I was cleaning up the battery on the riding mower as the negative cable had come loose and it wouldn't start. Not wanting to use the water hose on the electricals, I was doing it by hand. My mind says, I sure wish I had a high pressure air hose for this. Then I got to thinking how many uses a compressor would have (see the rationalization for a new purchase?).

I'd mostly use it for cleaning and the occasional vehicle tire. I doubt I'd be using it for air tools, but then again maybe. Maybe pressure washing too? 12V might be a nice option to throw in the Jeep to air back up after 4 wheeling. What size tank and what pressure is necessary for each of these uses?

I'd get a little pancake compressor from Home Depot. The Porter Cable and DeWalt compressors are nice. They'll set you back a couple of hundred. They're not 12V but they're light enough to throw in the bed of the truck or trunk (not to carry arund, just to take somewhere if you needed to). If you want a 12V to carry in the car, there are alot of them out there and I'm not familiar with them.

Generally speaking, if you have to air up a tire on the side of the road, the tire went flat fast. In that case, the 12V aint gonna help. If a guy has a slow leak, then it's something he knows about and if the tire then went flat while driving down the road, then that guy needs more common sense than a compressor can give. That aint you, I'm guessing.

My Dad used to have one of those little 12V jobs...stayed in the car. I haven;t seen it in more than 30 years. I say get a 110V compressor and leave it in the shop.

On your riding mower, use the garden hose. You're not going to hurt anything. Just use the hose open-ended with very little pressure. Get it wet, put some baking soda on it and terminals, wait 10 min, scrub with a toothbrush, and rinse. The mower will be fine.

Good luck.

My 2 bits. For doing all those things you mentioned except the 12 volt application you could get a really small compressor. Smaller than a pancake. Craftsmen made a decent one, don't know if they still do. Senco has one, about 140 or 150$. I know the Home Despot has a couple of small compressors geared towards homeowners. I've got an oil free pancake compressor, works fine for me unless i'm sheeting something or framing walls. Then it has a hard time keeping up. For the vehicle, they sell pressure tanks that don't have a compressor motor for refilling tires. Might look into one of those.

http://www.amazon.com/Senco-PC1010-Horse...711&sr=1-17

that's the senco at amazon.

Just remember these compressors all have a duty cycle, easiest way to ruin a compressor is to run it past it's duty cycle. If you are using a compressor to spray air everywhere don't keep that thing running for several minutes on end, it will start to get hot.

One thing though on the pancake and other low end compressors, that are all oil free which means they will generate more heat and noise. I bought a $120 Porter Cable pancake and its loud. I sit it outside the garage around the side of the house and close the garage door down on the cord and air hose and the thig still hurts my ears. If you can swing $300 you can get a small oil type which runs very quiet, if I hadn't bought mine in the middle of winter and then never got to use it until spring I would have taken it back and spend the extra.
I've had the 12v ones you buy in stores like sears and such. They will last a couple years before they burn up. They are oilless and very small and get too hot just trying to put a little bit of air in a tire and eventually burn themselves up after a few uses.

It sounds like you'll need more than one compressor to fill your needs. For carrying in a jeep, a regular 110 won't do you much good unless you have an inverter, plus they're kinda bulky. The 12V compressors don't come with an air tank and have a low CFM, so their pretty good at inflating tires, but not much else. Look for the Masterflow MF1050, it's what a lot of off-roaders are using and gets really good reviews, and is affordable at around $50 (similar ones are about $250+).

For general around the house use, get the largest and best one you can afford. After buying one, you will find other uses for it. Even just for using an air hose, the larger the tank, the longer you'll be able to use it without it cycling. Those smaller compressors are ok for occasional use, but if you have any thoughts about running air tools, spray painting, or pressure washing they will be underpowered. They will work, but you'll you have to do everything in short bursts (i.e. work for one minute, wait 3 minutes for the pressure to recover). It will get really annoying after the first time you have to do that.

Also, like eugene said, spend the extra money for a quieter compressor, it's definitely worth it. It might not seem a big deal, but having to work next to a noisy compressor is a real pain. I have the 2 hp 30 gallon craftsman professional series, it's good, but if I were to do it again I would have gone with a larger tank and get an upright one to conserve floor space. I use it a lot to work on cars and general use. With the air nozzle, it's ok, but if I'm doing a lot of blowing, I still have to wait for it to cycle (maybe every 3-4 minutes). Same thing with spray painting. For air tools that's about the smallest you want to go. Just make sure your electrical outlets can handle it, mine already blows fuses once occasionally, a more powerful compressor probably wouln't work for me.

Not to try and be disagreeable but I have to disagree on getting a big huge air compressor. He mentioned he's not wanting to use air tools most likely, a small compressor give the option of moving it and for blowing the crap off a battery terminal you certainly don't need a 100gallon tank. If you are using it to sweep out your garage then yes. Or run rotary tools from it, yes. Nailers, staplers, etc don't require much of a compressor. Painting, different story. It depends on what you are looking at.

Also, why spend 800$ when 100$ will work fine? With my pancake compressor I've reseated the tire on my fathers 28hp tractor, because his compressor was stuck in the shed and 300ft of air hose wouldn't reach to the tractor. I run nailers all day long off the sucker. Buy for what you are using it for.

I understand what you saying, he shouldn't buy an industrial compressor if he knows that he's only going to be doing minor things. If his need are well defined, I definitely do NOT recommend wasting money buying more than he needs. It just sounded like he wasn't sure what he wanted, but it seemed like he would probably find a use for one. On the other hand, buying an air compressor is like a gun safe, nobody ever wishes they had bought smaller.

A small 1 gallon pancake compressor is great for airing up tires, but then a small 12V one is probably better for that use anyway. The dilemma is, if the job is big enough to justify using a pneumatic nailer, it's probably too big for a small compressor to handle easily. And if it's a small enough job that a small compressor can do it, it's probably just easier to pull out a hammer. It's just happens to be one of those things that aren't big enough to be really useful, but not small enough to be very portable either, it's sort of in compressor limbo. This is just my experience. Also, compressors prices don't scale linearly with the size/power, you can pick up a 1.5hp, 15 gallon compressor for about the same price as the 1/4 hp, 1 gallon one you linked to.

The most important thing is to really asses your needs, both present and future, then decide. It's cheaper to buy one that will cover all your needs in the future, than to incrementally keep upgrading everytime yours won't do the job. You don't want to end up with a bunch of intermediate sizes of air compressor sitting in your garage

Actually an air nailer is a very small load and will run on just about any size compressor like the $100 pancake. The things that need big compressors are the impact wrenches, grinders, etc that run a lot, a nailer is just a quick burst and thats it.

Something like http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=201991-70-D55151&lpage=none is what I wish I would have bought, small but oil type and after we move I'll be selling my pancake, probably at a big loss, to get one. The pancake meets my needs, its just I don't want to sound like I'm using a jackhammer every time I want to stick a couple lbs of air in my tire. Was a simple mistake of trying to be cheap.

You are right, I shouldn't have used air nailers as an example, since they dont' require much air. I was talking more about pneumatic tools in general. i tend to reserve the effort to pull out the compressor and set it up only for larger jobs. Air nailers are probably ideal suited for pancake compressors, since their use is intermittant.

Regardless of the what type you choose, the most important adviceis to look at what you might want to use a compressor for, and find one with the right CFM to handle the job. Ignore Hp ratings, a lot of them are meaningless anyway, CFM@specified pressure is what you really need to compare. Of course, this is assuming that eventually you might use air tools in the future, this could be a wrong assumption.

Oh good, we're all in agreement now Malpaso, looks like you've got some thinking to do!