Adding a few more names for consideration, all say made in USA, $1100-1200 range.
Industrial
Rolair
BelAire
Jet
Any thoughts on them is helpful.
From what I saw when researching my own purchase, there are nightmare reviews of service on nearly any compressor you can afford. They are all going to have globally sourced, commodity-level components made by someone other than the assembler and service is nearly guaranteed to be outsourced. The people who do that service seem to be independent contractors who are not paid very well and have no special knowledge of or personal connection to the product. I see this same trend in other Made in USA industries, such as appliances By the way, if you have not completely dismissed the Northern Tool unit I recommended, they just went on sale for $549. Mine has been great for almost 3 years.
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That price looks like only free pickup, not free shipping as far as I can see. It shows shipping to CA at $248.
Nobody was going to delivery to where mine ended up, so I never thought about that and just picked mine up in store.
Adding Curtis to the list, pump is made in China, reviews are few but positive.
Although this is above your stated budget of $700-$1000, EMAX is an option to consider if looking to support “Made in USA.” I bought this EMAX air compressor/air dryer combo through Home Depot last year for $2970 with free delivery to the store. Yes, made in the USA (Ohio). Family run operation. Built like a tank. Beautifully made and excellent warranty. https://emaxcompressor.com
Well that’ll keep your plasma cutter cutting, your paint sprayer spraying, and your sand blaster blasting - all at once and with super dry air!
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With many years associated with compressed air systems Looking over the unit and watching a few of the video’s I think the units have some very positive things going for them. Some of the highlights, pressurized lube system, oil filter, dual mode (start/stop - continuous with unloading), disc style valves, air inlet silencer, interstage cooler, aftercooler, UL mag starter /pressure switch and most importantly slow rotating pump. Many more pluses for this unit and I personally think it would be a very good investment.
Here’s my experience.
I bought a Crossfire just over a year ago. I had a 30 gallon 3hp-ish compressor from Menards (midwest regional lumberyard, like Lowe’s/Home Depot), and it worked fine with my Hypertherm 45xp if I was cutting less than about 3 minutes, then it couldn’t keep up. I would have to stop my program, wait for the compressor to catch up, then continue. This meant babysitting, and got very frustrating when I got over 100 orders in the month before Christmas.
Right before Christmas, Tractor Supply had a sale, and I picked up this Ingersoll Rand compressor. I’ve been using it since, and it’s wonderful!! 
It will still run sometimes during a cutting cycle, but it can catch up and shutoff while the cut is going. It’s sized about 3x what the Hypertherm says it requires, so that makes sense.
SKU# 3496129
IR COMPRESSOR 80 GAL
Quantity: 1
| Subtotal | $949.99 |
|---|---|
| DELIVERY | $0.00 |
| Discount | -$47.50 |
| SalesTax | $63.17 |
| Total | $965.66 |
After discount, and with tax, I paid $965.66
I still didn’t have a refrigerant air dryer, just the little ‘gravity’ ones with the glass cup on it. My signs cut great, but I would have to do a fair amount of grinding (not just wire wheeling) on every sign - probably 2-5 minutes of processing time after they came off the table.
Fast forward to about a month ago, and Harbor Freight had a deal on their refrigerant air dryer - $299 + shipping, I snagged it, and finally got it hooked up about a week ago. I’ve cut four signs with it so far, and it’s fantastic! Still getting some dross, but 90% or more comes off with the wire wheel (vs 50% before). I think the remaining dross has to do with cutting really small letters/words out, and the CAM that makes the torch kinda sit and overheat those areas.
Anyways, just saying, you don’t have to start with the refrigerant air dryer, but dang it’s nice. You also don’t have to start with the biggest compressor, but dang it’s nice!
Reach out if you have any questions, I’m happy to share my experiences!
-Ben
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I think my problem is in the research not the actual purchase. After reading ALL the reviews and stories I can find there are so many people talking about the failures and lack of customer service. The reality is with my current budget max about $1200 I’m going to end up with what I don’t want, a compressor built with Chinese parts. My fear is that with all this invested, not just money but time in learning software, setup and trying to promote my work I will get going and have an equipment failure.
Like I said, too much reading. Right now by the existing info in this category of compressors Dewalt has the best rate of success, ugh! With my recent experience with their products that would be like swallowing a chicken bone. I was almost sold on a Quincy but so many people complain about their CS. Right now I’m leaning toward an IR solely based on personal experience and reputation but they have scary cs stories as well.
As far as drying the air the current plan is for a copper manifold with drops and 2 large DIY desiccant dryers. Considering the humidity here is less than 15% a lot of the time I don’t think it will be an issue.
BTW the Emax compressor looks like an awesome beast.
Thanks to everyone for all the input
I recently purchased a Quincy QT54 15CFM 60 Gallon 5hp compressor which is made in USA, high quality and has a great warranty for a little less than $1200.
There are lots of great choices in the $1200 and under price range that will do great and last a long time. The IR you are thinking about will do great.
Keep in mind many online reviews are written by people that have no idea what they are doing, have an ax to grind, or work for the competition. I’d not put a lot of weight in them - most of them are garbage.
That said, if you have a need for production level operations and no downtime from equipment failure, etc…you need a big budget. Shops with those requirements will have a backup compressor at minimum.
You can always buy 2 or 3 cheap compressors for the price of an expensive one.
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Maybe… but price with warranty made the decision for me. Kobalt (Campbell Hausfeld) 60gal 2 stage 175psi out the door at Lowes with 4 year extended warranty beyond the initial 3 (7 total) $700.
HF refer/dryer $299 . $200-300 in misc, regs, traps, MaxLines. Total in mine about $1300
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Interesting video comparing single stage and 2 stage air compressor…
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I have found a great deal on 80 gallon single stage compressor. Great reviews on Amazon. I am not associated with the seller in any way. On sale for 6 more days.
I’m assuming that’s what they call the Kobalt now. I looked at that but the cfm @90 is only 7.6, lower than I’d expect.
I think this is the one you are referring to?
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-60-Gallon-Two-Stage-Electric-Vertical-Air-Compressor/1000542193
The Lowe’s web site is wrong 
. Go look at it in a store - I think it’s actually 11ish CFM, which is plenty for plasma cutting and many other things…I almost got that compressor - it’s a pretty good deal.
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I’m not sure, James, it’s only 3.7HP and two stage so high pressure, but not necessarily high volume. 175 PSI with 6.7CFM might be right for this compressor. Since it’s two stage, I’m not sure the 90 PSI rating is almost twice that…
Next time I’m down there I’ll try and grab a pic of the label. It doesn’t match the web site - that really confused me when I saw the online specs - didn’t make sense. But you are right - it’s 3.7ish HP. Mine’s a 60 gal 5hp at 15cfm 2 stage. This one puts out a little less than that - mainly due to smaller motor.
Edit: It’s really weird on this one - web site says 6.9 @175psi, manual you can pull up on the web site says 7.6@90psi and the actual compressor label in the stores says 11 something CFM. Whomever did the web site stuff got things mixed up with another compressor I think.
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I have no idea why I’m spending so much time on this. I need to get a life. 
This video has a review:
Screen shot of label:
This even has a link in description to same compressor.
It’s a pretty decent compressor - 3 yr warranty so hard to go wrong for the price.
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Vindicated for sure! Good job, James! Now, if Lowes/Kobalt could be as diligent as you…
IF the label on the actual unit matched the actual performance, you are, indeed, correct. A very good buy at that! Unfortunately, the sloppiness of one of the two companies has tarnished the credibility IMO.