How is the subjective noise level?
I could hear the 40hp sullair as a dull hum from my office 30 feet away through a former exterior wall( pretty soft but there if you were paying attention. The sk15 I have to be in the room to hear it at all. Our air usage varies a lot ( we have a pressure blast cabinet with a pretty big nozzle). The 15 won't keep up with the blaster for long, hence the tanks.
The vfd died in the sullair 40 hp, and we have a new vfd to be installed next week for a 2 stage air system. SK15 primary compressor 70 cfm, 800 gallons tanks, big ass filter, drier, all backed up by the sullair when repaired. The sk15 will run at 110-125 psi, the sullair won't come on until 102 psi but sit ready. Should knock my electric bill in the ass. All told it was a chunk of change to make the upgrade but I figure over 6 years I'll get the investment back in power alone. Besides, the backup's backup is a 60 hp Ingersoll direct drive,,,,, it overpowers my drier and fills me with water. Its better than no air at all but it draws a LOT of juice( the 40 hp sullair dropped me $400 a month on average in power) compared to even the 40.
The Kaeser rep came out, walked our system, helped us figure out what we needed and got it here in a timely manner. The new sk15, both tanks, and auto drains will be operational tomorrow and the "repair" on the existing sullair won't be done until next Tuesday probably. The sullair was installed January 2009, has about 38k-40k hours and is not a bad machine. The Kaeser guys impressed us more.
