COMPRESSOR - oil or oil free???

I just bought an Ingersol Rand 5hp dual stage compressor ... upright ..its great.

Ron

Harbor Frieght...There bigger compressors are made by Bellaire. Even though they are painted black and carry the U.S. General brand name it is still a Bellaire. For example there 7 1/2 HP 2 stage sells for $1399. With grey paint and the Bellaire name on it. The cost jumps to $2200+.
To answer your question, oil less compressors are fine if you want a very small compressor, going to 40-60 gal I would get the pumps that require oil. You won't regret it.
Jeff

Personaly you need to select the requirements. First is how much air do you need. MY 5hp dual stage shuts off when I;m working with air tools ..so its more then enough for me. 2 people can be working at the same time.

Also power requirements. Mine required a 30 amp 220.

I bought direct from IR because I can buy at wholsale prices ... and I also had a problem getting parts for my previous LEROY compressor .. so I went local to IR and parts can be had easily.

ROn

Ron

Go with an oil-type, unless you don't value your hearing. I have a 6hp/33gal Craftman oil-free compressor which generates all the air I could ever need, but it's louder than you could imagine. I have to leave the garage whenever it comes on. Even with hearing protection, it's just too loud. Now I'm considering building an insulated out-building to house the compressor and just running a large feed line underground to the garage.

One more thought, go with a vertical orientation. They use a lot less space. Frankly, there's just not enough real estate in my garage. I love being able to wheel it outside for other projects (sand-blasting axle housings for example), but it still takes up too much space inside. I know there are some vertical models mounted on wheels. Check those out.

quote:

Go with an oil-type, unless you don't value your hearing. I have a 6hp/33gal Craftman oil-free compressor which generates all the air I could ever need, but it's louder than you could imagine.

I have the same and got it when Sears had a special including air tools for something like $250. I'd agree that it is quite loud and I find it runs almost constantly with high demand air tools (cut off wheel, die grinder or spraying). The oiled versions are certainly quieter and I'd step up to a two stage next time. If you want to go upmarket go with a variable speed screw type, I just purchased an IR for work and it is excellent, mind you it is 25hp/200cfm I'm not sure what the smallest size they make is.

Here is what I bought for home with the quote direct from IR 2340 L5. They make Rotary with air dryers ...but for home 4000.00 ? is not practical.

Ron

Here is all of US General's stock at Harbor Frieght.
U.S. General
Jeff

Go with an oil model. I got my first crafstman compressor about 25 years ago and it still worked last year when I gave it to my kid. I had an oil free one from Husky (Home Depot) and it was piece of crap. Some kind of valve burned out waited 4 months to get a warranty repair and 2 months later same valve burned out. wound up scraping the thing. Very happy with my IR

Gary #06984

No oil compressors are way to loud.
Mine runs off and on all day long and has been for the last 8 months. No problems so far.
Bought it from Harbor Frieght, it's a 60 gal, oil type.

Not only is an oiless compressor louder, but it will not last as long if you run it hard.

One more thing to look for is the HP rating. Not all compressors are rated in real HP. Some are in Peak HP. To get 5 hp, you need about 22 amps on 220 volts. Many of the so called 5 or 6 hp compressors only draw 15 or so amps and are in reality only 3 hp compressors. Look at the flow and at what pressure. Cheaper compressors also have their flow rated at 40 psi. Better ones are rated at 120 psi or 170 psi depending on a single or double stage.

I have a single stage cast iron 4 cylinder Emglo compressor with a true 5 hp motor. It puts out 19 cfm all day long at 130 psi. It is quite quiet too.

Another thing I did was put an intercooler and water trap between the compressor and the tank. Higher cost compressors have this. The intercooler and water trap prevents water going into the tank and actually does a better job keeping it out of the air when you run someting like a sand blaster. Without the intercooler, the air in the tank heats up when ran hard and will carry the moisture past your air trap and condense in the hose ruining air tools or paint jobs. The intercooler forces the moisture to condense.