US General compressors?

Does anyone have any personal experience with US General compressors from Harbor Freight? I’ve been comparing the Husky 60 gallon from home depot, and Campbell Hausfeld from Lowes, and they are basically the exact same. both have mixed reviews from what I’ve seen.

So I decided to swing by HF and take a look. They have the US General 60 gallon, with higher CFM than the Husky or CH, which caught my eye. It is also about $40 cheaper and I can use a 10 or 20% coupon.

There’s few reviews out there for this brand, however I did see they are made in SC by ABAC, and also sold the same exact model under the Rockworth or BelAire brands. So US made is always a plus and you can get replacement parts via those companies as well as a warranty for replacement thru HF.

The few reviews i have seen sound positive. Was hoping maybe a few of you may have some personal experience.

The compressor will be used for DA sanding, angle grinding. the occasional priming via HVLP on small parts. I currently have a 25 gallon oil-free crafstman thats dieing slowly and need an upgrade.

Thanks for any input

here’s a link to the compressor

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=3848&CategoryName=AIR%20COMPRESSORS%20AND%20ACCESSORIES&SubCategoryName=Air%20Compressors

Im suprised that anything at HF is made in the US. I would check out tractor supply, they have IR compressors. I need a bigger compressor also so I would be interested what you end up getting and why.

I have this one from HF and it has worked great for a couple years now.

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=94667

I was actually surprised at that as well, lol. I remembered someone a while back telling me the compressors were actually pretty good. That’s really the only reason I stopped by HF. I looked at the IR compressors, and, well…basically any compressor you can think of. Even the IR’s have lower CFM output than the US Gen, Husky or Campbell Hausfeld. At least in the same price and spec range.

What are you going to be using this for? FYI thats not alot of CFM’s.

mainly used for small sanding and grinding. For that basic style/model of any brand that’s the highest CFM in the price range. I’m not looking to buy a $700-1100 compressor. I only do small sidework. Not shop work or anything crazy.

I’ve gotten by on a 25 gallon oil-less craftsman with about 1/3 the CFM for the past 3 years, so even this would be a huge upgrade.

to be honest, if this, the Husky and CH were all painted the same, with same labels, based off the spec sheet I’d take this one in a heartbeat. It’s just the fact that it’s being sold by HF that scares me.

they offer the lifetime warranty on it?

not sure about lifetime.

YOu need to realize that even craftsman and IR both sub their lower cost of entry stuff from the same chinese suppliers…

a lot of times the craftsman and HF brand and IR are ALL the same just with a differant paint scheme and maybe some differant attachments…

but generally speaking the motors are all the same

deffinatly buy the warrenty, i love HF

But were on our 4th electric impact from them in 2 years, an engine lift we bought dosent like to stay up. HF has some nice stuff, but most of it is single use .

we had some baller ass compressors at goodyear. we ran 2 IR 120 gal units. both were 3 phase 2 stage with massive coolers for the compressed air before it entered the tank. they ran at 185psi and in the 3.5 years I worked there we never had a single problem with them… when I looked them up they were nearly $1800 each. But those fuckers would shake the ground when they would fire up. I have had a good experience with IR’s tools and the compressors that I have been around.

At my parents house we have a compressor that has more CFM’s then the one you are considering and it struggles to break free some bolts such as lug nuts that are around 100 ft lbs. But for small sanding maybe it will be fine, just going to come on often.

CFM has NOTHING to do with breaking free bolts…

that has to do with how good your impact wrench is and nothing more…

90 PSI at the gun is 90PSI… the CFM rating is only if you are using the compressor WHILE you are doing work… and if it can keep up with what you are doing…

you really may want to consider something in the 5hp range that uses 220. I have no fucking clue how you kept sane using sanders and cutting wheels with that thing you got now.

edit: argh…I’m a moron, I clicked on theblues link and not yours. for a middle of the road compressor for home use, The one you linked to is right up your alley. You’ll be super happy in comparison to your old one. Your old one sucks, doesn’t even compare.

to theblue: I’m not picking on your compressor, everyone has different needs, but that thing would make me bang my head off the wall and I only use high air consuming tools here and there.

I gotcha… I just use mine to break bolts free etc…

FWIW I had a Craftsman that was losing cfm output so I bought the rebuild kit it was like $10 and really easy to replace the parts.