When considering a 60 gallon air compressor the first consideration is to assess what kinds of jobs will you be using the air compressor for, the pressure requirements of the air tools and the CFM requirements when running your air tools.
Before you buy that 60 gallon air compressor there is one very important point to consider no matter what the size of the air compressor and that is the duty cycle. After you have put together the information noted above your air compressor pump should not be running any more than 5 minutes out of ten, in other words 50% of the time.
If the pump motor runs any longer than 50% of the time the pump will get very hot with the possibility of burning out. Also service life will be cut considerably.
A 60 gallon tank will hold more air and the pump will not cycle as much if the unit is powered by the right Hp pump motor. You would not want to power this size of tank with a 2HP motor if you run high capacity air tools such as an air sander that require 10 CFM, the pump would exceed the duty cycle.
Ideally the combination of a 5HP pump motor with a 60 gallon air tank will fill the needs for small shop operation that uses air ratchets,air impact tools, spray paint guns. A 5Hp motor can produce 135PSI and supply enough CFM to run them properly. If you use an air sander a 5HP unit will fill the air tank quickly and supply sufficient pressure to run the tool.
Should you have a dual stage 60 gallon air compressor or a single stage? This requirement is dependent upon what was just discussed. How many people will be using air tools and the total air needed along with air pressure of the tools.
With a single stage compressor the air is compressed just once and then sent to the tank. A dual stage compressor will compress the air twice which builds up more PSI than a single stage compressor.
The next thing to consider is the lubrication method of the compressor. A belt drive oil lubed unit is the quietest and will have a much longer service life. This compressor is the unit of choice when using the unit in a closed in small space. A direct drive unit is very noisy with a much less life expectancy and is not a good choice for a closed in shop.
A 5 HP 60 gallon air compressor is a good all around choice for many applications for personal shop use, for renovators, small machine shops, agriculture and many more just make sure you have a belt drive oil lubed compressor your pocketbook will thank you.
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