What does hp do for air compressor?

Question

I am looking to buy a air compressor and i am looking at sears and harbor freight i look at harbor and i see that they have a 3 hp and 21 gallon for 150 and then i look at sears which has a 17 gal and 1.1 hp for 199. So i am thinking what does the hp do for the air compressor

Answer 1

It determines how much air it can put out. HP tend to be pretty phony a lot of time. A better thing to look at is cfm at 90psi.
I've got a lot of good stuff from Harbor Freight.