Aldi Air Compressor

nigelmercier

nigelmercier

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Live in Kent, boat in Canary Islands
www.bavariayacht.info
Aldi have an air compressor on special offer this Thursday:

In Aldi £99.99 buys you:
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_29560.htm?WT.mc_id=2013-03-11-16-07
Maximum pressure: 8 bar
Air displacement: 270l/min, 9.5CFM
24 litre tank
Power: 1.8KW [=2.4hp]

In MachineMart £179.98 buys you:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/tiger-compressor
8 Bar (130psi) maximum working pressure
8.7cfm air displacement
24litre air receiver (CE certified)
2.5hp

The Aldi model looks like a good buy.
 
Tam Lin said:
What would I do with one? Serious question as I have no experience of them. It looks like a nice bit of kit but what could I use it for?
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Paintspraying, gritblasting, powering air driven tools .. safer than electric tools outdoors/ wet environment. Or away from power supplies ( Machine mart one is electric though)
 
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Lots available at similar prices and better known brands - some with accessories included so maybe a better buy.

for example http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolf-Sioux-...F9I0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1363043557&sr=8-5

One advantage with Aldi is that you can collect locally instead of paying delivery.

IMHO maybe think twice before buying.


PS If you look closely many are the same product under different brands (eg WorkZone & Wolf)
 
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Different brands and colours maybe, but otherwise the Aldi and Amazon ones look exactly the same to me.

Sorry, didn't see your edit until I'd posted.
 
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Tam Lin said:
What would I do with one? Serious question as I have no experience of them. It looks like a nice bit of kit but what could I use it for?
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Honestly you just answered your own question... If you need to ask..... I would use this with the Tornador
 
They just stick Wolf, JCB, Clarke and Draper signs on them. Under 14cfm will be useless for airtools as they use too much volume. Spraying paint with little compressors is a pain as you have to keep letting the pressure build up. Blowing up tyres, fenders and the blockages out of caburettors and sunroof drains is about right.
 
Bobobolinsky said:
They just stick Wolf, JCB, Clarke and Draper signs on them. Under 14cfm will be useless for airtools as they use too much volume. Spraying paint with little compressors is a pain as you have to keep letting the pressure build up. Blowing up tyres, fenders and the blockages out of caburettors and sunroof drains is about right.
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+1
 
It's almost certainly a cheap Chinese-made one, similar to the others from the likes of Machine Mart, Screwfix, Northern Tool et al. IF it's what I suspect, beware the claimed airflow figure (9.5 CFM). It won't be anything LIKE that! I have a 2 horsepower SIP one (similar sort of thing). What they usually quote is the swept volume of the cylinder times the speed at which it runs, but most air tools talk about the volume of air AT THE PRESSURE they need to run. So, for example, if you have an air saw requiring 5CFM, you'll almost certainly find that the compressor won't keep it fed. With a full tank, you'll start the saw, it will run for about 10-20 seconds and then the compressor will kick back in, but the saw will "gain" on it (i.e. it will use the air faster than the compressor can fill the tank). Likewise a spray gun. The other problem is that a lot of them aren't continuously rated - they have a 30% or maybe 50% duty cycle, so they wear themselves out very quickly if you run them continuously. They're supposed to have 2 minutes on, 4 minutes off (or 2, or whatever). Basically, it'll be fine for blowing up car tyres, blowing dirt out of tubes and intricate shapes, and blowing up the kids' football. Of my air tools, I probably use my air saw and impact wrench most, but I also have an old industrial compressor for serious work.
 
nigelmercier said:
So not work buying to replace my 6.2 cfm model then? I wanted to use a grit blaster.
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There 's grit blasting and then there's grit blasting.

When I had my boat grit blasted the compressor was towed behind a truck and the compressor was driven by a big 4 cylinder diesel engine.
 
Rogershaw said:
There 's grit blasting and then there's grit blasting.

When I had my boat grit blasted the compressor was towed behind a truck and the compressor was driven by a big 4 cylinder diesel engine.
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Agreed. When I was into restoring classic cars I had an Ingersol Rand compressor with a big three-phase motor. It could only just keep up with a hand-held grit blaster. I doubt if the small units would be able to handle it.
However, I had a small blasting cabinet for small items driven by a portable compressor which I also used for spray painting small-ish bits, eg door skins.
 
I've got one that looks just the same. I've had it 12 years (I bought it to help restore my Mini).
I don't think the CFM was as high as they are claiming in those specs. Mine has a 2hp motor, but a 50 litre tank.

It was OK for spraying as a Mini can be done in sections due to having external seams. It wouldn't be any good for a bigger car though.
I use it for blowing through (great on carb jets) and tyre inflating (essential with my trials car. I have to clean out wheel rims every couple of events so that's a tyre-off job).

I have used it on location when collecting boats on trailers. Fill the tank and stuff it in the back of the car. Then you can inflate tyres and know you have got the right pressures when you are in some field or barn in the middle of nowhere.

It has served me well. I wouldn't even attempt to run air tools and grit blasting is a complete no-no.

compressor.jpg
 
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I think there was a time when "CFM" figures related to how much volume of compressed air it could deliver at (say) 100PSI. When the manufacturers started to cotton-on to how people were buying on this figure (bit like kids' ghetto blasters and the all-important "Watts per channel" figure!) they then started quoting "free air delivery" - which I've a feeling means how much air it can shift at no (or very low) pressure. That was much worse but at least took into account the partial filling of the cylinder at operating speed. Now I think they're just quoting the theoretical volume of air at atmospheric pressure, assuming the cylinder fills completely and empties completely once every revolution. (which is pants)!
 
I've been told you need to be careful with in-line lubricators. They're fine for air tools, but your air lines then get contaminated with oil droplets and they can play havoc with a paint finish when spraying.
 
Avocet said:
I've been told you need to be careful with in-line lubricators. They're fine for air tools, but your air lines then get contaminated with oil droplets and they can play havoc with a paint finish when spraying.
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The trick is to have a dedicated hose that you only use between the air filter and the spray gun, and use a different one between the lubricator and any tool using oil.
 
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