Air Compressor Hose?

Question

I have a 50 ft air hose. Can I buy another 100 ft air hose and hook that one up to the original hose, to make it a total 150 hose ?? Or do I have to buy one hose at 100 ft long ??

Answer 1

You can add buy a hose and add it onto your 50' hose. Just know that as you keep adding length, you will experience a pressure drop when the air starts flowing. If your tool/application doesn't require a large volume of air, you should be OK.

(A nail gun = ok; a pneumatic impact wrench, marginal; a spray gun: keep the hose shorter and/or use a lower pressure).

Larger diameter hoses have less effect than smaller diameter hoses. The phenomina is know as friction loss, and it is caused by the boundary region between the stationary wall of the hose and the air flowing through it.

What you will find is if you put a pressure guage on the end of the hose where your tool it, it should read the same as your regulator (when the tool is off), but you should see a noticable drop when you turn the tool on. The longer the hose, the larger the drop.

Answer 2

It deoends on your compressor and tools. A large compressor with 3/8 hose should be fine with nail guns etc. Make yourself an extention hose with quick change connectors so you can add it in when needed and take it out when you done. I use a pancake compressor with 2 50' curley hoses for a nailer with no trouble. I am sure my little paasche sprayer will work fine with that setup as well. Large High volume tools like sanders and impact wrenches probably not.

Ed