Shop compressor question

[Broncobill78]

Ok, first thing I'll admit to anyone who asks is that I'm not an electrician.

I'm just settling into the new house and finally have a 2-car garage to store my tools & work in. After a lifetime of handtools at home & air and hydraulic tools @ work I'm treating myself to a nice set of air tools & a good size compressor. I'm looking around and sometimes seeing seemingly identical compressors but 1 is 110 & the other 220. What's the advantage of a 220v machine ?

Yes, I know about all the lies & bull$hit that they use to describe capacity to the point that it can be next to impossible to tell a machines true capacity from the literature or owners manual so I'm just going to grab a biga$$ vertical with the biggest volume tank I can afford (probably somewhere around 30gal) and Hilti that thing to the deck. I'm figuring 3-4hp & a 30gal revceiver should be good enough for most of what I want. I know it still won't be enough when I need to use a DA to sand it for paint but those tools are such air-hogs that there's just no way I'm going to buy something to drive one for the few times I'll need it, that's why I'm getting the largest reciever I can & maybe later on I'll plumb in a second volume tank downstream but for now I'll make do. I'm hoping to pick it up this wkend so any info or advise will be helpful & appreciated.

 

[Seabronc]

Electrically the advantage is that you can run on a smaller sized wire when running 240 as opposed to 120. Any given Hp motor draws the same total amount of current to run no matter if it is wired for 240 or 120. The difference is that a 120 motor draws it all from one side while a 240 motor draws 1/2 the required current on each feed wire. ex Motor requires 30 amps to run when wired for 120 will need a circuit sized with no. 8 AWG wire and a 40 amp single pole breaker (the next easily available breaker size that matches the NEC requirements). If wired 220 It draws 15 amps from each side and only requires wire sized at No. 12 AWG and a two pole 20 amp breaker. So what I'm saying is that the advantage is in the feed wire. HP is HP no matter how it is feed and requires the same amount of total current to develop it.

Hope that helps.

Good luck,

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