Campbell Hausfeld FP209599 Review by D. Halbach, July 16, 2008

• Overall Rating

this has worked well. Use it around the house with my Ridgid brad nailer, haven’t tried the included nailer. It’s light, easy to carry around, even for those small jobs where you don’t want to carry much. No problems. Loudness is in the ear of the beholder but I certainly don’t expect quiet from a compressor so would say this is average in that regard. [...] So far so good would be my evaluation.

Campbell Hausfeld FP209599 Review by Lucas Scharf, September 23, 2008

• Overall Rating

I purchased this air compressor at a local big box store. I’m a homeowner and a woodworker, so I use this air compressor a couple of times a week. I’m not satisfied with it.

Here are the issues I encountered:

* The box implied that it could deliver 90 PSI. It can, but the unit it really designed to keep the pressure between 80PSI and 100PSI. When the pressure goes down to 80PSI, the motor starts and pumps the tank back up to 100PSI.

* I discovered after purchasing this unit that I like my bike tires at 100PSI so, after inflating each bike tire, I have to let air out of the compressor so that the compressor will run back up to 100PSI before inflating the next tire. Since I ride a bicycle regularly, this is not the air compressor for me.

* The brad-nailer / stapler included with this unit failed after 2-3 clips. My guess is that it was a problem in the safety mechanism, but I didn’t investigate too deeply. Also, the easiest way to adjust the depth that the staples go to is to adjust the pressure regulator on the air compressor, and depth varies depending on the state of the compressor. I’ve been much happier with the Ridgid stapler that replaced it, since the Ridgid stapler drives the staples to a consistent depth, regardless of small variations in the air pressure (the included stapler isn’t terribly consistent about the depth to which it drives staples).

* This compressor is really noisy. The little pump runs fast with a small cylinder, and it makes enough of a racket that I either put in earplugs before starting the compressor — or plug it in and run to another part of the house while it pressurizes itself. It’s almost as noisy as my table saw, and it takes its time coming up to pressure — especially if you empty out the pressure-tank before storing it.

* It’s easy to tip over, especially when inflating car tires.

That said, this device does work. It’s also light enough to carry around easily with one hand. We built 40 feet of garden fence out of 1×2’s using the Ridgid stapler this weekend, which means that we drove around 750 1-1/4″ staples into cedar — and this unit powered the whole thing, and it was able to keep up if we didn’t staple continuously. I’ve also used it to run other small air tools, inflate car tires, and the other jobs that you’d expect to do with a small portable air-compressor around the house. But this unit drives me crazy with it’s slow/noisy performance, and the quick breakage of the nailer/stapler makes me skeptical about its long-term reliability — so I plan to replace it with more powerful compressor at the first opportunity.

Campbell Hausfeld FP209599 Review by Andrew, March 3, 2009

• Overall Rating

I bought this compressor so I could do trim work around the house without trying to route a hose from my 33 gallon compressor in the basement. This is a *light* duty compressor. As long as you don’t expect more, you should be happy with it. The nailer worked fine for me, although I needed to some nailing with longer nails. I hooked up my porter-cable finish nailer and it worked fine. I don’t get a lot of shots out that nailer before the compressor kicks on, but I didn’t find the wait for the compressor to charge back up to be bothersome.

I haven’t tried anything so far except my two nailers. The small size and weight is great for small jobs around the house (like putting up trim). My unit seems to be free from defects. Make sure you tighten the coupling in the nail gun, my was loose and leaky when I got it.

Campbell Hausfeld FP209599 Review by DJA, April 19, 2009

• Overall Rating

This thing is VERY loud if you’re using it indoors and it takes FOREVER for the initial fill. The hose is cheap and the nailer/stapler jammed three times during the first use. I had to remove the faceplate to clear the last nail jam. On the plus side it is very light and portable. This will eventually compress two gallons of air and drive small nails and staples much of the time. It may also give you hearing damage. Since I didn’t want the nailer and the noise was painful, back it went. I’m going to try another small unit from a different manufacturer.

Campbell Hausfeld FP209599 Review by E. Richards, June 29, 2009

• Overall Rating

Don’t buy this for home improvement use! (which is how I made the mistake)

This is only good for stapling cloth to furniture and things like that.

If you only want to inflate tires and balls just get a little $20 pump with no bottles – it’ll also take up less space.

It is made fine, but it’s just too weak for any thing practical.
- There isn’t enough CFM to hold even low pressures like 40 psi (eg a little air brush)

- The pump is REALLY weak and struggles after 40psi so recharge takes F O R E V E R when you need 40+ psi (eg nailing, bike tires etc).

I _really_ didn’t want to spend more than $100 to put up $100 of crown moulding but I’ve had too… I returned this and I went to Lowe’s and got the Stanley/Bostitch 2-in-1 (”CPACK1″) – it’s here on Amazon too. I would have got it here but I need it NOW. The Bostitch is a 6 gallon/2HP compressor with a 16 gauge (not 18gauge like this) 1-5/8″ brad/staple gun combo. I feel better now. I am also confident that I could later buy a nailer (eg for 2-3inch nails) and the compressor would do a good job at keeping up with putting in a dozen nails while reframing a window etc.

Campbell Hausfeld FP209599 Review by JDonley, July 23, 2009

• Overall Rating

The only complaint I have is the hose. I broke the hose first day and had to go to TSC and buy a regular compressor hose. The hose is junk…..if you buy this unit invest a little money in a real compressor hose. And while you are at it, get a good chuck to air up tires. I have been a farmer for 40 years and work with big compressors every day. This isn’t meant to compete with commercial units, but for non-demanding jobs, it is worth the money.