EXPO did a review and test of some air compressors and its a really great review but because they changed the site no one can log in to comment...so its not much fun. Anyway, here is a link to the story
I’ve been thinking alot about air these days. I even bought a Harbor Freight 5 gallon (11 gallon according to the sticker on the 5 gallon tank) to see if I could eek more performance out of my aging and modified MV50. The short answer is no. The tank is too big to fill in a remotely reasonable time at a remotely reasonable pressure and it is too small to make precharging the air viable. What I really want is one of those little 1-2 gallon tanks, that would be ideal for what I need. Anyway Im just here to chime in that even though my MV50 let me down once, it never has again and its been consistently fast and reliable minus the reed valve breaking apart (known flaw) and the air filter self destructing (cheap piece of junk)...also the air chuck broke. So here is what I would recommend to someone looking for a good compressor on the cheap.
1. Buy an MV50 on sale or with Oriely bucks, or whatever. Go nuts even with an MV89 or MV90 if you want more CFM.
2. Buy a the ARB air accessory kit which includes a really good hose, and a great coupler.
3. Tear open the head and replace the stock reed valve with a cut off feeler gauge and loctite the screw with high temp
4. Replace the stock air filter with a high quality seperator
And run that puppy until the brushes bleed.
All in you are looking at
75 + 35 + 5 + 15 = $130
Not bad really.
Sure Its not the best compressor out there, but if you go my route all of the stuff that stinks about it is replaced with quality items you can transfer to another high quality pump when this one eventually dies. Frankly, its been a fast reliable compressor, especially considering the money.