California Air Tools 8010A Aluminum Tank Air Compressor | Ultra Quiet, Oil-Free, 1.0 hp, 8 gal

What a great little air compressor not too loud I would recommend it for anybody that needs a small one

This was a gift for my husbands 36th birthday. He has wanted it for some time now. So I purchased it and received it without incident. However, this guzzles electricity and after turning it in once, I thought, this is perfect. But the second time my hubby tried to operate it, it would NOT turn on no matter what we did. We tried everything... literally everything. I was about to call amazon to return it or exchange it, when after 4 hours of fussing with it, we finally got it up and running again. But it does use a lot of juice. I’m very worried about my energy bill this summer. But even so, since that first day, it’s been running smoothly and we have not had an issue. It works very well & my hubby loves it, so I love it. ^_^

picked one up for dusting out stuff at work, its nice, its not silent, but you can have a conversation over it. wish it was either a little less top heavy, or if it had a longer bent up handle. but for the price its good..

My AC arrived today. Having read every review before ordering, and with some anticipation, I first checked the condition of the external box and it looked in good condition. The box inside was the actual CAT’s box and it looked new and also good condition. Opening that internal box I found all of the parts expected and the AC itself in excellent condition—-no scratches, no dings, no blemishes, no imperfection or worrisome cracks—-nothing; the entire contents looks perfect. Welds at the ends of the tanks look perfect. I decided to spend a little more and get the aluminum tank over the steel tank for 2 reasons: rust-free and lighter. OK; on to assembly—-Easy attaching the wheels, but I added lock washers to make the bolts more secure. No problem attaching front foot rubber bumper. I attached the air filter, hand-tight as the manual instructs (yes; some people actually *do* read manuals! :-) ) There is a short plastic hose that attaches to the air filter but it ended up pointing vertically upward. That did not seem like a good position for it to be in. I began to bend the tube and attach some duck tape so that it was at least somewhat horizontal until I discovered that the cover to the air filter could easily be removed and rotated so that the hose ended up pointing almost vertically downward = much better solution (no tape needed.) Plugged it in and turned it on. Almost jumped back as a habit to my extremely noisy and annoying old pancake AC—-but no! It is much quieter. I would not say that it is “ultra quiet”, but the sound level is very acceptable—even pleasant! I checked for leaks, again as directed by the manual, using a soapy water spray bottle. I found no leaks anywhere—-and I checked every possible location: valves, cables, connectors, guages—-everything. I also checked the tightness of all the bolts—-all were fine. It is a bit odd, the orientation of the 2 pressure gauges: the tank guage being read from the side and the regulator guage being read from the top. No biggie, but I might install a 45 or 90 degree angled connector on the tank guage. I did that with my old compressor and it was then much more convenient reading the guage. Many reviewers say that they found some components to be too fragile—-especially the regulator. I am not sure I would agree with that. On the other hand my AC will remain stationary in the corner of my garage for the vast majority of the time, using a long hose reel. So I am not worried about breaking anything on the AC. If you are going to be transporting this a lot you might want to read the other reviews. Overall I am very pleased with this AC initially. If it lasts 3-5 years I will consider it an excellent purchase. Easily 5 stars for my purposes. I ordered a second one.

Don’t believe any reviews to the contrary, this is as quiet, or quieter, than advertised. I needed something I could run in the house without damaging my children’s hearing and this fits the bill. It’s orders of magnitude quieter than the 6 gallon porter cable I used to use. The only down sides are the aluminum tank, while lighter than the steel porter cable, is not as light as hoped. Also, the handle for pulling it on the wheels is to short to be almost useless for someone who is 5’10” tall. Also, they say it’s made in San Diego California, but the box says made in China. Not good.

It is definitely quieter than my last one and light weight, which makes it fairly easy to transport to job sites. Because it is cheaply built, not surprising for the price, Im really paranoid about damaging it in any way. I dropped my last one a couple of times and it still held together. Not confident that something wont break off with this one. Otherwise, it does what I need it to do.

I just purchased a new decibel meter from Amazon to test some of my power equipment noise levels. When I got my new California air compressor I was anxious to see how close to the 60 decibels it actually was. Well upon first running the compressor I noticed lots of rattling noise coming from it, and when I used the meter is was registering it at around 84 decibels from about 8 ft away - this is where i placed it in my work shop. Bottom line it is not anywhere near 60 decibels. ( I wish it was) But you still need hearing protection when it it running.

Ive been spending more and more time in my garage doing woodworking projects. With that comes lots of dust and lots of finish nailing. My cheap 3 gallon pancake compressor from Harbor Freight worked fine for the nailer, but it was not good for blowing dust off saws and out of the garage, it just didnt have enough volume to handle it. Plus, it was LOUD. So, recently after I spent several hours listening to that loud machine run, I decided enough with it and hopped online and started searching for quiet air compressors. The California Air Tools options were consistently recommended and the reviews supported those recommendations. I must say, I see why! This thing is AMAZING. It is just a hair louder than the compressor on my beer fridge. It is so quiet that I dont even notice when it kicks on unless Im standing right next to it. It was super easy to put together, just throw on the wheels, front rubber piece, and the air filter which is more of a muffler, and it was ready to go. Its not heavy at all an maneuvers very easily. I have a retractable hose reel, so I keep this under my workbench and wont have to move it much. All-in-all, I am extremely satisfied with this purchase and would highly recommend it to anyone else who is tired of loud air compressors!

Seemed like a great product. Arrived intact, assembled it, and powered it up. Flicked the switch and the first thought was WOW! This thing is amazingly quiet!. I decided to shut it down before fully charging it, and immediately noticed it was leaking - like leaking so badly that the hissing sound coming from it was as loud as it was when it was running. Clearly they dont test these after assembly, because this unit would have been obviously faulty. So... go to Amazon to start trying to get help. They direct me to CAT for support. CAT support offers to let me troubleshoot the compressor, and they will send me replacement parts. For me, that is extremely lame. They want ME to troubleshoot their crap product - for no pay? I dont work for them. They dont pay me to be a depot-level repair facility, and I paid for a NEW unit - not a DIY compressor kit. So, I go back to Amazon to get a return/replacement - since CAT was not going to help. Amazon is now out of stock, and the only seller is charging $150 more than what I paid for the unit. Amazon encourages me to return the compressor, and get a credit towards the new purchase - which would cost me $150 more. So, Amazon Customer Service is out of their minds as well. Finally get someone who tells me to wait until they are back in stock - and they will send me a new one, and pick up the old broken one. What a pain. So frustrating. I hope that the replacement works well - I was really looking forward to having a nice quiet air supply - instead I have gotten the runaround from everyone involved... I fully expect that a good unit will be amazing, just hoping its not months before I can get one...

I purchased the aluminum version. It is light, well built and so quite. I can have a phone conversation right next to it while it is running. I love it. Worth every penny.