CAT-1P1060SP Light & Quiet Portable Air Compressor, Lightweight, Ultra Quiet, Oil-Free, 1 Gallon Steel Tank, .6 HP, 56 dBA Noise Level

Wow, I have only used this once so far... To fill car tires low pressure in severe Michigan cold weather. This is a very sweet compressor. I quite appreciate its small size, light weight and low noise level. It is small capacity which I consciously accepted as a trade-off for light weight and low noise.

Boy this thing is quiet. True, you are not going to forget it is there, but the average polite conversation isnt going to be disrupted by it either even it is sitting at your feet. FWIW, I use this at an SMD rework station for blow-off, drying, and powering small air tools where it has replaced my little DeWalt pancake unit. When the DeWalt kicked-on, I’d always flinch and often turn my head away from the noise. No more! This fact alone made this a worthwhile purchase for me. This compressor has a very pleasing “putt-putt-putt” sound, unlike the obnoxious “braaaaaap!!!” of other units, yet the air output is impressive for such a small unit. As other reviewers have mentioned, it only takes 60 seconds to fill from empty, and 15 seconds to refill itself to the cutoff pressure (~120 psi). Although my use case is pretty specific, I can definitely see where this unit would be a good fit for air brushing or powering a trim/brad nailer. And of course it will handle the usual tasks like inflating bike tires, car tires, athletic equipment, and levitating random sleeping cats (KIDDING!). Perhaps the biggest “like” (other than being so quiet) is the portability factor. Im guessing it is about 35-ish lbs which means even an over-the-hill duffer like me can pick it up and take it to where it is needed without needing medical attention afterwards. Its actually pretty well balanced. Hefting it up to the tailgate of my truck did not evoke any colorful language from my back. :) All in all this is a very impressive little compressor without any visible downsides. It is well-built, runs cool and is basically a steal at this price. If you need quiet, portable air in small quantities, you will love this thing. 5 stars. Update: July 19, 2020: When I went to throw the box away, something in the bottom rattled. Hmmm... Curious! Further investigation revealed an intake muffler. Wait... what? So I installed it. This means that when I wrote the review above, it DIDNT HAVE THE INTAKE SILENCER ON! After installing the silencer, its even quieter. You can listen to music or talk on the phone while this thing is running. Unreal! I use this compressor every day and it really deserves six stars. It sits beside my rework bench and just purrs along. Love it!

California Air Tools charges more than competitors for the same tank capacity / air output and in trade, you get a noticeably quieter device. Not zero noise quiet, but more than quiet enough. The downside to this specific affordable CAT unit is that the tank is just 1 gallon and after only a few seconds with a air gun (blow dust off), the compressor is already back on and recharging. So this is okay for a brad nail or stapler, or for a low-volume air gun. But it is not intended for production work with, say, a framing nailer, and no way is it powerful enough to do spray painting. I got the unit reviewed here, the CAT-1P1060SP unit (left in my photo) over the similar-specs CAT-1P1060S (right in photo) because there's a cage around the compressor (except, oops, when you attach the muffler to the back, that sticks out) and because there's a panel with two gauges, pressure regulator, and quick coupler. The unit I got is about $10-$15 more than its workalike, but I plan to haul up to our summer cabin and back and wanted one with more protection when it's banged around in transit. The only thing I don't like is the power on-off lever which, I wonder, how durable it will be. You can buy, separately, a 5- or 10-gallon auxiliary tank for ~$50 (5-gal steel) to $125 (10-gallon aluminum) from CAT. That would solve your problem of air supply running out, but so would spending $200 for a CAT compressor with more capacity. 4-5 years ago I bought a 2-hp, 10-gallon CAT air compressor that is also quiet and CAT calls it ultra-quiet but it's still noisier that the 1-gallon unit I just got. I know I paid $50-$100 more than for a cheaper, noiser compressor, and I'm glad I spent the extra money. My experience with CAT service / support is mixed. It hasn't needed any service. But the first compressor came with the rear supports / vibration-damping lags out of alignment and missing parts. A year later (seriously) CAT sent me a completely different quote replacement part unrelated to what was wrong, and in the meantime I'd been to Home Depot and bought a bunch of big flat washers to use as leveling shims. If you need ultra, ultra quiet, there is a thousand-dollar CAT compressor with 1 hp motor and 8-gallon tank in a noise-containment cabinet.

Great little compressor super quite, recovery time is quick. I was sold under the claim that most compressors have a 500 hr. Life expectency and this one is claimed to have a 3000 hr. run time expectency, that sold me and have seen first hand small compressors lasting far less than 500 hrs. I did have a problem with the control nob for the air pressure adjustment being plastic and easily can be twisted to far and easily broken or snap off could have splurged a little and integrated the knob n a safer location or made this a bit more durable. I would recommend to any one who uses small Power Tools such as finish nailers. Portable air system, or any small compressor job. I've yet to try this with a framing nailer but would be interested to see how it holds up. Has anyone tried it with a framing nailer? And how did it hold up?

