I have an old 30 gallon air compressor that I only use for airing up tires and blowing dust off things. it's needlessly large and noisy for what I use it for. I was thinking of replacing it with a smaller quieter compressor like the 2 gallon fortress from harbor freight but maybe a battery powered inflator like pic rel would be better? not sure what I would use for dusting things off though.
Yeah i was going to say you won't be blowing anything off with a small inflator like that. Imho those are only good for roadside emergencies and town/city cucks to air up the tires on their minivans and road bikes...
A good quality compressor is completely underrated by most people. The more cfm the better...
I use 12 volt compressors all the time
bad choice for 35 inch mud tire
4.80-12 trailer tire can be pumped up fast enough
normal car and truck tires are not too long to get from 32 to 40 psi
if you were going to move your big compressor or get out long air hoses the battery powered will be a lot easier but some jobs will take a long time
portable and easy to use but slow
good to have a back up compressor in case one stops working
>get you one and practice using it so you are ready to pull off the clamp on hose without losing all the air you put in
10/10 I recommend the 18V inflators.
Filling up compressors is annoying if you’re just topping off a couple low tires. Plus the compressor will never save your ass on the side of the road. And the little 12V inflators are trash, they take like 10-20min to inflate an SUV tire, some of them get hot as frick, and I have had them blow fuses in the car more than once. Also the corde often aren’t long enough to reach the furthest tire. The only good 12V inflators are the ones that hook straight to the battery and those are $100+
Pic related is at least 3x up to 10x faster than any of the 12V inflators that plug into the lighter outlet. It has adapters for other inflatable shit too. It’s quieter than the compressor and many of the 12V pumps, and you can set the desired PSI and walk away from it. Plus the Ridgid model has a 12V lighter adapter if you don’t have a charged battery, but it runs at like half speed off 12V.
Even if I’m at home near the compressor, I grab the 18V pump if I’m just topping off 4 tires or just plugged one tire. You’re not going to be blowing off dust like the real compressors though, the air is too slow moving, but there are great little 18V blowers.
That ridgid inflator is the best power to size ratio especially for smaller vehicles. It is the inflator Makita should have made...
I fell for the ridgid meme bros... bought the inflator and the mid torque impact kit. it's over.
Also to answer some other stuff on your post… don’t buy the tiny 2 gal compressor for dust and tires.
I have a 3gal compressor that is 0.6CFM. It’s as loud as my 4.5CFM large compressor, but that 0.6CFM rated pump is soooo slow. It’s like 5min before you can even start trying to fill a tire, and the pressure drops off to a useless point really fast. It has to recover multiple times to air up an SUV tire and it’s honestly faster to use the 18V pump.
Also blow guns use a lot of air. A 2gal compressor is going to kick on after one short burst of air and won’t keep up with any real dust blowing unless you have the pump made for a 30gal compressor sitting on a 2gal tank. That 3gal compressor sits and collects dust because the pump is so slow that the large compressor fills up faster.
Those little 2-3gal compressors are worthless unless you’re using them to inflate basketballs or some shit or using a very low consumption tool like maybe airbrushing fine stuff at a low PSI or possibly firing off a couple staples
my 30 gal is rated 6.4 scfm @ 90psi. the fortress 2gal is rated 2.1 scfm @ 90psi. should still be fine for topping off tires and using a blow gun but tbh the blow gun just shifts the filth around instead of actually cleaning it up. im thinking the move for me is to go with an 18v inflator and just use a vacuum instead of a blow gun.
That’s not terrible for the 2gal, as long as you stay away from the <$100 0.6CFM ones, they’re fricking slower than the 12V inflators I swear. Just remember that the blow gun sucks a lot of juice, so you’re not going to get much from a 2gal tank before the pressure drops off.
Kek. Have fun. All of my Ridgid stuff has been straight, the only real downside is the tool lineup isn’t that big. And when Milwaukee releases some cool new tool like the band saw, Ridgid bros have to wait like 2-3 years to get it, and Ryobi bros have to wait like 5 years. But they have good deals online almost all the time.
Also if you expect to get the lifetime service, remember that you have to register within 90 days of purchase. And the process is a little moronic, like about 50% of the time it will sit at “Approval Pending” for weeks until you email or csll them and they say they want one more piece of information even though all of the info is there. Like you can upload a copy of the receipt on the registration page and they will still want it in email. Or last time my wife ordered the shit for Xmas so they wanted me to confirm the email used to order the tools. I think they purposely make it difficult so now I will send them an email a week after I submit the shit and tell them “Hey frickers, here’s pics of the receipt from 3 different angles and a pic of that chick from the Hunger Games, pls approve my LSA” and it’s done 24hrs later.
Literally like half the reviews <5 stars on most Ridgid power tools are from people pissed off that they didn’t know they had to register for the LSA.
I have the tire inflator in your pic op, and it does the job intended for. The preset pressure levels work well and can do a tire on one of those tiny milwaukee batteries. It is also fairly quiet if that matters. I got mine as a package deal with an impact gun, hammer drill/ drill combo, and a impact driver. The compressor came free as part of a package deal with two big batteries so watch for deals or talk to a milwaukee rep.
Give it back, Dobson.
Those small compressors are only good in emergency. They work their ass off and red hot.
One little piston, no oil they don’t last
+1 on this for the 12V compressors, which is also why they like to blow fuses when everything gets hot as hell.
Also they’re just cheap consumables meant to save your ass once or twice. I had a Slime brand one which isn’t even the cheapest gas station version and one of the little plastic gears inside shredded itself when it was running, and not like I was using the thing to inflate truck tires.
Also if you do have one of those cheap 12V inflators, best thing I ever did was chop the lighter plug off and put alligator clips on the wires plus an inline fuse holder. Go straight from the battery, get a better electrical connection, and if you need to reach further away than the cord allows, use jumper cables to reach 20’+ away.
Agree as well, I find them for a buck atgarage sales
I scavenge them for the switch, gauge, motor etc…
I do this to all dead electronics that aren’t fixable. Nobody should ever have to buy a switch
>blowing dust off things
get one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-QuickPump-120V-Electric-Pump/dp/B00N6XBKN4/ref=sr_1_29?tag=ganker-20&crid=26UTREI3B5I2C&keywords=air%2Bbed%2Binflator&qid=1674566531&sprefix=air%2Bbed%2Binflator%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-29&th=1
they work just as good as one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/XPOWER-Inflating-Detailing-Performance-Eco-Friendly/dp/B00SI67YRU/ref=sr_1_9?tag=ganker-20&crid=1OC4SS7BPINKR&keywords=electric%2Bduster&qid=1674566609&sprefix=electricduster%2Caps%2C112&sr=8-9&th=1
but are half the price.
My old air compressor decided to die and I brought that.
It's good only for inflating your tires, for the rest like blowing dust away it's useless.