Choosing The Best Airbrush Compressor - [Buying GUIDE] (2024)

In the grand scheme of airbrushes and sprayguns, choosing the right airbrush compressor is the least important step and, possibly, the most expensive step.

People who make the best choices answer these three questions first.

1. How much capacity do you need?
2. Will a noisy compressor be an issue?
3. Is electrical power an issue?

For impatient buyers, here are somequick recommendations. For detailed guide, keep reading below.

Best Airbrush Compressors [Updated for 2024]

Most of these are quiet airbrush compressors

Compressor	Model	Features	Max Pressure
	Iwata-Medea Smart Jet Air Compressor	General purpose, illustrations, hobbies, models, craft, makeup	35 PSI
	Iwata-Medea Studio Series Power Jet Pro	Multi-purpose, 1/6 HP, 2 liters tank	70 PSI
	Badger TC910 Aspire Pro Airbrush Compressor	1/5 HP, Quiet, 3 liter built in tank	57 PSI
	Paasche D3000R 1/8 HP Compressor with Tank	Compact, quiet, 1/8 HP, 3 liter tank	20-30 PSI

Airbrush Compressor Reviews

Compressors manufactured and marketed for airbrushing vary in price. These types of compressor you can purchase from most art supply stores as well as on amazon and come in various sizes. Be sure the compressor is rated for the type of airbrushing you will be doing. These compressors are best suited for airbrushing fine art, illustrations, nail art, body art, models and crafts.

Iwata Media Smart Jet Air Compressor

Smart Jet Compressor isoil less piston type airbrush compressor which is great for use with thin (low viscosity) type paints such as Comart, Golden Airbrush Colors and a fixed nozzle, gravity feed airbrush or a siphon feed airbrush with low viscosity paint. This set up will not work well with say an airbrush like the Paasche VL and textile colors unless you thin or reduce the airbrush textile colors.

Iwata Media Studio Series Power Jet Pro

Here we have an oil less piston type airbrush compressor within a metal case, a suite case style airbrush compressor. These are great for in home or apt. studios to be used with thin paints (low viscosity). If you require a quiet running compressor, you might want to give these style compressors a look. Again it will not work well for high viscosity paints such as textile colors with a floating nozzle unless you thin or reduce the paint.

Badger TC910 Aspire Pro Airbrush Compressor

While Badger offers products at virtually every skill set of airbrushing, the TC910 is best understood as a hobbyist model that can be used for some commercial purposes with specific projects.

This compressor comes with some solid qualities.

For instance, the motor generates an ample 1/5 HP while simultaneously being able to deliver a maximum of 57 psi. This compressor also comes with the largest air storage tank at 1 gallon.

This compressor was intended to be transported. For one, the entire kit has been housed in a metal box that features non-slip feet. The box itself features a handle on the top and there are even two holsters for the airbrushes.

All of this seems to indicate that the Badger is meant to be quickly and easily taken on the go with you to be used onsite. If you choose to do so, be prepared to lug around a nearly 20-pound compressor kit.

Paasche D3000R Air Compressor with Tank

Paasche is one of the better brands of compressors for airbrushing out there, and the D3000R performs admirably.

While there are a number of nice qualities and features about this compressor, by far one of the most impressive has to be how quiet it is. Unlike many other compressors for airbrushing, the Paasche D3000R only generates a paltry 46 dB when turned on–which is not a constant state of this compressor anyway. To put that in perspective, 46 dB is a little louder than a quiet office or household room but softer than moderate rainfall or a normal conversation. Even if other compressors for airbrushing claim to be quiet, they will be hard-pressed to match the Paasche in this regard.

In terms of the standard specs, the Paasche is adequate and compressor’s motor can generates 1/5 HP which is good. Of course, the ¾ gallon air storage tank only further reduces the noise of this compressor by alleviating the need for it to always be on. The 40 psi is decent, but not the most impressive on our list.

Paasche D500 Oil less Piston Compressor

This is an oil-less diaphragm type compressor and would work well for very light duty airbrushing with a gravity feed airbrush and a low viscosity paint.

