I've got a chance to get a good deal on a low hour rotary compressor. Is anyone else using one in there shop? I have a large diesel powered Sullair that we use for blasting and it has a fair amount of oil carry over into the air. Our shop compressor is a reciprocating Quincy 10hp. Against my better judgement I have added a couple guys in the shop and if everyone is doing high air consumption task, the compressor runs and runs. I guess my concern is oil in the air with a rotary and how are you handling it? Our current set up is reciprocating compressor with a built in heat exchanger, then into a refrigerant dryer. The rest of the shop uses that air, then the booth has a Devillbis DAD500 3 stage with desiccant dryer for paint. If I go to the rotary, should I put some kind of oil separator before the refrigerant dryer??
Anyone using a rotary/screw compressor?
- Thread starter Bartman
- Start date
IMO a rotary screw compressor is not a good choice. You will need to see what the CFM's are it puts out. We tried one once when we were upgrading compressors and they let us try it before we bought it can't remember the hp but was replacing 2-7.5hp's. We had 6-7 guys working and the air supply couldn't keep up to the point of not being able to lift the frame machine till everyone stopped working. We told them to come get it. We ended up getting a Champion 10hp duplex.
With a screw you will need a reserve tank for those times you have a surge demand but hopefully the surge doesn't exceed the reserve or you will wait unless the unit is very large.
The units are expensive far more then what a recip. compressor costs and when they break they are Expensive to fix. Oil changes are an absolute must and more often then a recip..
You will also need it in a hush box because the noise is high pitched to the point of hurting. They never shut off so they are always running and get hot so that needs to be considered.
As for oil in the air from a screw I haven't heard that being a major issue.
I would highly recommend you look into the Champion 10hp duplex if you need to upgrade. That unit for us has been an absolute beast. It has never let us down and we never run out of air no matter what we are all doing including sandblasting.
With a screw you will need a reserve tank for those times you have a surge demand but hopefully the surge doesn't exceed the reserve or you will wait unless the unit is very large.
The units are expensive far more then what a recip. compressor costs and when they break they are Expensive to fix. Oil changes are an absolute must and more often then a recip..
You will also need it in a hush box because the noise is high pitched to the point of hurting. They never shut off so they are always running and get hot so that needs to be considered.
As for oil in the air from a screw I haven't heard that being a major issue.
I would highly recommend you look into the Champion 10hp duplex if you need to upgrade. That unit for us has been an absolute beast. It has never let us down and we never run out of air no matter what we are all doing including sandblasting.
Chris_Hamilton
Trying to be the best me, I can be
+1 for expensive to fix if you can get someone to fix it.. We had a very large I-R rotary at the shop (15hp) and when it broke down we couldn't get anyone to fix it, including the regional I-R repair guy. No one could figure out what was wrong with it. Replaced the motherboard 2x with no luck. Now it just sits in a corner a very expensive piece of equipment gathering dust.
