California Air Tools CAT-1P1060S Light & Quiet Portable Air Compressor, Light...

May, I love this thing. I’m 65 this year, so decided to downsize since I no longer need a $400 air compressor taking up real estate on the floor in my garage. And the smaller compressor I had on my storage shelf was obnoxiously loud and about 10 pounds heavier than this one. So I ordered this smaller compressor and gifted the other two to my kids, who were always relying on me to air up their tires. Now they can handle that chore on their own. Before I gave those two away, though, I waited until this compressor arrived to test it out: As promised, it’s very quiet. Two people can carry on a normal conversation standing right in front of it. You won’t need hearing protection. Nice. Sitting in the garage, the 15 gallon DeWalt I gave my son would wake me up in the middle of the night from the other end of the house if I forgot to unplug it. I was afraid it would wake the neighbors and violate some city noise regulation it was so loud. The CA compressor is lighter than my 2 gallon portable compressor, as I would expect.. I no longer have to dread picking it up to carry it to the job location around the house. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the female air socket on the compressor was operable with one hand. Kudos to California Air Tools for adding that. The fit and finish are more than satisfactory. I could find nothing to complain about. I comes with the plastic air filter detached. So I installed that, plugged it in and the compressor quickly and quietly charged right up. I tested my small air nailers, up to the 18 gage unit. You shoot two or three nails and it kicks on for a few seconds, but you should expect that with a 1 gallon compressor. For a homeowner doing small jobs around the house, I would think this would work out just fine. It even runs my small palm nailer, which I use a lot for nailing jobs where it’s difficult to swing a hammer. It this continues to operate as it did today, I have no problem rating it 5 stars. Best compressor I’ve ever owned for its size.

Boy this thing is quiet. True, you are not going to forget it is there, but the average polite conversation isnt going to be disrupted by it either even it is sitting at your feet. FWIW, I use this at an SMD rework station for blow-off, drying, and powering small air tools where it has replaced my little DeWalt pancake unit. When the DeWalt kicked-on, I’d always flinch and often turn my head away from the noise. No more! This fact alone made this a worthwhile purchase for me. This compressor has a very pleasing “putt-putt-putt” sound, unlike the obnoxious “braaaaaap!!!” of other units, yet the air output is impressive for such a small unit. As other reviewers have mentioned, it only takes 60 seconds to fill from empty, and 15 seconds to refill itself to the cutoff pressure (~120 psi). Although my use case is pretty specific, I can definitely see where this unit would be a good fit for air brushing or powering a trim/brad nailer. And of course it will handle the usual tasks like inflating bike tires, car tires, athletic equipment, and levitating random sleeping cats (KIDDING!). Perhaps the biggest “like” (other than being so quiet) is the portability factor. Im guessing it is about 35-ish lbs which means even an over-the-hill duffer like me can pick it up and take it to where it is needed without needing medical attention afterwards. Its actually pretty well balanced. Hefting it up to the tailgate of my truck did not evoke any colorful language from my back. :) All in all this is a very impressive little compressor without any visible downsides. It is well-built, runs cool and is basically a steal at this price. If you need quiet, portable air in small quantities, you will love this thing. 5 stars. Update: July 19, 2020: When I went to throw the box away, something in the bottom rattled. Hmmm... Curious! Further investigation revealed an intake muffler. Wait... what? So I installed it. This means that when I wrote the review above, it DIDNT HAVE THE INTAKE SILENCER ON! After installing the silencer, its even quieter. You can listen to music or talk on the phone while this thing is running. Unreal! I use this compressor every day and it really deserves six stars. It sits beside my rework bench and just purrs along. Love it!

