Harbor Freight Airbrush Compressor Review

I am too cheap to pony up big bucks for a top name airbrush compressor. Instead I have used my five gallon noisemaker pancake with a moisture trap. But it is just too noisy, and that drives Mrs. Schwingding nuts as much as it does me. This also leads me to not want to airbrush anything, which is sad because it is a great skill to have in your toolbox.

I was about to pull the plug on a $300 Iwata model when I happened to think of Harbor Freight. After all, the airbrush is not a daily-use tool (yet), and Harbor Freight has a store nearby. So I went to the website and found one for $49! I bought it.

It works well. It is extremely quiet—enough so that it can sit right next to me on the counter, and not bother me one bit. It has a good moisture trap, and delivers a constant 0.7 cfm at 30 PSI when under load, plenty for modest airbrush work of thin materials, although in no way would it power a bigger gun. It's totally portable, too. The only drawback is there's no pressure regulator on it, but I haven't found it necessary. For $49 I'd buy another one.

What I would not recommend however, is buying one of their airbrushes. Go to DixieArt and get a good Badger, Paasche, or Iwata. But this is a nice, quiet, reliable compressor.