SilentAire Super Silent 20-A Airbrush Compressor

Here we have a half horse power compressor that runs very quite (40 decibels) made by Silent Air for the airbrushing market. This size compressor will do limited T Shirt production, provides the PSI required using textile colors and siphon feed airbrushes. Also would be good for use with Auto Art, motorcycle murals.

Airbrush Compressor Buying Guide

Airbrush compressors! What a maze of confusion there is when looking for a good reliable air source for airbrushing, kustom painting. The main object of this tutorial is to offer you some clarity to the many options you have to choose from when purchasing an airbrush compressor.

How much capacity do you need?

Here’s the basic formula to determine how much air flow capacity you need.

Total Air Volume Needed x 1/(Duty Cycle) = Compressor CFM Requirement

Look at your setup. How many airbrushes and spray guns will you use at the same time? One after the other in succession doesn’t count. This gives you your Total Air Volume Needed.

Total Air Volume Needed is the bare minimum. No less. Don’t get anything that pumps out anything less than this number. Bad. Very Bad.

But there’s still something else to consider here.

Duty Cycle, normally given as a percentage,means the compressor engine should only run for that percentage of every hour the compressor is in use. It’s a good recommendation to follow as best you can to keep your compressor running for a long time to come.

Examples
50% Duty Cycle = 30 minutes running for an hour’s use.
25% Duty Cycle = 15 minutes running for an hour’s use.

Will a noisy compressor be an issue?

Compressors, especially big ones, canbe loud. Very,very loud. There are four ways to handle the noise.

1. Give it the fairy tale treatment–in a land far, far away.
2. Muzzle it, like the loud, barking dog it is…
3. Don’t buy a noisy compressor.
4. Avoid compressors all together and use compressed gas canisters.

Give it thefairy tale treatment in a land far, far away

In fairy tales everything always happens in a land far, far away–Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, even modern fairy tales like Star Wars (I don’t know if I’d call Yoda a fairy god mother though…).

Lock your compressor away in the dungeon, or the tower, or banish it to New Jersey. The garage,shed, or even a closet work great if you don’t have you very own dungeon or convenient access to Trenton.

All of these methods work because noise gets softer with distance.

If you decide to get medieval on you compressor make sure your choice allows great ventilation, compressors use air after all.

Also, keepcompressors out of the elements. Most compressors put up withthe rain and snow.

Potential un-fairy-like problems.

Don’t offload your own noise problems onto your neighbors. Waking up the neighborhood in the dead of night because inspiration slammed you upside the head with a 2×4 is not nice.

Don’t forget to keep your compressor maintained. Out of sight, out of mind. Don’t fall into that trap. You’ll still need to drain the tank and moisture traps, check oil levels if applicable, blah blah blah.

Muzzle it like the loud barking dog it is!

If you’re the handyman, Do-It-Yourself, I-don’t-need-to-pay-someone-else-to-do-what-I-can-do-myself, person then you mightbuild a noise box around the loud beastie.

I’ve seen untamed,very loud compressors become nothing more than the occasional dull rumble.

Just like the fairy tale treatment air flow is the problem.
Compressors use LOTS of air. Make sure they can breathe.

Silent Airbrush Compressor

Quiet and even silent compressors exist out there [Click here for best silent airbrush compressors]. They range fromlow rumbles toa little louder than your refrigerator.

It’s story time!

Silent compressors can fool you about how loud they really are. Many times the fan that cools them is louder than the engine pumping the air. How do I know?

When you start work on a compressor you depressurize the air tank first.

I opened the air tank drain valve. The air rushed out (incidentally the compressor was shipped full of compressed air). Air tanks don’t take long to depressurize, a few seconds, maybe ten. The air kept hissing out. I stared, puzzled, at this compressor after a full minute of flowing air. How can an air tank have that much air in it? What’s going on? I’d turned it off!

My instructor looked at me. Rolled his eyes and flipped the power strip off. The tank stopped spewing out air. Heh heh…umm….whoops.

Yes, the compressor was running while I was working on it. Talk about embarrassment…

These compressors do tend to be small. They can range from a few pounds on up to 50 or 60 pounds.

Smaller sizes make them far more portable than bigger, louder compressors. The smaller the compressor the less capacity that compressor has, but depending on your application that could be a very acceptable trade off.

