New Air Compressor Arrived

[Harvey Pascoe]

A DeWalt 55151 portable oil lube, a mere 3.8 CFM which is adequate for my use. This is not a machine that is going to run power tools, but only a spray gun and a small one at that. This is a quality machine and I was amazed at the price of only $219.00 via Amazon. Since we were talking about noise levels of oil less vs. oil lube, I have a decibel meter and tested both. My oil oilless ran at ear-splitting 114 db whereas the DeWalt is a mere 84 bd. 90db is the point where hearing damage occurs.

One interesting thing I noticed is that most of the noise originates at the air intake. When I shielded the intake with some sound foam, the noise level dropped to 62 db so obviously what these machines need is a muffler on the intake which I am already scheming to devise. After dropping the machine into my old insulated sound box, I got 63 decibels, so with an air intake muffler I should be able to get that down to around 50 db or so, and that is a level that one can even talk over.

[ray hampton]

the compressor need plenty supply of air on the intake side but if you can mount a car muzzle to the intake side ? almost forgot to congrats you on your new compressor

[Scott Holmes]

Hey Harvey,

Please tell me more about this intake air muffler...

I need to do something for my 7-1/2 HP, 3 piston, 21CFM @ 90 PSI beast that makes a lot more noise than I want it to make. Don't know the decibels but nothing in my shop comes close. I was thinking of building a sound proof box around it (don't really want to do this).

[Harvey Pascoe]

Using a sound meter, I determined that the loudest noise comes from the air intake which just happens that I could stick a 1-1/4" PVC pipe in it, and then fashion a muffler from 4" pipe and filled it with foam. This got the decibels down another ten to about 60. I sit ten feet away from the compressor and its not uncomfortable.

Scott, I would experiment doing one thing at a time. Jerry rig something around the compressor head like old carpet, slabs of foam, whatever you can scrounge, and see how much that reduces the noise. That is what I did before going ahead with something that might not work.
My sound box is simply plywood with deep pile carpet as insulator, but there is better stuff than that.
* * * *
This little DeWalt/Emglo is a fine machine at a great price and I'm very pleased with it but for one thing. The regulator seems to be set to turn the pump on with a pressure drop of not more than 10 psi and that cycles the compressor way too much for my liking. My old one was set for 20 psi.

Anybody know if adjustable regulators are available?

[Scott Holmes]

I can't get close to mine without ear protection even then it's LOUD! I will try 2" thick foam to see if it helps I don't want to starve it for air either... It suck in a lot of air...

Noise wise I'd say about the same as my chainsaw running full tilt!

[ray hampton]

I would not use foam for a intake breather, the big compressor use a box with steel wool pack full, buy a lawn tractor muffler and fit it to your compressor, install about twenty feet of pipe so that the intake air will travel thru. the pipe

[Scott Holmes]

I was talking about a 2" ridgid foam box open on the bottom only.

Can't really change the intake filters/breather; there are 3 intake ports, one on each finned piston housing. All are at a different angles. kinda like this \|/

[Daniel Berlin]

I was talking about a 2" ridgid foam box open on the bottom only.

Can't really change the intake filters/breather; there are 3 intake ports, one on each finned piston housing. All are at a different angles. kinda like this \|/

Rigid foam is a horrible sound blocker. In fact, it tends to reverberate sound.

You'd probably get *significantly* better sound reduction using 2" of drywall as a box.

(you'd get even better with rockwool, but ...)

[Harvey Pascoe]

You absolutely should NOT use steel wool. Particles will loosen and get sucked in and ruin the pistons/cylinders. Don't use anything that has friable particles that can loosen and get sucked in, particularly if your intake does not have a filter.

My compressor came with a foam filter, there's nothing wrong with that so long as you use the type that permits air flow and is not dissolved by oils.

By foam insulation, I meant acoustical foam but heavy pile carpet also works very well. If you're in a major metropolitan area, you might want to check with suppliers of sound insulation materials, there is some extremely good stuff available today that can knock sound levels down by 70% or so.

Accoustiblok is one such, a rubbery material only 1/8" thick its more like a fabric. Home Depot supposedly carries it and the price is around $2.50/sq.ft. I think I'll check this out myself.

[Michael Pyron]

I hate to be a jerk, but I feel sorry for you...

those compressors are cr@p, noisy and many times unbalanced which causes them to spin in circles..

the one I had for about 10 years finally died, and low and behold Emglo has licensed the use of their name (which Black & Decker bought years ago) and is now producing their awesome compressors once more...

a little bit of history here...Stanley, Black & Decker (they make DeWalt products) bought the Emglo name years back with the intention of pulling a Tommy Boy scenario and gutting the company and selling it off in a year..uh huh...they sent parts all across the world to be copied and took the lowest bid for each individual part...then assembled them into a completed product...mine spun in circles, and another person I know who bought one had the same issue...also the wires in the pressure switch were loosely fastened which resulted in them rattling loose, arcing, and burning the pressure switch up...niiiiiice..in the end they were unable to sell off the company because of such a cr@ppy product they produced...

I guess I am glad that that POS died right when the new Emglo's are at a good price because they just got released..I got mine for $249 plus a 10% discount at Lowe's...it is much quieter and does not spin in circles...

[Harvey Pascoe]

Ten years is a long time Michael and this compressor is no piece of crap. It is well made and runs smoothly. I did the break in with the thing sitting on my table saw and it did not move at all. On the floor for a week, it still hasn't moved. I'm totally pleased with the machine. Don't be a jerk and bad mouth a product you know nothing about.

[Michael Pyron]

Ten years is a long time Michael and this compressor is no piece of crap. It is well made and runs smoothly. I did the break in with the thing sitting on my table saw and it did not move at all. On the floor for a week, it still hasn't moved. I'm totally pleased with the machine. Don't be a jerk and bad mouth a product you know nothing about.

say what you really mean..and that is you are accusing me of lying about having had one in my possession for about 10 years now...

facts: it spun in circles from day one, was noisy as all hell, the screws that attach the wires from the power cord to the pressure switch got loose, arced and melted the surrounding area, it spun in circles one day and somehow got the power cord stuck against the copper pipe going from the head of the compressor to the tank..that resulted in the heat of the pipe melting the insulation off the cord which ended up allowing the bare wires to contact said pipe which melted through the pipe...

know nothing about eh?

as far as the history lesson..that was told to me by someone definitely in the know about what was up...

go ahead, think I'm a liar...your loss not mine as I will be quite happy using a REAL Emglo compressor as opposed to a cheap knock off

[John Coloccia]

Please be careful if you put the compressor in a box. This was an active topic when I was building my experimental aircraft as we ALL had compressors that got used pretty much constantly for drilling, die grinders, riveting, spraying, etc. Many who built boxes around their compressors ran into some serious heating issues. Others didn't. Just keep an eye on it.

[ray hampton]

my compressor are boxed with holes cut in the box for air -flow and a fan to provide air-flow, and it still get hot, the fan air-flow reach a temperature close to ninety degree, two fans would be much better, one intake, one out take or exhaust

[Harvey Pascoe]

Please be careful if you put the compressor in a box. This was an active topic when I was building my experimental aircraft as we ALL had compressors that got used pretty much constantly for drilling, die grinders, riveting, spraying, etc. Many who built boxes around their compressors ran into some serious heating issues. Others didn't. Just keep an eye on it.

Yeah, thanks John, I'm aware of that. This is going to depend on how much air you use, and how long it runs. I have an infrared heat detector (thermometer) and ran tests on the old one and this one and temps stayed below 150* after filling an empty tank. I was going to take some of the insulation out if it got too hot.