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Why shouldnt i buy a modern ir air compressor?

Emerson motor gave up after a year on a friends ir everything else has been fine:
 
My emerson motor on my 5hp IR is still running good...I use mine for blasting so it's running pretty continuously for hours at a time quite a bit.
 
Ranked in order if quality I think

 

$1997
12.7 CFM @ 90

1698075752182.jpeg
 
No mag starter IMO is a sign of a "value" compressor.
The 5hp pressure switches don't last and have no protection for overload.

A non mag starter setup usually has a Emerson style motor, No name "nema" rated vs a Baldor etc. motor.
 
No mag starter IMO is a sign of a "value" compressor.
The 5hp pressure switches don't last and have no protection for overload.

A non mag starter setup usually has a Emerson style motor, No name "nema" rated vs a Baldor etc. motor.

I think most "5 hp" ones without a starter are just playing rating games and are really like 3hp running. The true 5hp ones will have a starter.

Even if you end up with a cheaper compressor without a mag starter, it's worth throwing one on to hopefully help save the motor and switch. I've been running a no name chinese one from ebay on my for over 10 years without any issues.
 
that doesn't look like a 1/2 bad deal at all. Wish it was cheaper, of course.
I've heard good things about it but they might have been shills, I think the guys were on garage journal, not YT or other video whore site.
12CFM is plenty for normal home shop and 63db is pretty quiet.
 
Not sure how well it aged....
Guys had them fail, got new ones still seemed happy but the failure rate might be too high for my liking or they had a shit batch out the gate.
Maybe do more research on that one.


 
I've heard good things about it but they might have been shills, I think the guys were on garage journal, not YT or other video whore site.
12CFM is plenty for normal home shop and 63db is pretty quiet.
looks like it's more maintenance than it'll be worth for me. GJ folks have a lot of opinions on it.
This looks interesting... but I really, really don't need an 80 gallon tank (nor do I really have room for it).

 
Not sure how well it aged....
Guys had them fail, got new ones still seemed happy but the failure rate might be too high for my liking or they had a shit batch out the gate.
Maybe do more research on that one.



yup. Too much maint for me...
 
looks like it's more maintenance than it'll be worth for me. GJ folks have a lot of opinions on it.
This looks interesting... but I really, really don't need an 80 gallon tank (nor do I really have room for it).

IMO that type of "quiet" treatment can be done to any compressor. If you only need a 60 then so be it.
There is a thread here about purchasing a intake silencer that the guys really liked, might have been a plasma thread?
 
IMO that type of "quiet" treatment can be done to any compressor. If you only need a 60 then so be it.
There is a thread here about purchasing a intake silencer that the guys really liked, might have been a plasma thread?
I lied, it was in the shop air plumbing thread
 
IMO that type of "quiet" treatment can be done to any compressor. If you only need a 60 then so be it.
There is a thread here about purchasing a intake silencer that the guys really liked, might have been a plasma thread?

Yeah, that was me. I'm a big fan. Interesting that their intake silencer linked above is a huge box. The ones from mcmaster are like cherry bomb muffler size, not very big at all, works a treat.
 
I think most "5 hp" ones without a starter are just playing rating games and are really like 3hp running. The true 5hp ones will have a starter.

Even if you end up with a cheaper compressor without a mag starter, it's worth throwing one on to hopefully help save the motor and switch. I've been running a no name chinese one from ebay on my for over 10 years without any issues.
Any links to what you would recommend specificaly?
 
Yeah, that was me. I'm a big fan. Interesting that their intake silencer linked above is a huge box. The ones from mcmaster are like cherry bomb muffler size, not very big at all, works a treat.
I don't have any pictures but on a buddies attic mounted 5hp Quincy we ran a Donaldson small engine air filter housing with 3" inlet/outlet.
reduced the outlet down to adapt to the 1" NPT at the compressor head and rotated the inlet up so that 3" PVC could be used up through the ceiling and a roof jack with a mushroom cap. This had to be done because the compressor is in a sealed room inside a air conditioned space, with it running it would depressurize the room pretty bad.

It makes me wonder if this accomplish the same thing as the "Silencer" above.
 
Not sure how well it aged....
Guys had them fail, got new ones still seemed happy but the failure rate might be too high for my liking or they had a shit batch out the gate.
Maybe do more research on that one.


They have a version 2.0 that came out a year or two ago that was supposed to fix the issues.

I'd guess for every complaint found online there's dozens working fine.

12cfm isn't awesome though, sandblasting probably wouldn't work that great. The pot style blasters take what 30-40cfm?
 
Single stage, lower PSI = less stored energy, might not matter to you just pointing it out.

Only ever owned single stage… never wanted to spend the money in the past.

Now these things are 2.5x what they used to be and I’m having convulsions over it.

For what I need this is still probably overkill.
 
price/performance ... this likely will get the nod.


5hp but 20a :confused:

So in reality, it's more like 3hp.


Better off looking for something industrial and used. I doubt that thing holds up very well.

That setup is a LOT of CFM at that price point. The HD add is confusing saying 2 cylinder when it's got three heads?
Specs from site are same as HD though.

Kind of looks like the two side heads are feeding in the the middle one. But at the same time, that is a lot of volume at a lower pressure.

3450 rpm motor means they're just spinning it faster at the cost of longevity.



My true 5hp emglo has a 1725rpm motor and makes over 21cfm @ 175psi. :smokin:
 
5hp but 20a :confused:

So in reality, it's more like 3hp.


Better off looking for something industrial and used. I doubt that thing holds up very well.



Kind of looks like the two side heads are feeding in the the middle one. But at the same time, that is a lot of volume at a lower pressure.

3450 rpm motor means they're just spinning it faster at the cost of longevity.



My true 5hp emglo has a 1725rpm motor and makes over 21cfm @ 175psi. :smokin:

Yeah there is something a little fucky, 20 amps per leg would be right though?
My IR with Baldor has the same RPM.
 
5hp but 20a :confused:

So in reality, it's more like 3hp.


Better off looking for something industrial and used. I doubt that thing holds up very well.



Kind of looks like the two side heads are feeding in the the middle one. But at the same time, that is a lot of volume at a lower pressure.

3450 rpm motor means they're just spinning it faster at the cost of longevity.



My true 5hp emglo has a 1725rpm motor and makes over 21cfm @ 175psi. :smokin:

All the new ones seem to be high rpm’s. Only industrial-ish that I can find are 3-phase and still 2x as much as this one.


This guy seems to flip a bunch of compressors.

 
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Kind of looks like the two side heads are feeding in the the middle one. But at the same time, that is a lot of volume at a lower pressure.
Most 3 cylinder two-stage compressors are set up that way.
The nicer ones have finned tubes between the heads (to cool the air some), the fancy ones have an intercooler.

Aaron Z
 
bumping rather than starting a new thread... My 15 year old Kobalt finally fell apart. Not going to fix it...

Really don't want to spend $ on a new compressor, but need to for a paint project.

So any additional thoughts on the IR's, Quincy, Puma, etc?
you still in the area?
got a puma single stage "5hp" (bullshit) one that I'd sell for $300
got it, stuck new head gaskets in it and it's just sat since
 
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