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recommended air compressor for indoor use

joel wilkins

I'm New Here
I'm starting and RV after the new year and am looking for QUIET compressors that will do the job and not drive my wife nuts. I'll be building in the basement on a long ranch house, not directly under the living quarters.

I've seen 4+CFM 24 gal vertical one's at Lowes for under $300 but I'm not sure how quiet it'd be.

Any recommendations are appreciated.
 
Never buy an “oil less” compressor. They are painfully noisy.

The plethora of China compressors (all the Lowes, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, etc.) are all the same. Cheap and will do what you need.

If you want to buy the best, get a Quincy. My 20 year old, 3HP 110VAC, 20 gallon unit has built three RVs including all the interior priming. It sounds like a sowing machine when running.

I have a big Lowes 220VAC compressor in the hangar for the paint booth. $600 or so. Loud enough that I would not want it in the basement shop.

Carl
 
Sound enclosure

You can purchase cheap and noisy, box over it with some insulation inside might work for your. Friend has the California air tools unit....is very quiet in comparison to most all.
 
I have the Kobalt Quiet Tech 4.3 gal that's rated at 2.4 CFM @ 90 psi @ 60 dB and it's completely usable in the basement. You can have a conversation standing right next to it. Riveting however will get loud, especially as you form assemblies - they act like a drum.

I've also been around the California Air Tools and it too is fine in the basement.

I will say that 2.4 CFM is on the lower end of what's usable. It runs the rivet gun just fine. It keeps up with the pneumatic squeezer (214CP) but will run continuously on longer dimple runs. I've borrowed a large alligator squeezer and it can do about 2-3 squeezes before it needs to catch up again!

It will final drill with my Sioux clone 4k rpm drill about 30-50 holes before needing to catch up and it will drill 5-10 holes (depending on thickness) before needing to catch up. Drilling the longerons in the tailcone I ended up running a hose from the garage from my 5hp compressor so I wouldn't have to wait forever. It does the J-channel stiffeners reasonably well with a bit of waiting.

Painting with anything bigger than an airbrush or (maybe) a small touch-up gun isn't practical.
 
Never buy an “oil less” compressor. They are painfully noisy.

That was true until the new (~5 years or so?) batch of quiet compressors came out. My oilless is about 20-30 dB quieter than my 5hp oiled IR pump. My old Bostitch oilless was easily 20-30 dB louder than the IR pump.
 
location

Try to get the noisy sucker out of the building and run a pipe/hose to where you need it. You will thank yourself many times over for doing it.
Mine is in a outhouse sized building on the outside of my hanger and piped in.
Art
 
+1 for outside

Try to get the noisy sucker out of the building and run a pipe/hose to where you need it. You will thank yourself many times over for doing it.
Mine is in a outhouse sized building on the outside of my hanger and piped in.
Art

Put the compressor outside of your shop and plumb it into the shop. MUCH quieter and allows you to get a larger compressor that will not run as often. If you get a 220V it will also be more efficient. I did this with my 90G compressor from Tractor Supply. I also put a moisture trap prior to the hose reel. DO NOT use PVC if you decide to do this. 3/4” steel gas pipe from the aviation aisle at Lowe’s does the trick.
 
A friend built his RV-7 in an apartment with a scuba tank and a first stage regulator. Can’t get any quieter than that. :)
Can’t use it for air tools but it lasts a long time for just riveting.
He even painted his plane with that setup.

Lenny
 
Caveat:

Local building codes may require metal pipe up to a certain height from the floor.

Early on, I "lucked" into a 110V AC refrigerated unit and I'll never have a fixed compressor without one. The dry air is sooooo much better.
 
I’m the “friend” with the California Air Tools compressor. It’s Awesome. Plus, ez to carry back to the house for drywall projects. Got mine for $150 new in 2017. Doubt any others can beat the price, the quality or the LOW DBs.
 
Outside

I'm going to recommend having the compressor outside and running a line through a basement window. I did this with my old compressor until I got my new oil lubricated beast (240v, 3.7hp, 10cfm, 30gal, 80db). It cycled between 120psi and 150psi, so I set the tank regulator at 120, ran a skinny line under the door seal to another regulator inside that I could set for whatever I was doing. The old compressor was horribly noisy, a big oil-less unit, but nobody cared because it was outside...well maybe the neighbours cared, but never heard any complaints. It was nice and quiet in the shop on the other side of the door.

Riveting and the other air tools will be quite noisy, so a quiet compressor is only half the battle, and it's the easy half.
 
thanks for all the suggestions. I have a big brutish twin cylinder vertical IR i salvaged from a gas station owner 15 years ago after it threw a bearing. It will do the job but it is noisy. I may still move it down to the walkout basement door and build a water proof cover for it. The ground outside the basement is somewhat sloped so some shovel and pad work is required but that'd be the cheapest route.

the most convenient route is to buy a new California Air Tools one and place it inside in a far corner. the convenient route just costs more a/c tool money.
 
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prime

+ 1 more. It’s very quiet and powers all my pneumatic tools and priming gun. I was skeptical when I bought it, but I needed something quick to replace an old, noisy oiled compressor that gave up the ghost. I’ve been using the Kobalt for four months now and it’s great.


About to pull the trigger on the Kobalt. What are you using for a priming gun and I assume it's ok because of small pieces to prime? Looks like guns use around 12CFM at 40psi.
 
Caveat:

Local building codes may require metal pipe up to a certain height from the floor.

Early on, I "lucked" into a 110V AC refrigerated unit and I'll never have a fixed compressor without one. The dry air is sooooo much better.

The RapidAir Max is plastic inside and outside with metal in between.
 
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