Brucker
December 17th, 2020, 05:45 PM
Looking for some thoughts into what should be done with my shop's compressed air system. Recently the old 2 stage 80 gallon compressor I have been running for the past 10-12 years has been having some issues. Issues like taking longer to fill, becoming more noisy, and occasionally eating belts. Not being able to afford to be without compressed air for the shop for a long period of time, I opted to buy a new unit. Now fast forward a few weeks to now. I disassembled the older compressor last night and went through the entire thing. I was expecting to find an obvious issue or twelve, but I didn't find anything wrong. Everything was as it should be. The only thing that stood out was the head bolts for the larger side seemed to be loose compared to the smaller side. After not finding any issues, I decided to reseal and assemble it. After that, I reassembled the compressor, aligned the pump and motor, re-seated the pulleys, installed the belt and tighten everything up. And wouldn't you know it, it now runs great again. I have completely filled the tank 3 separate times and the extra noise is gone, it is filling in a timely fashion, and the belt is running truer than it has in a long time. So in other words, I have an extra functioning compressor at the moment, and am trying to decide what to do with it. Figure I have a few options.
1. Throw it into storage as a spare until it is needed, if ever.
2. Plumb and wire it into my existing system, giving me double the volume and capacity. Go from 17scfm and 80 gallons of storage to 32-34scfm and 160 gallons of storage. This would be awesome for things like sandblasting and plasma cutting. But honestly, my current system keeps up with demand pretty well and the compressor is designed to be able to be run at 100% duty cycle. So it would be helpful occasionally but definitely not needed.
3. Plumb it into the current system but not wire in the motor. This would double my storage capacity but do nothing for the overall CFM. But the motor could be then wired in anytime the need arose. This would pretty much just save a little wear and tear on the 2nd compressor.
4. Just sell the old compressor. Frees up space and a little money.
Please share the thoughts to which options makes the most sense to you and why? TIA
1. Throw it into storage as a spare until it is needed, if ever.
2. Plumb and wire it into my existing system, giving me double the volume and capacity. Go from 17scfm and 80 gallons of storage to 32-34scfm and 160 gallons of storage. This would be awesome for things like sandblasting and plasma cutting. But honestly, my current system keeps up with demand pretty well and the compressor is designed to be able to be run at 100% duty cycle. So it would be helpful occasionally but definitely not needed.
3. Plumb it into the current system but not wire in the motor. This would double my storage capacity but do nothing for the overall CFM. But the motor could be then wired in anytime the need arose. This would pretty much just save a little wear and tear on the 2nd compressor.
4. Just sell the old compressor. Frees up space and a little money.
Please share the thoughts to which options makes the most sense to you and why? TIA