Portable Air Compressors - which ones really work?

[BC]

thanks bitburger, jlrray --- found it today in another store. Nifty little unit, love the portability. Initial test showed plenty of performance for my needs. Wont be airing up 35's from zero or doing multiple vehicles, just airing 33" Toyo's down and back up between 33-65lbs or thereabouts.

[BC]

may have spoken too soon on the MasterFlow QMax. First one had a bad fill valve, returned. Second one was blowing fuses. Returned.

Second one had beefier air tube and the fill valve didnt have the same twist-to-deflate feature like the first one. I liked the deflate function but the one without it seemed less likely to fail and had beefier tubing. So now on unit#3, but unfortunately couldnt find another without the deflate valve.

[Greg In Austin]

The guys at SMB TX ran a test, and our Extreme Air filled a tire faster than their shop compressor.....

We have not had a chance to use it for anything important yet, just blowing the dirt and grass out the back door.

[DUKCSUN]

I run the Power Tank 10lb tank in mine and I couldn't be happier. Fills a tire from FLAT to 55lbs in about 45 secs. It will run air tools (if you're so inclined) and I can get whole lot of air-downs and fill-ups on a single tank.

I air down my tires virtually every weekend to make the washboards a bit less kidney pounding and bone shattering and I pull out the tank and air back up when its time to hit the pavement home.

With a set of Staun deflators and the power tank I would say that I could do a complete cycle of air down and air up in about 4-5 mins total time.

By my experience, air compressors break. It seems that's what they are put on this earth to do for some reason.

The only viable objection I've heard to the power tank was from someone that was travelling for an extended trip to Mexico and was concerned about the availability of CO2. Even though any welding supply would have it, I can't argue with that logic.

For me, I just run over the tavern supply and fill it up when I need to for $14.

[jage]

Powertank == one more thing to fill. Plus it takes up more space than a compressor.

Speed is not essential in my opinion- well not as essential as space in the SMB or the Jeep. I have run the same Quickair I compressor for years and even a 32" tire take minutes to fill- however it will reset a bead and I've filled many tires from flat to low- just have to sit back and relax.

The only time it's been an issue was after a wheeling trip where some of our group had been ticketed for offroading and I was hiding behind a gas station trying to air up, just waiting for the local PD to roll up and wonder what I'd been doing.

Not that I wouldn't love to fill my tires in seconds, but I'd rather have a fast compressor/tank with an unlimited supply of "free" air, potential breakage notwithstanding.

[DUKCSUN]

Agree. Its the "potential breakage notwithstanding" part that gets me. Maybe I'm just cursed when it comes to compressors.....I need an old priest and a young priest...

[jage]

Whereas I am much more likely to not bother to fill my Powertank...

Anyway I just picked up a couple of the compressors from Costco. Pretty cool- the "chuck" screws on and has a deflate feature. Since there is a built in pressure gauge this works pretty well.

I took my spare down to 25 psi and in 6 minutes it was up to 45. At 50 psi I gave up and used my garage tank... works for my purposes. With 40 minutes at 40psi duty cycle I'm going to daisychain both of them to a tank and see how that works.

Oh yes, and HOT! within a minute it was hard to keep your finger on top, and after 4 minutes I couldn't touch the quick release (near the pump head). At the end (about 7 minutes) I also noticed the electrical wire was quite warm all the way back to the battery clips. It's still cooling on the back of the van.