I’m looking for a small ish domestic electric compressor for general use but probably more so for inflating UST tyres instead of going down to local garage, I’m after a decent unit one that won’t crap out after a year or two, any feed back appreciated.

You considered an Airshot as an alternative?

Yes – got one from screwfix for about £100 a couple of years ago. Brilliant. I use the air gun attachment, remove the valve core and hold the gun up to the valve. The pump attachment is hopeless as it’s shraeder and leaks loads when you put a presta adapter on.

I’ve had a look and can’t find it on their website any more though. It’s a basic Stanley one.

I have an Airshot as well for doing this at races. In the garage, the compressor is a bonus.

GB

I got a 6 litre Stanley one from screwfix. Does the job fine.

I bought a track pump head and hose that fits presta, and then a cheap tyre inflator from toolstation, swapped the hose for the track pump one.
Mint.

£100 buys a hell of a lot of CO2 cartridges that will do the same job, plus are portable so you can take them for trail side fixes. Will last you years if not decades, unless you are changing tyres every week (even then you can get 200 for £100. 1 a week will last nearly 4 years 😉 ).

Or there’s ghetto option using an existing inflated tyre to seat another – http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tuesday-Make-a-Ghetto-Tubeless-Tire-Inflator.html

Likewise there’s the coke bottle trick (basically same as an Airshot but costs a couple of quid).

Bought one of the cheap Aldi ones when they were selling them off a few years ago, manager sometimes has some of them left in the back. Only works off 240v. Its mounted on the garage wall out of the way. Comes with a proper inflator and gauge. Pops tyres onto rims in seconds. Has an adapter for blasting dirt and dust out of brake calipers. Does everything we want it to.
Think they call it their portable one. Usually £49.99

Got a cheapy little 8L one in my garage good for 100psi, gets a tyre up in one go, no need to faff with pumps and coke bottles or repurposed fire extinguishers 🙄 …

One of my most useful ebay purchases…

Anyone have any experience with a rhyas?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rhyas-50L-VTwin-14-5-CFM-118PSI-V-Twin-Air-Compressor-3HP-FREE-12-Piece-Kit-/371085975382?hash=item5666729f56:g:cqMAAOSw14xWPLFZ

Looks OK.

I got a dinky Senco PC1010 one recently – would blow up a bike tyre, I use it with air nailers. Quietest compressor I’ve ever used by a long shot, tiny (i bought it because it fits inside a sustainer toolbox) and weighs bugger all and Senco stuff is generally well put together kit.

Anyone have any experience with a rhyas?

Not that make but there are a lot of quite similar twin cylinder direct drive compressors about – they read well on paper (a lot of CFM for your buck) but I found it very very noisy (in terms of volume but also a very irritating, penetrating, aggressive quality to the sound) and their power consumption is pretty close to the limit you can get from a 13amp plug and I found it very prone to blowing fuses on start up

I got this one for bike tyres and mo’bike tyres. Gets a fire going pretty nicely too! 😀

http://www.screwfix.com/p/impax-im201-24l-24ltr-compressor-230v/27926

Mine’s a Clarkes and it’s great. It was free mind.

The small Stanley one others have mentioned above is perfect for he job. Picked mine up when they were on sale for £60 a few years ago. Light weight (for a compressor), easily portable, doesn’t take up much space and does the job every time. Yes, there are other cheaper ways of seating your tubeless tyres, but it’s the right tool for the job,l and it’s quick, easy and takes all the ball ache out of swapping tyres over

Not that make but there are a lot of quite similar twin cylinder direct drive compressors

Thanks, the cfm was the reason I was looking at it. High cfm and still just about portable.

SGS 6l compressor

Just bought this and its perfect for the job. Bought direct from company rather then through their ebay site as postage was free direct from them.

I have a mini Bostich compressor and love it. If you have any sort of man cave then it quickly takes up pride of place. I appreciate the ghetto options but for me a compressor is a great proper tool to own

CO2 canisters can freeze the Stans fluid / make it go lumpy.

– got one from screwfix for about £100

^^^This , also used for spraying my garden fence with the attachments 😆

Me too on the screwfix one. It’s this one

I got one of these from Costco for about £100:

https://www.sipuk.co.uk/sip-super-boxy-air-compressor-6-4cfm-oil-free.html

It’s fairly small, quiet and so far, reliable. It takes up much less space than normal compressors which is handy.

gee – Member
CO2 canisters can freeze the Stans fluid / make it go lumpy.

That’s why you seat the tyre first with CO2, then deflate and add Stans, then pump with air. Hence why removable core valves are handy. Though I’ve got some without and just pop a bit of the bead to add Stans without losing the seating.

With regards to CFM and flow rate, remember that the figures quoted by compressor manufacturers are displacement. This is a theoretical figure based on the volume of air in the piston(s) chamber.

In reality not all of it is compressable and you will only get around 3CFM per horsepower from any piston compressor. (4CFM per HP for vane and screw compressorrs, but they are a different beast altogether)This is called FAD or ‘Free Air Delivered’

Combined with the fact that most air tools state air usage in a low duty cycle means you have to be careful choosing tools to work from hobby / diy compressors.

Anything that has an air motor in and uses air to spin a rotor with blades (ie drill / wrench / screwdriver, sander etc) will use a lot of air as it is essentially just blowing in and out of the tool.

Anything with a hammer type action (ie nail gun) isn’t as bad as the air isn’t evacuated as fast.

Finally, all direct drive compressors are generally a fair bit noisier and less reliable than there belt drive brothers (between motor and air pump unit)

Thanks for the info twonks. Just what I need. Been looking for a while and although my general rule is to buy ex industrial I. Don’t have the room for a large 3phase unit and ideally need (limited I.e in a van) portability.