There is one major down side to quiet and silent compressors.

• They are expensive.

Why are silent airbrush compressors expensive?

Airbrush compressors are expensive because making noise is easy and making a mechanical device that doesn’t make a lot of noise, isn’t.

You can do the comparison and see for yourself.

Walk through the aisle of your local hardware store. The compressors there aren’t that expensive. Not only that, but they have a lot of power. They can move a lot of air and pump it up to high pressures quickly. Sounds great doesn’t it?

Ahh, but sound is the catch.

Turn on one of these inexpensive beauties and you’ll understand immediately what it means to be unable to hear yourself think. In fact, most compressor manufacturers don’t attach decibel ratings to their products.

Decibels are a method of measuring noise intensity. These compressors are intense when it comes to noise.

On the other side of things is the quiet and silent compressors

Quiet compressors generally top out around 55-60 db (decibels). But what does that compare to exactly?

• Your refrigerator hums at roughly 40 db
• You carry on normal conversations at roughly 60 db

The decibel scale is logarithmic. That simply means that for every 10 points higher on the scalethe sound is 10 times louder. The reverse is also true. For every 10 points you drop on the scale the sound is 10 times softer.

So the difference between 60 db is 100 times louder than 40 db.

Silent compressors top out between 50 and 55 db. The price also goes up by roughly 4 times for the quieter compressor.

Compressed Gas

This is an elegant solution. Why?

• Compressed gas iscompletely quiet. The loudest noise is the escaping air’s hiss.
• There’s no need for power. The tank starts already full. Take it wherever you need it to go. Then work your magic.
• It’s very portable. Though possibly unsightly, the little oxygen carts for the elderly can easily carry a tank of CO2 or N2 or a repurposed SCUBA tank.
• Compressed gas has very low up front equipment costs.

If compressed gas is so great why doesn’t everyone use it?

Technically, everyone uses compressed gas. Compressors pressurize whatever gas they’re pressurizing and pressure cylinders (tanks) store the compressed gas for use later. But that’s getting technical.

There’s no engine. The engine is what makes the noise, uses electricity, and compresses the air. It’s just a tank of high pressure air.

Compressed gas has three big flaws

1. Tanks eventually empty making tank refills a way of life. Experienced users horde an extra tank or two for the inevitable ‘I just ran out of gas in the middle of what I’m doing!’ moment. Local welding supply, and beverage supply companies are your friend.
2. Suffocation – The risk is really, really small. This risk so small that it’s a non-issue. I mention it becauseif you do suffocate yourself, it’s completely your fault, because it’s easy to avoid.Here’s how to avoid suffocation. Ventilation. You shouldn’t spray in an enclosed space anyway, so you shouldn’t be able to drown yourself by displacing all the breathable oxygen.
3. Knocking off the tank’s head. This is another very small risk that’s completely avoidable.Rough handling that knocks or shears off the head allows all the pent up gas to escape turning the docile air tank into a torpedo.

   Avoid this problem by not handling the air tank roughly. If you can strap the tank against something else upright to avoid the tank falling over.

Is power an issue?

For whatever reason, if you discover problems finding or running power to your compressordo one of these two things.

Purchase a generator for the compressor.

Make sure the generator will put out enough power for your compressor. You might want to talk to the compressor’s manufacturer and ask them about the start up power surge. Your generator will need to put out enough power to cover that initial surge.

or

Use Compressed Gas.

Finding good steady power at the fair grounds or for a mobile service is murder. A #20 CO² or N² tank frees you from the power grid nightmare.

Other thoughts

Air Tanks

An air tank on a compressor is a good thing. Your compressor with a tank will run longer than a compressor without an air tank. It might cost more, but it’s a good thing.

Trapping Moisture

Air compressors must have a moisturefilter and an air filter, but they might not come with the compressor you purchase.

Whichever type of compressor you get, you will want to add a second moisture filter to the system. Compressing air creates heat, as the air cools, it condenses, or creates moisture, and that moisture needs to be removed before the air reaches the airbrush.

Yeah, yeah, I know, there is a moisture filter built right on to the compressor, right?

Well, guess what, it is too close to the source of the heat to do any good at all. You need to give the air time, and distance, to cool off.

