Your thoughts on these air compressors please

[Greg L.]

I'm shopping for an air compressor and would like your opinions on these two.

http://www.eaglecompressor.com/air_c...p?recordID=138

http://www.eaglecompressor.com/air_c...p?recordID=141

I can get the 12.5 CFM one for about $775.00 and the 18.5 CFM one for $900.00. The bigger one would be nice to have and it's only an extra $125.00 but I'm not sure if I really need it and it will definitely cost more to run it so if I don't need it, it will be a waste.

My new spray gun will be a Devilbiss Plus GFG-670 and it's rated for 9-11 CFM @40 PSI so that is what the compressor will have to run. I should be okay...right?

What do you guys think? I know more CFMs are better when buying a compressor but if I don't really need it for this gun then I'll probably go with the 12.5 CFM one.

I was also thinking that with the gun being rated at 40 PSI and the compressors being rated at 100 PSI that as I drop the pressure down to the 40 PSI at the gun that I will get an increase in CFMs. This should give me even more margin between what the gun needs and what the compressor can deliver. Or did I get that all backwards?

If I need to go with the 18.5 CFM compressor then I will but if the 12.5 CFM one will work for me then that's what I'll get.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

[Joel T.]

Re: Your thoughts on these air compressors please

Greg..

I do not know about the models which you are referring to but I can tell you this much from my own experience.. Which you pick has more to do with what you are intending to do with it. (key word intending... over the longer term). Things like horsepower and tank capacity to matter.

I had a Sears "professional" stand up model with like a 40 gallon tank and rated at like 2.3 HP. That was fine for painting as you mention as well as filling tires and running some air driven tools. I eventually went and bought a blasting cabinet. For this type of work, high volume at high pressure, the 2.3 HP was undersized... providing a very short "work" time versus "recovery" time... you can get stuff done.. but it takes forever and beats the tar out of the compressor because it basically runs constantly. I ultimately went out and bought a unit from TP; 5 HP and 60 gallons which can get the job done reasonably.

The point of this is you should think about what you might ultimately want to do with the compressor and them probably invest in one which will permit you to grow into that end game...

Other guys will have more pointers I suspect, but this is what I have learned over the last few years from experience...

Hope this helps a bit,

Joel

[Greg L.]

Re: Your thoughts on these air compressors please

Thanks Joel and what you say makes sense.

The most that I can ever see myself needing though is enough CFM to run a Devilbiss Plus gun which needs about 9-11 CFM @ 100 PSI. I know that sand blasters use a lot of air but I really don't have any room for a good sized cabinet.

Right now all I have is a 5 CFM Husky and it did all that I asked of it. It did run steady when I was blasting some parts in my home made blaster but it still "worked". I figured that getting one that's twice the size would work that much better but maybe still not as good as it should...

My main focus right now is getting a compressor that will run that Devilbiss Plus gun so that I don't run out of air when painting my 69.