Steer me towards a good garage compressor

[cougar20th]

For what I do CFM is king. I use it for autobody so lots of grinding, cutting. Nothing super high pressure. But if the compressor can't keep air (cfm) flowing its useless to me.

If you buy a good compressor and maintain it the thing should last for years. Always drain the tank after use. Otherwise the bottom will rot out and it's junk at that point. A new tank can cost as much as the complete compressor did.

I use a 1960's vintage Ingersoll bodyshop compressor. Its ugly but was always maintained by it owners.

[Spider!]

I haven't surveyed commercial compressors in a while, but the stinky thing about their specs used to be that the CFM rating was a max at some lower pressure and the stated pressure was the max at low flow. They are separate conditions, not the stated flow and pressure together.

[Drcemento]

our 80 Gallon, 10 horse Rol-air has been a great unit for many years. good auto drain system and 3 phase motor helps allot but they make the same model in single phase. change the oil, check the tightness of bolts now and again. we run pneumatic wet grinders all day sometimes

the next upgrade someday is a screw powered unit or whatever those things are.

[Deerslayer]

We do own it unfortunately no electrical panel in the garage.
The one potentially good thing that might work out there is a wall heater on the opposite side of the wall from roughly were I want the compressor. I'm not sure what it's wired for or even if electricity can be pulled from there with our without losing the heater but without running conduit,

Typically, the circuit feeding the heater would be sized for the heater load. I doubt that there is excess capacity that would run a compressor and the heater, and it is a code violation to connect a larger load than the circuit will handle. You could abandon the heater, install a junction box and run from there to the compressor, but another problem might arise. Today's codes require a separate ground conductor, and if your heater was installed years ago, it might or might not have this wire. I'd assume a new compressor would need a 3 wire circuit so the odds are that your heater has the required conductors...but this is not certain.

[Trbo323]

It would have to be 3 wire. House was built in 2001.

I might have a better solution coming off of the main panel though, going under the house and then running conduit in the garage (house foundation is above ground, garage is at ground level)

My only concern is I only have 1 slot available in the panel so if it needs a breaker that takes up 2 spots I'm in trouble.

I'm kind of leaning towards a larger used compressor over smaller and new.

Levi that champion was a good find, good enough that it's already gone

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[Levi]

If you go with a 240V unit you'll need to put a 2 pole breaker in your panel to feed it. You should be able to free up another spot by swapping a couple existing circuits to what is called a "tandem" breaker. These squeeze two breakers into one slot in your panel.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Electrical-Power-Distribution-Electrical-Panels-Protective-Devices-Circuit-Breakers-Tandem-Breakers/N-5yc1vZbm0f

[Trbo323]

If you go with a 240V unit you'll need to put a 2 pole breaker in your panel to feed it. You should be able to free up another spot by swapping a couple existing circuits to what is called a "tandem" breaker. These squeeze two breakers into one slot in your panel.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Electric...s/N-5yc1vZbm0f

Maybe I'll just have you come wire it for me lol. Electrical is not my strong suite

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[Trbo323]

Hmmmm, here's what I'm working with. Unless I'm wrong, those already look like doubles



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[Drcemento]

if you get a compressor thats got any real power you will need to pull from a breaker similar to the 40 and 60 amp breakers on the left.

first thing to check - are those really all being used? and for what - feeding sub-panels? or appliances. bigger shop type compressors often show a huge amp draw on the specs - this is for the start up, then it draws far less while running. so i t might be possible to share one of the big breakers with another appliance or something depending on what its being used for. is the breaker marked for whats what? pull the cover off. sometimes those big ones might not even be used.

I did not see that this was the second page of the post - I can't believe your old compressor was running sanders etc! and yes - look for a used larger compressor - and one that requires oil!!

check the specs! it may be that one dedicated 20amp/ 115 breaker will work for a mid size compressor.

[Trbo323]

Here's the other side, I don't have time to pull the panel off right now to check if they are all actually being used

10-16 are my only real questions as they are all labeled, I think, general crossover, hard to read the chicken scratch

The garage and rec room of our house are an addition so I'm not sure if that's what it's referring to or what. The addition has it's own panel but it's further away from where I would like a compressor to be

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[Levi]

They make 2-pole (240V) versions of the slim breakers too. So you could potentially gain a couple spaces that way if you don't have an unused breaker already.

In the lower right corner here... notice how the handles are tied together (30A & 50A). This puts 2 240v circuits in only two "slots"

[Levi]

I'm sure there's a limit to how many circuits you can shoehorn into a panel & stay code compliant. May be worth asking a bona-fide electrician since you already have a bunch of tandems in there.

[martix_agent]

If you have wiring for a hot tub and an old kiln, those are nearly guaranteed to be 230v wiring. .. but i don't see that written on the breaker panel anywhere.

What is your main service breaker rated at?

[Trbo323]

If you have wiring for a hot tub and an old kiln, those are nearly guaranteed to be 230v wiring. .. but i don't see that written on the breaker panel anywhere.

What is your main service breaker rated at?

That's because the hot tub and "kiln" plug are on the panel in the rec room. It's a separate panel then the one I have photoed above. The "kiln" plug is a 50amp plug and I have plans to turn that into RV power in tbe future so I would rather not use that one. No way I'm taking away the hot tub power

Also, if I can avoid it I would rather not use the rec room panel. Because of where it's located I suspect there will be lots of holes in walls that would need to be patched after. The main house panel i don't think any holes will be needed and I'm fine with conduit on the wall in the garage

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[Tarsun2]

i got the Husky Q27 quiet series 27 gal many many years ago.
3 speed
90psi max output pressure with adjustable reg.

it SAYS 4cfm at 90psi and 6cfm at 40psi.

BUT its all BS. Its like aquarium canister filters (if you're in the hobby)
they dont actually measure the pressure and flow at the hose end.

this has done everything i needed over the years.
impact tools, pneumatic tools/grinders, some sand blasting (hand held blaster).

the biggest thing, AlWAYS drain the tank.