[necdb3]

Bought a Quincy compressor 5 years ago now. Been a great one, and quite. Used to run big Quincy's in car dealers. They were very reliable. The Quincy's in one dealer ran about 40 years.

[400 4spd.]

A Quincy was my second choice. I spent a couple of months researching before I made my decision.

[chevymad]

I bought a BelAire probably 10 years ago. Better specs then husky/lowes stuff and was neither the cheapest or $$. I'm happy with it, but was chagrined to find out that the harbor freight compressor I'd skipped over had exactly the same compressor pump as my belaire. Just cheaper electric motor installed. At that time both my pump and the harbor freight pumps were made in Italy.

[Formulabruce]

With electric impacts now, this unit is the quietest, and takes up less room, it's nice. 60 gallon equivalent.

[Andretti]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

I really dislike listening to an compressor run, my answer was to build a shed outside for the compressor, gets rid of the noise...

I second that option as the noise from a running compressor, no matter the size, gets on your nerves. I built a small shed with one side devoted to our garbage (that, I also hate seeing inside a garage) and the other side with sound insulation for the compressor. It has an automatic drain and everything is plumbed underground to the garage.

You can hardly hear it when sitting on the deck outside.

[400 4spd.]

I didn't want the compressor and drier outside, so I built this room around it. Both are plumbed to bleed off moisture through the exterior wall.

[dataway]

Those scroll compressor are vastly superior to conventional models. I think painters have kept away from them because of the oil in the air that needs lots of separation to remove.

Now they have "oil less" scroll compressors that evidently use teflon or something to seal the scrolls instead of oil.

I think the vast majority of big commercial compressors are the scroll type.

[400 4spd.]

Also known as "screw" compressors, one advantage is instant working pressure. No need to wait for a system to build pressure. Plus they are quieter than conventional piston compressors. When I was comparing, the screw type was about double the cost of piston driven pumps.
Repair cost is much higher on screw compressors.

[59safaricat]

Finally, an informative air compressor thread. I'll be ordering this one soon:

https://eatoncompressor.com/product/...l/#description

[Shiny]

My 25-yr-old oil-free Craftsman 2hp compressor finally bit it. It was never quite enough to run tools continuously but was close enough for me to get a lot done for not much money and a small footprint.

I needed it to run my mini belt sander and right-angle die grinder so decided to buy a little larger one for as little money as I could get away with. I could not find anything close to the same performance as my old 2hp in a 120V oil-free so rolled over and bought a budget DeWalt (MAT) on sale at Tractor Supply.

I got it home and a couple days later ripped up my hamstring pretty bad. Being hobbled, I used the downtime to learn more about Fusion/CAD by laying out a small cooling coil with hopes of it actually doing something to lose some water.

Here's what I ended up with:



It took an electrician and the equivalent of a 2nd mortgage to buy brass fittings (when did this happen?) but finally got it up and running today. I choked on the cost of copper tubing and went with aluminum.

I ran the 30-minute break-in but have yet to pressurize the system past about 30 psi. I am going to go slow until I have confidence in my plumbing but so far, it's working and it makes a LOT of noise. I will be doing what I can to quiet it down...Solberg silencer going on tomorrow...





Mike

[LStathas]

Get a screw-type and never look back. If you run a business off of it, it's worth the investment.

[dataway]

Similar setup to mine, except I set mine up to dry the air before it goes in the tank, then it gets a bit more drying after it leaves the tank. I used a big oil cooler as an "after cooler" with a fan that comes on when the compressor runs, it's immediately after the air leaves the compressor cylinders, and two separators before the air goes in the tank.

Yours will definitely make air dry enough for air tools, the separators work pretty well.

[carbking]

Know absolutely NOTHING about what is currently available new.

My input to the thread is that rather than one huge compressor, I use TWO in parallel.

I have two 8 HP Craftsman with 60 gallon tanks.

Adjusted the auto shutoff to 150 psi. Periodically change which compressor kicks out first.

Both compressors AND the vacuum unit for the beading machine are in a different room of the shop, with no connecting door (outside door only). Really cuts down on both the noise and the dust!

These are probably 35 years old; have never had a compressor failure (well, a Monkey Wards diaphragm type for a paint gun from the 1940's had a diaphragm failure some 60 years ago).

Have had a couple of tanks rust holes in the bottom (vertical tanks), which I repaired with an outside plate and sheet metal screws. The vertical tanks with round bottoms tend to have moisture congregate in a small area, most goes out the drain. Would never use a horizontal tank with high pressure.