Adding at least 8 feet of line and then a moisture trap will remove MUCH more moisture than the trap that is right on the compressor. You should be able to purchase a second moisture trap/filter from the same place you get the compressor.

You may also need to purchase some additional fittings/adapters to get everything put together. Also, it is recommended to “seal” the threads on all fittings with either teflon tape, or beeswax to prevent leaks – just be careful to not get it in the air passages.

Moisture filters remove the compressed air’s water vapor before the aerosol spraymixes with it. The paint type you use determines what kind of bad results you’ll get. But no one wants bad results. Unless you live in New Mexico, deep in the Sahara, or in Antarctica, get a moisture trap.

If you live in extremely humid places like Hawaii, on or near any body of water’s coastline, or in the tropics, you might need to do more than purchase a moisture trap.

Dry air beats humid air every time. Don’t forget it.

Air Regulators vs Bleed Valves

Both control the amount of air delivered to your tools. But they control airflow very differently.

Bleed valves adjust the pressure by removing air from the pressurized air system before you have a chance to spray it. They bleed air like medieval doctors bleeding their patients.

Air regulators adjust thepressure by allowing controlled amounts of air from one part of the pressurized air system into another. It’s like the on-ramp traffic lights on many freeways. The lights regulate traffic onto the freeway. Regulators regulate pressure into the air line.

You need enough air to run your equipment. Choosing the right air source will keep you on the right track to starting airbrushing right.

Airbrush Compressor –Common Terms and Definitions

Air compressor a compressor that takes in air at atmospheric pressure and delivers it at a higher pressure

Reciprocating air compressors are those in which each compressing element consists of a piston moving back and forth in a cylinder.

Moisture separators are devices for collecting and removing moisture from the air.

db: Decibel A term to describe the relative loudness of a sound. Typically, heat pumps and air conditioners are between the sound of a human voice (70db) and a blender (88db).

Displacement: The volume of air displaced by a full stroke of the first stage piston, multiplied by the rated RPM of the compressor. This is measured in cubic feet per minute (CFM)

Filtration: The purification of air by passing it through a porous material for the removal of solid particles and liquid droplets. Filtration is an essential step in the process of air purification

Air Pressure Regulator A component of an air compressor that allows the user to adjust the air pressure in the air line

Maximum Pressure RatioThe highest-pressure level recommended for a compressor.

Diaphragm compressors achieve compression with the use of a flexing diaphragm that moves back and forth in a closed chamber; the design is an alteration of the reciprocating piston concept. The motion of the connecting rod under the diaphragm causes the flexing and only a short stroke is needed to generate similar pressure effects as those of a reciprocating piston compressor.

CFM Cubic feet per minute Compressors are rated by CFM. It is very important that you know what the delivered CFM is at a specific pressure when comparing compressors. Some dealers may advertise CFM displacement which is always higher than CFM delivered. Another key is the pressure given. A CFM rating at 40 PSI will always be a higher value than at 100 PSI or 175 PSI. The main thing to remember is Delivered CFM at the same Pressures when comparing performance.

Gauges pressure gauges to monitor tank and regulator pressures.

Horse Power: The power rating of an electrical motor. Unfortunately , this is a very vague and confusing term due to the fact that the “Value” of Horse Power (HP) is not a constant among the various types and sizes of motors. When selecting a compressor you should look for the CFM delivered at a specific pressure.

Oil less Compressor: Any compressor that is not lubricated by oil.

Pressure Switches: An Electrical device that is designed to monitor and control the tank storage pressure and to shut off the motor by means of opening a control circuit. In smaller units, the Pressure Switch may be wired directly to the motor. However, in larger units the pressure switch is wired to a control circuit.

PSI: Pounds Per Square Inch. “Pressure”. Used to describe the storage pressure, operating pressure, regulated pressure, air tool pressure requirement etc… Used in conjunction with CFM which is an expression of volume. When comparing Pressures and CFM between units, be sure to use both CFM and PSI at the same compared values. Example; 17 CFM @ 175 PSI. or 6 CFM @ 90 PSI.

Regulator: An inline device designed to reduce downstream air pressure to a specific adjustable setting.