Air Compressor Storage Tank Sizing

For most applications it makes sense to have a combination of wet and dry storage.

Air compressor storage tank sizing.

Air tanks how large should i size my air tank. For example if you have a total of 1 200 gallons of compressed air storage 800 gallons should be dry storage and 400 gallons should be wet. For example if all needed tools require 20 cfm for a maximum of 15 minutes per hour then the minimum volume is 20 cfm x 15 min 300 cubic feet. A simple and straightforward rule for sizing an air receiver tank for a reciprocating air compressor is to take the tool with the highest cfm requirement at the required psi multiply that cfm requirement by 1 25 or 1 5 and then round up to the closest gallon size.

Use the total airflow requirement and estimate the amount of time a maximum air capacity will be needed. Here is a quick sheet showing the air compressor horsepower average cfm or output and recommended tank size. It is recommended to have a minimum of 2 gallons of storage per every cfm and we highly recommend having 4 gallons of storage per cfm. The compressor motor starts pumps air into the tank and when the tank pressure reaches the high level cut out the compressor motor stops.

A good rule of thumb for most applications is to have three to five gallons of air storage capacity per air compressor cfm output. In contrast using a small finish nailer to do some trim work in your basement would probably suffice with for example a small three gallon tank. So if your air compressor is rated for 100 cfm you would want 300 to 500 gallons of compressed air storage. If you have a 1 gallon air tank and the air compressor is set to shut off at 90 psi when the compressor stops you will have 1 gallon of air pressurized to 90 psi.

The ideal ratio of compressed air storage is 1 3 wet to 2 3 dry capacity.