Jon

[Shiny]

I did see a lot of videos on YouTube describing transmission coolers for chillers.

I didn't want to go that far on a cheap compressor without a real need. Our air starts pretty dry and I rarely had condensate at a tool, but it did happen. I would rarely see condensate at the bottom of the tank on my old one. I just did "something", hoping for better than nothing.... maybe a waste but it's what I did. I don't need a compressor enough for me to justify a serious effort.

The noise in my garage WILL be an issue. I replaced the basic intake filter with a Solberg intake silencer/filter. It knocked the noise down a little (~2.5 db per an uncalibrated app) but definitely reduced harshness. I'm happy with that decision.

I may try some dynamat or similar on the tank. Anyone have experience with this? I can also put some acoustic foam on the adjacent wall... maybe buy some engineered acoustic spacers for the pump mount (it already has some elastomer mounts)?? The tank just seems like a big resonator with a lot of surface area.

[dataway]

Never thought about damping the tank vibration, yeah, you'd think it would ring like a bell. Good idea.

The "after cooler" I put on quieted mine down quite a bit, it softened the "hit" on each stroke, I guess it's because the hot air immediately shrinks when it enters the cooler and lowers the pressure right at the cylinder output. But mine is a two stage 175 psi, so the air is very hot coming out of the second stage.

[KS circutguy]

Originally Posted by Andretti

I second that option as the noise from a running compressor, no matter the size, gets on your nerves. I built a small shed with one side devoted to our garbage (that, I also hate seeing inside a garage) and the other side with sound insulation for the compressor. It has an automatic drain and everything is plumbed underground to the garage.

You can hardly hear it when sitting on the deck outside.

Isn't condensation a problem in the winter?

[Shiny]

Originally Posted by dataway

Never thought about damping the tank vibration, yeah, you'd think it would ring like a bell. Good idea.

The "after cooler" I put on quieted mine down quite a bit, it softened the "hit" on each stroke, I guess it's because the hot air immediately shrinks when it enters the cooler and lowers the pressure right at the cylinder output. But mine is a two stage 175 psi, so the air is very hot coming out of the second stage.

Your compressor is clearly about 20 notches higher on the quality scale so is probably quieter to begin with. Mine is the basic "entry level" 220V, 3.7 hp box store version that is sold under many brand names. All made by MAT.

Yes, the noise is worse than I expected but is what it is. Interesting to hear your after-cooler reduced the noise. Your hypothesis makes some sense but it may just have more to do with compressible volume between the pump head and the check valve? dunno but glad it helped.

I bought some pads to put under the feet but can still feel shocks in the concrete slab. I am going to change the pads to neoprene foam and see if that helps.

I also put an aluminum heater pan under the compressor, thinking it would help contain messes from condensate draining and maybe oil. But I now think this was a bad idea for noise and will try getting rid of it. Basically, I suspect it is a big metal drum head getting whacked and radiating noise.

I am curious to know if anyone has put acoustic foam against an adjacent wall and if so, did it help?

As to damping the tank, I don't have a plan yet but makes sense to me. Something like dynamat...

[fyrffytr1]

I second the Ingersol Rand compressor. I have the 80 gallon 5hp 2 stage 175ps in a little room inside my shop. When I built the shop in 1999 I plumbed the walls with heavy duty 3/4" PVC piping. I run no more than 90psi through it. It has held up well for 27 years.
If I need more pressure I disconnect the in wall piping and hook pressure rated hoses the the manifold on the outlet side of the pump' I can regulate the pressure at the manifold for what ever I need.

[dataway]

Interesting to hear your after-cooler reduced the noise. Your hypothesis makes some sense but it may just have more to do with compressible volume between the pump head and the check valve?

That's exactly what it is, between the added volume, and the shrinking air, between compressor head and check valve, I'd imagine there is way less "shock" in the system.

Kinda like a silencer on a firearm.

[Shiny]

Originally Posted by fyrffytr1

....I run no more than 90psi through it. It has held up well for 27 years.
...

I get this. I want to reduce the tank cut-out pressure to reduce stress on the plumbing and the compressor. It has a Condor pressure switch. I'm not sure what the range of adjustability is. I don't need nor want more than 60 or 70 regulated psi for the few tools I use. I actually think 100 to 120 psi cutout would be fine.

I have a call into Condor to get guidance on adjust vs replace with a lower-range pressure switch.

I added a 1/4" valve to bleed the tank yesterday. I found an adjustable-flow sintered muffler and ordered it so I can just open the valve to a kinder gentler experience than a sonic boom.