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!
