CH Mini Air Compressor

Campbell Hausfeld recently began offering a 2 gallon air compressor geared towards the home/hobby user.  Typically a compressor this size wouldn’t excite me, but a perfect storm of a direct need and killer deal meant one would be landing in my shop.

On the upside, the compressor comes with a brad nailer, its light and easy to move around, and once the tanks are filled does a decent job keeping up with a moderate pace of work.

However, there is a downside.  Some of which one should expect with a tool serving this segment of the market, all of which is purely true.  For starters, this little boy is S L O W to fill and fairly loud.  The pump used to fill it up is undersized (even for the little 2 gallon tanks) and just can’t keep up all the time.  If you are building a bird house, I’m sure it will be fine … but don’t try to use it for much more unless you are patient.

The next negative is the sound … just a little too loud for such a small machine.  What makes it worse is how often it has to run, and how long it runs, just to keep the tanks semi-full.

A complaint about the design is the placement of the power switch.  Though not shown well in my photos, the power button is on the back-top, behind the tanks.  A minor complaint, certainly, but it would have been nice to have the power button in a more accessible place.  Since I place this under my workbench, I’m constantly digging around with a blind hand looking for the little switch.

The last noteworthy complaint … and the biggest issue in my book … is the 100PSI rating.  No way.  I’ve been lucky to get this thing to 83, but usually it hovers around 80psi.  The knobs are adjusted as far as they will go and that’s about all it can push.  This shortcoming makes the use of this tool EXTREMELY limited.

The brad nailer that comes with the setup isn’t too bad.  A little more than Harbor Freight quality, a lot less than Porter Cable.  It works though and hasn’t given me any trouble (other than a few blank shots)

Would I recommend this tool?  Hmmmm.  To my mom who rarely needs such equipment, probably yes.  The price is about right and it would work for the occassional small job.  However, a user any more sophisticated I would suspect is going to want a machine with more air pressure and quicker fill times.

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