What To Look For In An Air Compressor

What To Look For In An Air Compressor

Lots of people online are unsure of what to look for in an air compressor before purchasing. Firstly, with any air compressor, there must be a steady supply of compressed air to ensure the constant delivery of quality, because without a steady supply of the compressed air, the tool may not function as well as expected.

So before choosing your air compressor be sure that you know the capacity of its tank. Additionally, an air compressor with a greater motor and larger tank capacity means more power for your air tools.

Before deciding on which type of air compressor you should purchase, you need to determine exactly which air tools you’ll be using with it. This is because some air tools require a certain amount of pressure to function as specified, and if it’s provided with any less, it will not operate properly. So by planning your purchase of air compressor dependent on the tools you will be using it with, you can be assured that your purchase should not go to waste. One other tip is to always purchase to suit your most demanding air tool, this way you can operate all those less demanding as well.

There are two main types of air compressors, both used for different types of jobs.

Firstly you have the compact air compressor which is small and light weight, and does not contain a tank for the air. Instead it just takes in the air and applies the pressure, so it continues to run while taking in the air. Now because the compact air compressor doesn’t have a tank and is smaller, it cannot supply enough air to more of the larger tools so is not recommended for that use. Usually compact air compressors are used for small jobs such as paint guns, and glue guns.

The other type is the piston-type compressor, which uses a tank to store the compressed air. Basically it comes with a pump which pumps the compressed air into the tank so that it’s stored and ready to be used when required. If the air pressure drops below a certain point, then the air compressor will kick in and correct the pressure to the required level. Within the piston-type compressors, there are different stages of compression and differently levels of functionality respectively.

Another thing to look at when wanting to purchase an air compressor is to compare the CFM (cubic feet per minute) that the air compressor can provide with the required CFM of the tools you want to use it with.

Remember that for most people when they purchase an air compressor, it ends up just sitting in the garage and maybe after a few initial uses, it doesn’t get another workout again. So figure out if you’re going to use it for a long time or just once and then buy or rent accordingly. You can rent air compressors for a few days or weeks at cheaper rates than a big purchase, because at the end of the day an air compressor is an investment if you buy one.