Help buying air compressor

[twopu]

I`ve been wanting to get an air compressor for detailing but could never convince my wife. Now that we have a new house I "Need" one for winterizing my sprinkler system, and installing crown molding, inflating the car tire/misc stuff. I know nothing about brands, PSI and tank size so I would do I need to do all these jobs?

Thanks

[Pondscum]

Originally posted by twopu

I`ve been wanting to get an air compressor for detailing but could never convince my wife. Now that we have a new house I "Need" one for winterizing my sprinkler system, and installing crown molding, inflating the car tire/misc stuff. I know nothing about brands, PSI and tank size so I would do I need to do all these jobs?

Thanks



A small pancake compressor would do everything you mentioned. A small brad nailer suitable for nailing molding doesn`t take much. You can check the cfm rating of the tool you need vs the cfm rating of the compressor. Lowes has a pretty nice Porter-Cable pancake on sale for $149 till 12/31 (after rebate price I believe). You can certainly get cheaper ones, but I prefer the PC stuff because it`s definitely made to last. One like this will probably last you indefinitely.



Now if you ever plan on using some serious air tools, you`ll need a better one. I`ve got my eye on this one:

PC C3151 (http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=202356-5-C3151)



It`s big enough to do a decent impact wrench.

[twopu]

Yah, I was looking at the pancake compressor. My only concern is if it can handle blowing out my sprinkler system. I`m new at this so I don`t know how big of a tank I need.

[chaotik]

Well..I can tell you that a pancake compressor would never have the volume to winterize a sprinkler system.



I have a 7hp, 220v, 60 gallon compressor and I dont think it would do the job either.



When they come to winterize my system, they bring a trailer mounted compressor......the same compressors we use on job sites to power multiple large jackhammers at one time.



I would leave this to the pros to do......you have to have enough constant cfm to not only fill the lines with a good amount of pressure, but be able to maintain that pressure as the air is lost thru the sprinkler heads.



If you have a small sprinkler system.....a larger home compressor could work...but I know with mine (over an acre and 50+ heads)...I need something alot bigger than what I have!!

[az57chevy]

One more reason I`m glad I live in Arizona. Where it is only 123 in the summer !!