I'll be putting a new air compressor in my new shop this spring. My current compressor is a two cylinder, single stage 5 Hp, 80 gallon model from Home Depot. I've had it for about ten years and it's worked fine for my shop. I'm using it for an HVLP conversion gun, some cabinet sandblasting and running my 5" Dynabrade air sanders. The compressor keeps up reasonably well, but it does cycle a lot when running the sanders or sandblaster.

I'm planning on upgrading to a two stage, 5HP compressor in the new shop as they put out considerably more CFM than a single stage. I'm looking at BelAire, Quincy and IR units, and I noticed the 60 gallon models have similar specs to the 80 gallon models, but they seem to run about $500 or so cheaper than the 80 gallon units. All of them are 5 HP, two stage.

Obviously, spending $1200 vs $1700 on a compressor is pretty attractive, but I'm a little worried about the reserve capacity of the 60 gallon models.