pays the electricity and is picky about these things not to mention altering the electricity. Anyways, I bought a Campbell Hausfeld/Husky Pro 26 gallon 135 psi 5 hp air portable air compressor that is belt driven. The scfm at 90 is 5.8 and has a 100 percent duty cycle. It is very well made with a cast iron pump.

However, Sears has a 25 gallon 2 cylinder air compressor with 150 psi 6hp belt driven and has 6.8 scfms at 90 psi. But it only has a 50 percent duty cycle and has an aluminum pump. So here's my question. Should I return my air compressor and sacrifice the 100 percent duty cycle and cast iron pump for the Sears compressor with a 50 percent duty cycle and aluminum pump to get more psi and scfms and the advantage of 2 cylinders? I'll be using the compressor a lot since I'm doing a full resto/custom job on my '62 Cadillac. Tools will range from air ratchets, impacts, die grinders and sandblasting, which will probably be very intermitent since I'm not using a 60 gallon and up compressor. Thx for any info provided



Last edited by kaddylowrider at Oct 14 2003, 01:53 AM

 

[skandalouz]

FYI no 115V air compressor can actually make 5hp, they have a hard time even reaching 2 hp. 90% of all compressors are rated wrong. thet rate them at inital startup/peak, therefore they get the highest rating possible, but tat only lasts for a few seconds!

both of those compressors are too small to run a grinder for more than a minute and sandblasting is out of the question. to sandblast you really need a compressor that is capable of 18cfm running with a 100%duty cycle. you won't find that unless yuor willing to pay about $1500 or more and get a true 240V compressor.

 

[kaddylowrider]

Yeah that's what I wanted to go for but I'm unable to go with a 240v at my place so I'm stuck with the smaller units. So with sandblasting eliminated and using an air compressor for wrenches and ratchets, which one is better? Under moderate use, will I often exceed the 50 percent duty cycle using regular tools? Thx for the reply

 

[skandalouz]

Originally posted by kaddylowrider@Oct 14 2003, 05:15 PM
Yeah that's what I wanted to go for but I'm unable to go with a 240v at my place so I'm stuck with the smaller units. So with sandblasting eliminated and using an air compressor for wrenches and ratchets, which one is better? Under moderate use, will I often exceed the 50 percent duty cycle using regular tools? Thx for the reply

you will want 100% duty, you will exceed it all the time, and you will want to get a very good water seterator and run atleast 30 ft. min of airline because that compressor is going to get very hot and water will be an issue in the airlines.

 

[kaddylowrider]

Cool thank you very much for the info I'll keep what I've got then. I tried to get info at the local stores but they just told me what I wanted to hear so they could make a sale. The saleman at Sears even tried to sale me a 2 stage portable and said the low scfms were ok because it was a 2 stage and then he didn't even know what a duty cycle was. Thx again