Air Compressor recommendation

I have a Craftsman that I purchased almost 5 years ago, rated at 150 psi with only a 1.5 gallon tank, easily picked up and carried around. I leave this one in my 5er...It EASILY fills my G rated tires to 110 psi and I've filled them to 115 psi when it set's through the summer.....it'll run while I'm filling the tires to that high of a pressure, but again, it does it fairly easily...doesn't take long at all to fill to 115 psi.....I can regulate air in (which I leave at max most of the time), as well as the air going out....I also use this air compressor to fill truck tires and blow water out of lines at times( using regulator to 40 psi),....very handy... I think I paid around $100 for it, maybe $115, wasn't much more than that, but agin, it easily fills my G rated tires to 115 psi, and at almost 5 yrs of age has given me no problems whatsoever.

I also have a 10 gallon roll around compressor that I originally purchased for the above reason and still have it, but leave it at home, the above compressor works great for me, does it in a timely manner and doesn't take up a lot of room....

California Air Tools CAT-10020 Ultra Quiet and Oil-Free 2.0 HP 10.0-Gallon Steel Tank Air Compressor is the best brand portable air compressorbest brand portable air compressor.. It is having 10.0 Gallon Steel Tank with Wheels.. It is very well made and extremely quiet. This is far by the small air compressor I have ever used.

Life is a trade off. Do you want to use storage space for a large tank on a machine that you seldom use or do you want a small machine that takes a long time on the rare occasion that you need it?

I carry the small one. Yeah, it takes awhile but I am in no hurry to go anywhere so I plan its use accordingly. Works great for tires, blasting dust around in the basement moving it from one hard to reach spot to another & makes an excellent redneck fire starter for those stubborn fires that need some help with supersized lungs.

you need to find a good or better quality cast iron compressor. only buy a high cfm rated unit. motor is a separate unit.
the so called oil-less, "all in one" units make a huge racket, worse than a old school 8K generator at a work site. and they burn out quickly.

tank size is deturmend by what you are doing. some tools require a very large amount of air to work right.

also think about water in the tanks. bad news there.

I am satisfied with my Pacbrake onboard air. I have a gallon and half of air storage, 150 psi.

I have a Dewalt 18 gallon standup rolling portable compressor that maxes out at 200 lbs. pressure. It can be stored on its side as it's not an oil bath compressor.

Checkout some of the other Dewalt compressors, as I think some are very high pressure units.

I spent a C-note on a pancake air compressor from Wally World, around 2011. It has made a home inside my RV, under a dinette seat when not being used. It works for tire inflation, but it is quite loud, and fairly slow. However, for the times I use it, it is better than nothing, and has a decent pressure regulator, so it can be used to blow out the water lines come winter as well as keep the tires on the trailer at optimum pressure.

As far as brand recommendations go , remember that they are all made by the same China man !
I have always made fun of Harbor Freight tools , but last week on a job in Tallahassee I had left all of my hundred dollar brad nailers at home , so I drove to H.F. and bought a nineteen dollar nailer , used four days and its still going ! My Harbour Freight 4 inch dust collector quit suckin less than a year after purchase , while taking it down I found a momma bird madder than hell as she was nesting in the suction side . I will not belittle HF tools as bad I used to do !

The big weakness of small compressor is the size of the tanks . A larger reservoir will make the job faster .One hundred Fifty lbs of pressure with no volume will do you no good if in a hurry . I carry a small 3 gal compressor with me but I have a 30 gallon tank in my yard if I am in a rush . BIG TIRES require a tremendous amount of volume !

California Air Tools CAT-6310 Ultra Quiet and Oil-Free 1.0 Hp 6.3-Gallon Steel Tank Air Compressor is best brand known to me so far.It is lightweight for easy transporting... Compressor is very quiet