Vent: The before and after on my shop's air compressor setup blew my mind

I switched my shop from a single big 80-gallon compressor to a daisy chain of two smaller 60-gallon units. Before, we'd get about 45 seconds of real work on a impact gun before the big tank dropped to 90 psi and the motor kicked on. After swapping, I get a solid 2 minutes of non-stop hammering before either unit even thinks about cycling. It cost me $1,400 total from a dealer in Phoenix, but I saw the difference on day one. The big compressor always had that lag where the unloader valve would hiss and we'd lose 15 psi before the motor caught up. The two small units stage better and I can pull one offline for maintenance without shutting down the whole shop. Has anyone else here tried splitting their air load between multiple compressors?

3 comments

3 Comments

hugoh5520d ago

Wait, did you read that article in Practical Machinist about staging compressors? I remember that guy talking about how the unloader valve lag on big singles is basically wasted capacity, and your 2 minute run time proves it. I had a buddy try something similar with two 40 gallon units from Harbor Freight but he didn't wire them in series right so one kept overworking. Your setup sounds like it fixed that staging issue cold. The 15 psi drop you mention rings a bell too, that's the exact problem those smaller units sidestep by having shorter recovery times and better valve timing.

brown.gavin20d ago

Harbor Freight and me mixing up wiring. That's a recipe for blowing a breaker and a lot of swearing. Happy to report I only shocked myself twice on this one.

daniel_walker20d ago

Did you stage the cut-in pressure correctly like @brown.gavin probably did?