Selecting a compressor

Amarillo, TX Air Compressors


Stansbury Equipment Co.

First Questions to Ask Yourself when Looking for an Air Compressor

  1. What industry will this compressor be used in? Commercial manufacturing? Automotive service center? Food preparation/handling? Medical? Farm usage? Or simply personal use? A compresor for personal use in a garage shop would have completely different needs than one used in the automotive industry or manufacturing
  2. All pneumatic tools require a certain volume of compressed air (CFM) to operate at their maximum efficiency. CFM requirements can usually be found in either the owner’s manual, manufacturer website, or may even be printed on the tool. Gather all your tools together and look at their CFM requirements. Add together the CFM requirements of all the tools that you will be operating AT THE SAME TIME.
    For example, an air compressor that produces 17.2 CFM @ 175 PSI, would be more than enough to operate a single 1″ Impact wrench (typical operation of 10 CFM). Add another person using another 1″ Impact wrench at the same time, and your compressor will not be able to keep up.
  3. Along with your CFM requirements, all air tools operate a certain pressure (PSI). Find whichever tool has the highest operating PSI. You do not need to add together PSI values, just find the one that is the highest. MOST air compressors operate in either the 95-125 PSI range or 150-175 PSI range, so a tool that operates at 150 PSI wouldn’t be able to work at it’s maximum efficiency if you had a compressor that operated at 125 PSI.
  4. What kind of power do you have? Air compressors can be powered by either single phase 115V, 3-phase 230 & 460V, or even gas powered. Most homes are wired for single phase power, while some businesses and most factories have 3-phase power available.
  5. Compressed air systems require a tank to store the compressed air. Tanks vary in size and are engineered to provide the correct “On” and “Off” time of compressor.
  6. There are many different brands and types of air compressors, and selecting the right one for you is important to us. Bring all this information to our shop and one of our factory trained sales representatives will be more than happy to assist you in selecting a compressor that is right for you.

Simple. But it can be a lot to think about. Give us a call at 806-374-6860 for answers to your compressor purchasing questions.