Which air compressor?

[stuballs]

Hoping to go and grab an air compressor from Machine Mart this weekend to take advantage of the VAT free offer on Clarke products and was hoping for some input.

I just need it for general DIY stuff - powering impact wrench and that sort of thing. No spray painting.

I'm considering two options on offer from Clarke:

Clark Ranger 7 - £100 - I think this meets my minimum requirements:
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/prod ... -compresso
•7.5cfm Air Displacement
•24 Litre Air Receiver
•230V - 2hp, 50Hz Motor
•8bar (116psi) Maximum Working Pressure

Clarke Rebel 35 - £209 - Better spec but twice the price and probably more than I need.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/prod ... compressor
•10cfm air displacement
•24 litre air receiver (CE certified)
•3hp, 230V motor with thermal overload protection
•10 bar (145psi) maximum working pressure

[pengy_666]

The first one won't run impact tools very well....

[stuballs]

Second one it is then. Thanks.

[pengy_666]

It's the cfm that you need to check against your air tools...

[stuballs]

Thanks for the help mate. I never would have known that looking at the numbers. The bigger one has actually been discontinued but at least I know the spec I want. Cheers.

[Punx0r]

Second vote for the 3HP one

[Sneekyparrot]

The 24ltr tank won't last long at all, I have a 50tr tank and a die grinder don't last more than 30 seconds before it runs low and motor kicks in.
Just so u are aware some air tools use the reserve up very quickly.
Impact only should last longer thou.

P.

[pengy_666]

I've converted an old lorry air tank as a secondary tank before, I've also seen people use old lpg or calor had bottles as secondary tanks also...

[stuballs]

Intetesting. Thanks for the suggestions. Main use will be impact wrench and then general purpose use (cleaning, pumping tyres, etc) so might go for bigger tank of I can afford it. Have to draw the line somewhere though. About to purchase a shed load more stuff for the project.

[Steve220]

I bought this one

http://shop.aseriesspares.co.uk/shop/ai ... sor-50ltr/

Works well with air tools however i'm getting into blasting and it struggles a little but i only do small items.

[Punx0r]

Blasting requires serious volumes of air. From the discussions I've seen, people wanting to blast something the size of car wheels or body panels usually end up with a diesel road compressor...

[Null_Byte]

Two constants I've found when it comes to compressors.

1) You always wish you had bought a bigger one

2) You always wish you had bought a quieter one.

I think mine is around 13/14cfm with 150L tank. It will cope with a windy gun as long as your not using it constantly, it can handle spraying a whole car, but not running a mask at the same time and it will run a blast gun, but you will have to stop every so often to give it a chance to catch up.

I think if you go much smaller than this you are limited to very light airtools, spraying small panels or trim and general purpose tyre inflation/blow gun use. The importance of a good quality regulator with sufficient flow cannot be understated, this will be a bottleneck if you are not careful.