Paul Borian on wed 15 nov 06
I have been looking into the various air compressors out there to find out
what the best i can get without spending too much more than $1000 and it
seems like Eaton is the way to go, especially since they are less than 100
miles away. They have a 5 hp, 26 cfm compressor with 80 gallon tank for
$1100 and the people there i spoke with say they are very quiet running and
the pumps can go for over 30,000 hours of use before having to replace
intake and exhaust valves, which then only require another $50 to do and
are easy to swap out.
Supposedly the Ingersoll Rand compressors therse days are nothing like the
old ones unless you spend several thousand dollars so i have ruled them
out. Beyond that, nothing from Home Depot, etc. is of interest to me.
I would be interested to hear from anyone who owns one of these compressors
or has worked at a studio that had one, or even another brand that can
stand up to the very heavy use i put mine through.
thanks,
Paul
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on thu 16 nov 06
Hi Paul,
I am not familiar with 'Eaton' Air Compressors, so
I went to their Web-Site and looked through
things.
They sound good to me from the descriptions.
And, Eaton appearently is happy to make up units
to-order and to talk with customers, which sounds
nice also.
I'd find out from them what the Motor RPMs are,
and more importantly, what the Pump RPMs are on
the model you are after, and also talk with them
about the next size up Pump, being set to run
slower, for equivelent CFMs even, just for the
heck of it...if their standard Air Pump speeds are
more than 400 RPM.
Anyway, so far as 'quiet' goes...the slower and
larger the Air Pump, generally the quieter all
will be.
Most manufactures want to over speed the pumps to
claim a certain CFM and of course they set the
Pullys' ratios for that in relation to the Motor.
Even these can often be made much quieter if new
ratio Pullys are arranged so the Pump stays around
400 RPM thereabouts...as well as doing so would of
course make for a much longer Air Pump life.
Ironically, Air Pump valve designs and attending
effeciencies of the Valves and intake and exhaust
ports and manifolds have been terrible for long
long time now all across the incustry.
There were better designs a hundred years ago than
anything made to day that I know of.
While the Gasoline Engine enjoyed tremendous
technical progress effecting it's breathing
effeciency, porting and manifolds, similar
progress was at one time also
happenning with Air Compressors, but sadly the
latter slipped back, then regressed even,
apearently never to catch up
again...and no one ever seems to have thought it
even mattered how woefully inefficient breathers
all of them are.
"Curtis" Air Compressors are very good, so far as
all this goes, and their Heads and Valve designs
are probably the best or at least no worse than
the best out there, and are much
better than I.R. or others, and yet these have not
changed in certainly 90 years or so, far as I can
tell...and are still far from ideal in terms of
Manifolds and flow and porting or other ways of
intelligently managing the
viscosity of Air.
Some days I have fantasies of starting a little
Air Compressor Manufacturing Company, which would
( Finally!) produce a truely elegant and effecient
design...so that the Horse Power used is not so
much wasted in fighting mis-managed Air with the
redundant bullying of it in counter-productive
ports,
manifolds and valves.
Anyway, far as whats out there, 'Eaton' looks
well worth further looking into...so, call 'em or
drive over and find out some more...
Good luck...!
Phil
Las Vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Borian"
> I have been looking into the various air
compressors out there to find out
> what the best i can get without spending too
much more than $1000 and it
> seems like Eaton is the way to go, especially
since they are less than 100
> miles away. They have a 5 hp, 26 cfm compressor
with 80 gallon tank for
> $1100 and the people there i spoke with say they
are very quiet running and
> the pumps can go for over 30,000 hours of use
before having to replace
> intake and exhaust valves, which then only
require another $50 to do and
> are easy to swap out.
> Supposedly the Ingersoll Rand compressors therse
days are nothing like the
> old ones unless you spend several thousand
dollars so i have ruled them
> out. Beyond that, nothing from Home Depot, etc.
is of interest to me.
> I would be interested to hear from anyone who
owns one of these compressors
> or has worked at a studio that had one, or even
another brand that can
> stand up to the very heavy use i put mine
through.
> thanks,
> Paul
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