Top 10 best 20 Cubic Feet Per Minute Air Compressor 2022 Review And Buying Guide

When I bought this I was on the fence between it and an ingersol rand, decided to take a gamble and save myself about $500.00. So far I’m very impressed!! Has a quick recovery time. Running a 1/2 inch impact on heavy truck repair jobs it never runs out of reserve air! Very satisfied and would recommend this product to anyone looking for a great priced air compressor!!

I’ve had problems with gas station air filling pumps not fitting on tire valves and deflating rather than inflating my tires. I also have to pay for air (usually $3 to check all four tires), there are often line ups for the air pumps and my temporary spare has to be removed from the trunk to reach the valve. For all of these reasons plus developing a fear of exploding tires after listening to the Car Talk Guys episode on the fear of putting air into your car tires (thanks Click & Clack!), I have been very negligent about keeping my car tires properly inflated. I have been researching AC compressors and electric tire inflators for months but they all seem to have problems. Years ago I tried a $25 electric inflator but that was useless for car tires. Small air compressors are expensive (>$100), take up space and they all have complaints of poor quality hoses and high failure rates within a couple of years. So I decided to go with just an AC/DC tire inflator in the $75ish price range. This newer Kensun that has the digital display of the air pressure target setting and a gauge on the top seemed to be the least worst inflator, so I decided to try it. I have tried this inflator out once on my car tires and found that it was easy to use, particularly as they include an accessory clip-on hose attachment so you do not have to screw the air hose on and off all the tires. It was nice to have the option as my “fake” spare tire has the stem so tight to the rim that I could not use the clip-on attachment but the screw-on hose worked well. I also inflated a wheelbarrow tire that had a similar tight stem where the screw-on hose end worked better. Nice to have the choice of screw-on or clip-on. My car tires were not bad (checked with a high end pressure gauge recommended by Click & Clack) and only required a little filling. I set the appropriate target PSI on the Kensun pump to the recommended 30 PSI for the back and then 33 PSI for the front tires. The valve seal was tight and it took only about 2 minutes for the lowest tire to inflate, and I thought the noise level was not too bad (I did wear ear muffs most of the time). Although the automatic shut-off did work on the four tires, what I found when I checked the pressure with my tire-gauge, is that the reading on my gauge was consistently 32 for the back tires that I had set for 30 PSI, and the front tires read out at 34 or 35 PSI after setting the pump at 33 PSI. I suppose that my tire gauge could be off (it has been accurate to gas station pumps), but others have reported that these tire inflators do not have accurate gauges. At least the auto shut-off worked and in the future I will try setting the PSI for 29 and 32 to compensate for this slight over-inflation. I found a similar situation for the wheelbarrow tire at 40 PSI where the read-out on my gauge was was 42 PSI versus 40 PSI on the Kensun digital gauge. The auto shut-off was a different story for the fake spare tire which needed 60 PSI and it’s original reading was 35 PSI. It took about 3-4 minutes to fill but at 64 PSI on the Kensen digital gauge, the pump was still going and it did not appear that the automatic shut-off was working. I stopped the pump manually (visions of exploding tires in my head) and my gauge also registered 64 PSI on this tire. Overall, I think you need to verify the PSI independently, and I would not fully trust the auto shut-off particularly at higher pressure levels. I don’t know, maybe I got a partial lemon for the gauge. The inflator did what I wanted it to do and now owning my own inflator I am more likely to maintain car tire pressures properly. The ability to easily inflate other items (I’ll try bicycle tires next) is also an advantage. The inflator is not heavy and it comes with it’s own zippered carry case which will not take up too much room in the car for emergency use. But as others have pointed out, you cannot “get the genie back into the bottle”. Both of the AC and DC cords are neatly folded into a slot in the bottom of the unit, but good luck getting these back into the slot. As others have said just put the detachable AC cord in the case rather than trying to get it back into the bottom slot. I did not use the DC cord so it is still neatly folded in the bottom. That the AC cord is detachable could be a problem as it could get lost. I am going to wrap this black cord with colored tape to make it stand out in the blackness of the black carry bag. As others have pointed out the AC cord is short so you will need an extension cord if you are filling your car tires. The built-in light would be useful for emergency use but I expect to mostly use this pump in and around my garage. Except for the possible slight inaccuracy of the gauge and failure of the auto shut-off to work at 60 PSI, I am happy with this purchase.

There is a lot to love about this compressor. Firstly and most importantly: yes, it’s quiet. Like the quietest compressor I’ve ever been around. You can see by my photo that I have it close to a wall and you can carry on a conversation with it on. You can hear your phone ring and even hear the radio while it’s on. Second, the low power draw. This compressor only requires a 15a circuit which is half of what a big box store compressor would require. Third, it comes with an auto drain system that keeps condensation out of the tank by draining off a little during start up (which is, for a few seconds, louder than you’d expect) and it comes with a very nice pressure adjust valve with water separator. I’ve been working in a shop environment since I was old enough to hold an acid brush against tooling while my dad made parts on the lathe and how I wish we had something like this 40 years ago. I cannot recommend this air compressor enough.

The ground prong of the electrical plug came off, so it trips the GFI on any plug I try to plug into. The website support remains to be seen for service and follow up. Will update when more progress. A call to their office resulted in them telling me to submit a support request online. I did so, right on the edge of warranty, and while it says onscreen that it was received, there was no confirmation email thus far acknowledging that the request was actually received, being processed, nor then any kind of reference number, or otherwise to let me know they really have the request. You’d think today that when a webform asks for your email, that it would send an acknowledgement that it was received, if not also some kind of reference number for follow up.

Compressor showed up in the expected time frame. There was some shipping damage to the belt guard and piping. Contacted seller directly and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of service received. Parts were ordered immediately and a confirmation was sent informing me on when to expect delivery of replacement parts. Very happy with seller at this point.Compressor is a little slow at filling as mentioned in other reviews but I don’t see that as a problem. Tank holds pressure well and no leaks have been found. Compressor is significantly quieter than previous compressors I’ve owned. Compressor is well built and I believe it will stand up well. Overall, I am pleased with my purchase.