I've got a small pancake air compressor from Harbor Freight in my garage that seems to fill my requirement which pretty much consists of airing up the occasional tire.

However I constantly find myself eyeing the bigger stand up units when in the store and when the ads come out. I just can't find a real reason for me to pull the trigger and justify the expense. I've got a Milwaukee electric impact wrench that fills those needs very well.

What am I missing out on?

Unless you're going to run air tools, a sand-blast cabinet or possibly a paint sprayer, not much.

Perfectly normal.

You aren't missing out on much...unless you want more options for spending money.

If you are thinking of upping your pancake to something bigger I would suggest Tractor supply.
Went thru replacement last fall when the craftsman 60 gallon upright threw a rod.
I shopped all places,read reviews.
Tractor supply came out on top with price and warranty and reviews.
Very happy with my new oil bath 60 gallon.

Bigger is always better.... i have several air compressors, chainsaws etc to prove that.

Did the compressor instructions speak of a duty cycle?

Silent

We have a small farm and I use the heck out of air compressors which, in some jobs, require a lot of air. I spray paint, sandblast, blow dry and use air tools. If you need volume, go big. If you only air occasional car tires, stay small. Larger ones can be noisy, take up a lot of space and require some maintenance.

I went the other way. About 20 years ago Santa brought a 50 gallon with enough to paint/sandblast/etc. Never used it for that & it was on wheels. With a couple out buildings, it was always in the wrong one. Very useful for blowing off garden equipment & occasional tire filling.

Liked it for blasting goo off cleaned pistols.
Solved my problem by getting a small pancake compressor (& air brad gun) to leave in the 'pistol cleaning suite'......

Try adding an in line air tank (at least 6 gallons) to improve performance. I have a 30 gallon air tank someone gave me off a cheapo compressor that died and it makes a huge difference. Your compressor will run longer each time it has to fill it, but will go through far fewer on/off cycles which is what will ultimately kill small compressors.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Blackmore, May 08, 2017 12:40 PM

Greater CFMs yield more options for tools. If you only want to pressure up tires or use a nail gun, then the smaller compressor is fine. Once you open up your world to pneumatic tools, you'll wonder what you did without them.

I've got on of those small pancake ones that I picked up for running my air nailer/stapler/bradder. It works awesome for that, but that's about it. It's nowhere near big enough to do anything else I need.

So, I picked up a lower end (Husky brand I think) 30 gallon from Lowes a few years back that works great for everything else. More than enough pressure to blow out my sprinkler system, inflate truck tires, run air tools, etc.... It was somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 and money well spent.

I have a Harbor Freight compressor. Very noisy, takes forever to fill the air tank.

Should have gone to tractor supply and bought a good compressor.

I had a Sears compressor that finally threw a rod after more than 30 years of pretty hard usage.

For stuff with moving parts, I now have serious questions about Harbor Freight stuff.

Years back my wife gave me a Deville Bliss tiny direct drive compressor. Very handy but noisy.

By chance, I happened on a belt drive 5 gallon Speed King which needed to be restored a bit - new plumbing.

I use the little one for mobile tasks, like filling the tires on my trailer at the boat yard or power tool use outside the house.

The belt drive is much quieter and stays under the bench. More than adequate for power tools, I even used a soda blaster with it recently.

Belt drive is better overall.

 
Stand up unit for the win. I have a Quincy QT-5, and have plumbed my entire garage with black pipe, risers, etc to three different manifolds. Each manifold is set to a different pressure (though they are adjustable, of course). For the reloading bench, I like about 40psi, for gun cleaning and other chores. For the workbench, I set about 60-70 so I don't blow stuff away too far, and over by the overhead door openings, 95 psi for air tools. The compressor outputs 175 psi. The entire system stays pressurized all the time. You'd be surprised how much you can use air when it is always available.
 
One of the manifolds:
 

You don't need a larger compressor if all you do is inflate your tires once in a while.

We have our compressor for driving packaging, etc tied into the shop.

Filling a truck tire in a few seconds is nice

make sure it has WHEELS!! - I pulled a muscle in my lower back trying to move my compressor around last week. I want to do what henryaz did above, eventually. Very nice.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Unless you're going to run air tools, a sand-blast cabinet or possibly a paint sprayer, not much.

THIS, if you don't have a need for a bigger one, why bother buying one. You will most likely have to upgrade your electricity going to the compressor also if you go with a big one.

Just out of curiosity for those with air compressors, especially those in naturally humid climates (ie not Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico).

How often do you bleed off your tank with the valve at the bottom to remove the condensed water?

I once had a client that insisted on purchasing a shop type compressor for a small industrial application. After a few months he complained that the compressor was running nearly constantly and the paint on the top of the tank was bubbling from the heat. I asked him if he'd bled the compressor weekly as instructed and he said no but he'd check. He called back a few hours later. Apparently he had to go home and change because when he opened the valve, about 50 gallons of water evacuated from his 60 gallon compressor.

Here's a trick I learned from riding high end steel bicycles.

With the compressor off, unplugged and no pressure in the tank, remove the bung and spray the inside of the tank with either J.P. Weigle frame saver or LPS 3.

It goes on as a penetrating oil and spreads well, then congeals into something like cosmoline.

This makes the interior of the tank resist rust.