Thread: Shopping for a new air compressor

When our mens shed gained access to a 100+ year old rehab hospital and were allowed to scavenge pretty much anything we liked b utmost of the good stuff had already gone by the time we got there. Amongst the detritus in a dingy basement were a couple of old compressors. One had a tank that would have been at least twice the size of a 44 gallon drum, so ~400L and to fill it they had 2 old school 1.5HP single piston pumps with pressure gauges that only went up to ~75psi. It looked like it had not been run for some time.
My guess is the 2 pumos/motors were for redundancy. It also had a very elaborate cooling and what looked like and air filtration system with Glass bell jars inside implosioncages.. I reckoned it was probably some sort of old medical air supply? The other compressor was also old, with massive 3P motor and big twin cylinders m nd2 x >100L tanks, . Getting these out of the basement would have been a feat in itself. The mens shed had only recently bought a newish refurbished 54 CFM compressor so the old compressors stayed where they were. I believe they, along with loads of copper and SS piping, went for scrap with the money donated to charity.

Hi

I got a Hush70 and very happy with it. Its the only model that uses 1.1kw motors. Rated at 343L/min FAD but I have not verified this myself. Only wish the tank was bigger.

Cheers
Frank

Wow didnt think the peerless 15a scroll comp would be that much, I didnt look very hard for a price but yeah found one on Ebay over 6K, admittedly the same mob is selling my comp for over 3K which can be had for 2.5k which surprised me also... jeez they've gone up in price mine was 1850 delivered but that is 5yrs ago.
I wouldnt buy mine at todays prices... the quality is just not there enough to justify that price

I bought the Peerless P17. Certainly not the cheapest but I'm more confident that it will be the last compressor I ever buy and I'm prepared to put my money where my mouth is with regard to funding the chinese regime, not sure how much of my money has just gone to them but less than the other options I think.
I won't have a chance to commission the new compressor until at least late next week so can't yet comment on the noise level. My shed is about 250 meters from the closest neighbour's house so that wasn't my biggest concern. The decreased start current should mean it won't momentarily dim all the lights in the district like the old one did, maybe there are some brownie points there.

Dont think u will regret your purchase.

The PHP15 at the shop has been chugging away happily for close to 10 years.

IOnly thing I will say is if it has pneumatic tyres turf em in favour of solid units.

I installed the compressor this afternoon and ran it for the first time. First impression was disappointment at the loud, cyclical rattle coming from the belt / pulley guard arrangement, the rattling drowned out the compressor noise and was far from tolerable in the workshop. Half an hour of fettling to install some rubber damping at the guard mounting points got rid of the rattling, should have been done before it left the factory, disappointing in a premium-priced machine.

Having got rid of the rattling, the machine has a noise level about in line with my experiences of similar sized compressors, neither particularly loud nor quiet.
Pump-up time for first fill of the tank was 1 minute 24 seconds. Cycle time from pump cut-in pressure to cut-out was 16 seconds.
Yet to use it to power any equipment. The tyres thankfully are solid.

Originally Posted by Pete O

I installed the compressor this afternoon and ran it for the first time. First impression was disappointment at the loud, cyclical rattle coming from the belt / pulley guard arrangement, the rattling drowned out the compressor noise and was far from tolerable in the workshop. Half an hour of fettling to install some rubber damping at the guard mounting points got rid of the rattling, should have been done before it left the factory, disappointing in a premium-priced machine.

Having got rid of the rattling, the machine has a noise level about in line with my experiences of similar sized compressors, neither particularly loud nor quiet.
Pump-up time for first fill of the tank was 1 minute 24 seconds. Cycle time from pump cut-in pressure to cut-out was 16 seconds.
Yet to use it to power any equipment. The tyres thankfully are solid.

Those times soud pretty good, what are the cut in cut out pressures?

Originally Posted by BobL

Those times soud pretty good, what are the cut in cut out pressures?

Pressures are 125 / 95 psi. I never timed my old compressor but this is massively quicker, tank appears to be the same size.

Originally Posted by Pete O

Pressures are 125 / 95 psi. I never timed my old compressor but this is massively quicker, tank appears to be the same size.

95 to 125 Psi is 2 Atmospheres, so for a 55 L tank, that's 110L of air in 16 sec. Thats 413L/min (or 14.6 CFM) which is no supposed to be possible for a 3HP motor.
Perless claim 320 L/min = 11.3 CFM which sounds more realistic.

Originally Posted by BobL

95 to 125 Psi is 2 Atmospheres, so for a 55 L tank, that's 110L of air in 16 sec. Thats 413L/min (or 14.6 CFM) which is no supposed to be possible for a 3HP motor.
Perless claim 320 L/min = 11.3 CFM which sounds more realistic.

Wow... and you calculated this yourself? 🤔

The P17 comes in three different versions. Two of them have a 110L tank, the portable one has just 55L. Which one did you get Pete?
Coincidentally the vertical one was the runner up when I bought my compressor last year.

Is there an app we can both run to measure decibels?

Frank

I bought the pov pack with the 55l tank. It's physically pretty much the same size as my old unit so fits in the same under-bench space.

It is possible that the cycle was 26 seconds and not 16- my memory does not usually last the walk from the shed to the computer. I will check again. It was PDQ though.

I emailed Peerless about the vibration from the belt guard and the fact that I had had to do some fettling on first use. They responded very quickly and the state sales rep is coming to my place tomorrow arvo. Having to add some rubber damping was no huge task but just something that should not have been necessary and will no doubt require periodic attention, well be interesting to see what they have to say about it. Impressed with the response thus far though.

Just timed it again- 16.99 seconds. I'm happy to call it 17. I make that 388.23 L/m.

Peerless rep came to my place today. Can't fault their product support and I'm sure I would not have got that with a chicom machine.

I bought a sydney tools vertical 120L 17cfm air compressor cost close to $1000, day one wheels broke, few months pass i was die grinding and the piping had froze up

Pick your options carefully

Ok, I dragged my compressor out of the garage and took some measurements. I should mention that the included pressure gauge is not particularly accurate. From empty to ~110psi, it takes 1:41 to fill the 70L tank. It cuts in when pressure falls below 80psi and it takes 25secs to fill it back to 110psi. Does this pan out with the claimed 12.1CFM / 343lpm FAD?

I have installed an app called Decibel X and measured the noise from four directions, from approx 1m distance - it varies between 71-74dB. I find the sound quite bearable. Can still hold a conversation next to it running.

Planning to use it shortly to paint a trailer. Longer term I would love to sand-blast but doubt it has enough output.

How loud or quiet is the Peerless?

Cheers
Frank

Hush70 - 1.jpg