Who makes a 12v compressor that doesn't suck?

I've had a few 12v air compressors in my lifetime for car emergencies and I have not had one in a long time. I decided it's probably wise to get another.

All the ones I have had were cheap and took a decade just to put 10 psi in a tire. I know because of their design they are slower to fill, but it kind of sucks when they take forever.

So is there a descent one out there?

Will, the guy who borrows my car at Nationals and ruins Mod Rear, brings a large diameter bike pump with him. The bike pump works way faster than an electric thing, and doesn't take much effort to do a car tire since you're moving a lot of volume but not a lot of pressure. It usually took about 15-20 seconds to reseat the bead on a tire and another minute to get it up to pressure. (We got a LOT of practice in 2014)

His advice was, when buying a pump, get one with the lowest max pressure on the gauge. That practically guarantees that you're getting a high volume unit.

I was absolutely flabbergasted at how well that bike pump worked. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would have never believed that you could set a bead in a field with a hand pump.

Interesting idea on the bike pump. I used to have a little 12VDC compressor that made a lot more noise and heat than compressed air, but it was easier to break out and use instead of the big compressor. That thing died a couple years ago and now I sometimes drive to the gas station and pay $0.75 for air instead of using my big compressor. My bike pump is not a high volume one, but a new bike pump may be in my future.

I also recommend finding one with a low pressure rating. The off road world offers suitable pumps from Warn and ARB, but they're too expensive for me.

Vacuums suck. Compressors blow.

A sanden a/c compressor can put out around 8 cfm and 200 psi. Off-roaders adapt them for onboard air for filling big tires fast. Advair makes some powerful 12v compressors. Or for around $100 there are knockoffs that do ok. The train horn and airbag crowd know the pneumatics.

oldtin wrote: A sanden a/c compressor can put out around 8 cfm and 200 psi. Off-roaders adapt them for onboard air for filling big tires fast. Advair makes some powerful 12v compressors. Or for around $100 there are knockoffs that do ok. The train horn and airbag crowd know the pneumatics.

Not an A/C expert but don't modern compressors pick up lubricant from the refrigerant gas? If so, where does the comprssor get lubed when you're comprressing pure air?

Jerry From LA wrote:

oldtin wrote: A sanden a/c compressor can put out around 8 cfm and 200 psi. Off-roaders adapt them for onboard air for filling big tires fast. Advair makes some powerful 12v compressors. Or for around $100 there are knockoffs that do ok. The train horn and airbag crowd know the pneumatics.

Not an A/C expert but don't modern compressors pick up lubricant from the refrigerant gas? If so, where does the comprssor get lubed when you're comprressing pure air?

They run Slick 50 through them and hope that the low duty cycle allows them to live.

I often wonder how well a York compressor would work. Big and bulky, yeah, but don't they have a separate oil chamber?

Newer A/C compressors have a kind of oil trap in them that keeps the oil in the compressor instead of blowing it out down the line. I wonder if those, combined with the low duty cycle, would be good enough to not have to worry.

I've been using a Via Air for the last 8 years now. Works well and long lasting. I use it very often across the race car, the trailer, the tow vehicle and the street cars. You can find them on Amazon easily enough.

http://www.viaircorp.com/portables.html

Knurled wrote: Newer A/C compressors have a kind of oil trap in them that keeps the oil in the compressor instead of blowing it out down the line. I wonder if those, combined with the low duty cycle, would be good enough to not have to worry.

Probably works like the PCV system in my old FIAT Spiders. The crankcase air flows through a baffle that bends and spins it so the oil droplets fall out of suspension. Something similar could pool the oil wherever the designer wanted it to pool.

Knurled wrote: Will, the guy who borrows my car at Nationals and ruins Mod Rear, brings a large diameter bike pump with him. The bike pump works way faster than an electric thing, and doesn't take much effort to do a car tire since you're moving a lot of volume but not a lot of pressure. It usually took about 15-20 seconds to reseat the bead on a tire and another minute to get it up to pressure. (We got a LOT of practice in 2014) His advice was, when buying a pump, get one with the lowest max pressure on the gauge. That practically guarantees that you're getting a high volume unit.

This is what I do too. People laugh the first time they see it, but it's quiet, reliable as gravity, and I'm done long before their pumps are. Then they stop laughing.

18 volt Ryobi compressor. Runs on the same batteries as the tools.

Second the via air, I've got one based on some off roader recommendations and it can fill 32" tires to over 40psi no problem

I think a lot of the problem is you can't expect anything to do that kind of work (quickly inflating a car tire) with the power output of a 10 amp(or less as the radio often shares the circuit) cigarette lighter socket. Even the smallest VIAIR pump is rated to pull 15 amps, and the bigger ones all come with alligator clips for direct connection to a battery.

i've got a cheap Craftsman 12 volt compressor that i keep in whatever my daily driver is... my mom got it for me for Xmas in 1994, and it has inflated way too many tires in it's day.. it takes a while- maybe a half hour to fill a bigger car tire, it shuts off automatically when it reaches whatever pressure you set the pointer on the gauge at- but it works and just won't die.. it even has a removable spotlight that worked the last time i tried it about 10 years ago..

I know a few Jeepers that use this guy:

Q Industries MV-50

Its supposedly comparable to a Via Air compressor. I'm thinking about getting one and installing it behind the passenger side tail light on my Jeep.

Jerry From LA wrote:

oldtin wrote: A sanden a/c compressor can put out around 8 cfm and 200 psi. Off-roaders adapt them for onboard air for filling big tires fast. Advair makes some powerful 12v compressors. Or for around $100 there are knockoffs that do ok. The train horn and airbag crowd know the pneumatics.

Not an A/C expert but don't modern compressors pick up lubricant from the refrigerant gas? If so, where does the comprssor get lubed when you're comprressing pure air?

Doh - it was via air I was thinking. The old york a/c compressors used to be the go-to for on-board air because of the oil chamber. The sanden 5 series can live if you block off one passage, add a zerk and run synthetic grease (and check it every so often. It's a $5.00 modification - sanden 5 series were on a bunch of cars - $35 out of jeep cherokees at the PNP. At least one company sells them for over $400. I have one with the mods laying around as well as a knock-off via air.

A co-worker of mine used to pull old York compressors from junkyards and mount on tractors to supply air pressure for spraying test plots. They worked fine.