Air compressor to fill up to 60 PSI

Question

I am looking for an air compressor and wish to get one which is not under or over powered.

I am looking at one in a catalogue which has the following attributes:

40 Litres/min free air delivery
1hp motor
Direct drive design (what ever that means)
8 Litre tank capacity

I wish to fill tyres at home for my hybrid bikes and mountain bikes up to 60PSI. I will be using a product call "Prestaflator", which is the air trigger with guage and presta valve connector.

I am not asking about floor pumps.

Answer 1

The liters/minute capacity of a compressor says nothing about it's max pressure. Most compressors intended for air tool use are good to about 100psi, maybe 120, but you need to make sure before you spend your money -- the compressor needs to do maybe 30% higher pressure than your "target" pressure, or you'll be forever waiting for the tires to fill.

But as others have said, a good floor pump is probably easier to use than the compressor.

("Direct drive" means there's no belt, which is not necessarily a good thing, but common for "compact" compressors.)

Answer 2

Don't bother with an air compressor. Get a proper bike pump. They are cheaper, and will fill a tire to 60 psi with minimal effort. A good bike pump will also require less maintenance. Also it'll only take a couple pumps to top up your tires. Much less time than to drag out a big air compressor. Have you had problems with standard floor/track pumps? What is your reasoning for getting an air compressor over using a bike pump?

Answer 3

Buy the Powermate Vx Instant Air 20 gallon air compressor! No waiting to fill up the compressor before you can use it. This one, as soon as you turn it on, the air is available to fill up the tire! Easy to use, it is vertical so it doesn't take up a lot of room. I think it is great.

Answer 4

Personally I also prefer the floor pump, but, sometimes I use a car tire emergency compressor. It Connects to the cicarrete lighter plug, and it is slow, but a bike tire has such small volume that it can be easily imflated in 3-4 minutes from zero, almost the same time that whould take with an average old floor pump, but almost zero effort from the operator. I have tried many brands, and for bike tires all of them worked fine and all were capable of 60psi+.

This can be an option that saves you space, these kind of "compressors" are really compact.

I really would advise you out of tankless compressors meant for paint jobs or aerograph use, they usually are not powerfull enough. Inflators meant for beach imflatables or balloons are not an option either, they have even less power.

I have a small 3.5 gallon compresor (the tank is small, the motor is the same as a bigger, profesional model of the same brand) that is fine for even car's tires, it's really fast on bike tires, but since I don't have permanent workshop facilities, storing the compressor awary after each use takes longer than the tire imflation, and takes a bigger effort, so I ended preffering the floor pump. (Use the compressor just for air tools). It also makes tremendous noise so it bothers neighbors and other household companions (It's not rare for me to imflate bike tires really early in the morning or really late at night). Other point to consider is adding the compressor's maintenance to your agenda.

So take these in consideration, you may purchase a bigger hassle just in order to inflate bike tires. A floor pump, a hand pump, a foot pump are all very compact and portable and are powered by you, therefore more ecologic. They are almost noiseless. Also, if you bike for execise, pumping helps for the warm-up ;)