Piston or Rotary Compressor for Body Shop

challengersteve

New Member
Hello Everyone, I have not posted for a while but do come here to look quite a bit.
I am in the process of moving my restoration shop and had a question about air compressors. I will be buying a new compressor and wondered what the opinions on a rotary instead of a piston unit?
I can put it outside so noise is not my main concern.
Thanks for any opinions, Steve
 
I have a good friend of mine that builds and repairs compressors for big factories. He explained to me that the rotaries are designed to run continuous, which is what the factories need. The only time they are shut off is for maintenance. If you have a lot of employees, a rotary may be the way to go. I have a 10 HP Compair Hydrovane that ran 7-8 employees with no issues for over 10 years. For the 2 employees I have now, it is really overkill. A nice 7.5-10 hp piston compressor would be plenty. Currently, I am using a 7.5 hp Elgi screw compressor and my Hydrovane for backup. It keeps up with 2 people using air, but 3 or more I would want a 10 hp. A lot of the rotaries are not designed for real high pressures (over 100-120psi), so I would check for that if it is a concern. There is a little more maintenance cost with a rotary, but it produces less heat (therefore water) and oil contamination.
 
We had a rotary at a Shop I worked at. It was an IR. It stopped working one day. IR Tech came out and looked at it. Charged us for 3 hours @$150/hr and he was totally clueless. Was over a year before we were able to get the thing working again. No one could figure it out.
My point is simpler is better and the rotary's are not simple.
 
Where I used to work we had 20HP two stage Campbell H. 120 gallons It could run continuously or whenever the pressure dropped the motor would kick on. We never had a shortage of air running the whole shop. Never had any major problem with it. If you will be using the compressor just for spraying you don't even need a two stage.
 
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