This may not be a high power high SCFM air compressor, but it does a terrific job of keeping up with my airbrush and it's quiet enough that it manages not to be obtrusive. I wouldn't want to run my big shop compressor on the airbrush, and thanks to this I don't have to.

Uso doméstico para el matenimiento vehicular. Eficiente y sin molestar a los vecinos con el ruido porque es silencioso.

The compressor was even quieter than I expected, a conversation is louder. It takes no time to get from zero to 120 psi. I tested it from about 8pm to 10 am the next day and the guage reads exactly the same, the system lost no air pressure over 14 hours. I'm using this to run a Lindsay pneumatic air graver, its performing better than expected and I'm glad I didn't spend more money to buy one of the silent air brands that come recommended by them. This sits less than 6 feet from me and the noise level is inconsequentia. I'm set up in the basement and I find the HVAC system more of a bother than this, it really is impressive!. It has no trouble keeping up with the airgraver. I originally was having to go out to the seperate garage and turn on/off a big 5hp two stage compressor twice each time I wanted to use this. This will make life much easier, especially in winter. There was a rattle when I first turned it on that made it atleast twice as loud as it should have been. A quick investigation revealed that one of the compressor isolation mounts wasn't tightened as much as the other two. If find yours loud take a look at the threaded bolts on the bottom of the frame, if one of them doesn't have as much thread sticking past the nut as the others give it a half to full turn to even it up. It look care of all the vibration and rattling changing it to an uber quiet tool. If they appear even and its still rattling try giving all the bolts a 1/4 to 1/2 turn. The difference was night and day, I suspect that this was the issue behind a few of the reviews that weren't happy with the noise level. Make sure the air filter/muffler is threaded in by hand in far enough and push the rubber hose in making sure its secure, this is a big part of how quiet it runs as well. You shouldn't unplug these while the compressor is running, it may trip the overload. The reset button is located beside where the cord enters the compressor motor (NOT where cord exits near the on/off lever on the pressure switch body, follow the cord from that box to the compressor motor). I noticed a few bad reviews stating that the compressor just quit working for no reason after a few uses, there is always a reason and the reset button is the solution. Its light and easy to move around. Mine is sitting on an old section of carpet on the shop floor. This keeps it firmly in place, it has rubber suction feet that worked very well on a sealed wood table. I wouldnt use it on top of a table, the vibration of the compressor resonated through the table causing a lot more noise. Sitting it on something soft of the floor really made a big difference. The seperate tank and regulator gauge is a nice touch, the panel makes it easy to set the pressure and the air quick connect mount is very robust. They make two models using the same motor and compressor. The other one has the air quick connect mounted directly off the regulator and doesn't have the nice panel/guage setup. It does have a very basic water seperator that this model does not have. This was around $20 more and is superior in every way IMO. So far there's nothing not to like, as long as you use tools that are rated below the 1.2 cfm output at 90 psi you'll be very happy with it. A brad nailer is about as big as you can go. It would be great for airbrush work with added air cleaning/filtration. Keep in mind its a very tiny compressor! This won't run a die grinder, ratchet, impact driver etc. It's great for use with a brad nailer or to top off air in car tires. If you need to fill a car/truck tire from flat expect you'll be waiting for the compressor to fill the 1 gallon tank upwards of a dozen times for larger tires. The only thing this doesn't have is any type of air filtration. There is NO oil/water separator on the regulator. A oilless compressor doesn't contaminate the air nearly as much as a traditional compressor and the tank does have a nice valve on the bottom to easily drain off and water that will build up in the tank over time. Depending on the tool your using you can add a lubricator directly to the tool (brad nailer). This keeps oil out of your hoses so it doesn't become an issue if you want to air brush or use a pneumatic engraver (etc) like I am. Whatever you do, you MUST consider the tools requirements and add the necessary filtration, drying or lubrication. For my Lindsay air graver I'm running a standard oil/water separator followed by a 3 microm coalescing filter, then a 0.5 micron coalescing filter. Finally there are another two regulators that set the idle and run psi of the unit. For air brushing I'd consider using more than a cheap standard oil/water seperators. Anyways, just keep in mind that this has no oil/water separator. You could buy a regulator with built in oi/water separator, add a male quick connect and plug it directly into the female quick connect on the panel. Put another female quick connect on the output side of it. You'd have two regulators but its likely the easiest/cheapest way to get better air quality, plus its easily removable. You could even add the second regulator to your bench so your l don't need to adjust pressure at the compressor every time. I find this very convenient. Allright, too much information in this review! You won't be disappointed with this compressor, its a fantastic machine!

Extremely quiet. Seams very well made. Great little compressor.

El ruido es mínimo

el bastidor donde esta montado es muy grande , se pudo instalar un tanque de 2 galones en el mismo espacio