My voice in a normal conversational tone is 80DB. This CAT-1P1060S runs at 75DB, which is more than the advertised 56DB. Honestly, I did not believe the 56DB claim as my new 17 seer heat pump fan in my house makes 65DB and it is not loud at all so I doubted this compressor would be more quiet than my HVAC fan motor. Being that it is quieter than the spoken voice I am thrilled. I always hated the traditional pancake compressors that run close to 100DB on a good day as they make a work site louder than it needed to be. What I used to do is run my loud mechanic's compressor I have on my 2003 7.3L diesel F350 service truck to power my carpentry air tools, but that obviously used diesel at $3.50/gallon and I had to run a 150' to 200' long 3/8" air line to get the air inside the house where I needed it. With this compressor, I enjoy leaving Betsy (my truck's name) in the driveway turned off and I simply grab this tiny CA compressor. It is super light, which is very nice! It is compact so I can stow it inside my behind-the-cab truck box with plenty of room for other tools so it is always ready to use. On job sites without power, (which are few and far between) I use my 4000w pure sine wave inverter that is wired to my truck's electrical system, which requires I run the engine to prevent dead batteries (7.3 diesels needs gobs of battery power to start). I just use a 100' or 200' long 12AWG extension cord from the inverter to the job site with a short 50' long 3/8" pneumatic hose in the area I am working. I only use my truck compressor now to run my mechanic's tools such as impact guns and the like as they require tons of air supply, much more than any carpentry tool will ever need. I absolutely love this California CAT-1P1060S compressor.

This may not be a high power high SCFM air compressor, but it does a terrific job of keeping up with my airbrush and it's quiet enough that it manages not to be obtrusive. I wouldn't want to run my big shop compressor on the airbrush, and thanks to this I don't have to.

Great little compressor - incredibly quiet! Tank size is admittedly small but works well for tools like my small brad nailer that don’t require continuous air flow.

California Air Tools charges more than competitors for the same tank capacity / air output and in trade, you get a noticeably quieter device. Not zero noise quiet, but more than quiet enough. The downside to this specific affordable CAT unit is that the tank is just 1 gallon and after only a few seconds with a air gun (blow dust off), the compressor is already back on and recharging. So this is okay for a brad nail or stapler, or for a low-volume air gun. But it is not intended for production work with, say, a framing nailer, and no way is it powerful enough to do spray painting. I got the unit reviewed here, the CAT-1P1060SP unit (left in my photo) over the similar-specs CAT-1P1060S (right in photo) because there's a cage around the compressor (except, oops, when you attach the muffler to the back, that sticks out) and because there's a panel with two gauges, pressure regulator, and quick coupler. The unit I got is about $10-$15 more than its workalike, but I plan to haul up to our summer cabin and back and wanted one with more protection when it's banged around in transit. The only thing I don't like is the power on-off lever which, I wonder, how durable it will be. You can buy, separately, a 5- or 10-gallon auxiliary tank for ~$50 (5-gal steel) to $125 (10-gallon aluminum) from CAT. That would solve your problem of air supply running out, but so would spending $200 for a CAT compressor with more capacity. 4-5 years ago I bought a 2-hp, 10-gallon CAT air compressor that is also quiet and CAT calls it ultra-quiet but it's still noisier that the 1-gallon unit I just got. I know I paid $50-$100 more than for a cheaper, noiser compressor, and I'm glad I spent the extra money. My experience with CAT service / support is mixed. It hasn't needed any service. But the first compressor came with the rear supports / vibration-damping lags out of alignment and missing parts. A year later (seriously) CAT sent me a completely different quote replacement part unrelated to what was wrong, and in the meantime I'd been to Home Depot and bought a bunch of big flat washers to use as leveling shims. If you need ultra, ultra quiet, there is a thousand-dollar CAT compressor with 1 hp motor and 8-gallon tank in a noise-containment cabinet.

Great compressor. Very quiet.

I ordered this compressor after researching many options, mostly based on it's fairly light weight and quieter operation. I can attest to the weight, but I have no idea what it might sound like when running - because mine simply would not run. The power switch produced no results at all. I did as much troubleshooting as I could and finally found that the reset button was broken. My hunch is that the unit might have simply required a reset, but it was impossible to do because of the broken button. The product comes with one of those cards that pleads for you to call them at the provided number for help, rather than return the item... so I called. After waiting about 15 minutes (being told by the machine that I was #1 in the queue) I was notified by a recording to leave a message. I left my name and number and brief description of my problem. No one ever called me back - they had all day to do so, but didn't. So, back it goes. I have patience for problems and am willing to work with companies to resolve them, but I have no time for poor customer service. California Air Tools obviously has too many customers - so I am doing my part to help by ensuring that I will never be one.