I stumbled across the idea of using a dental air compressor while looking at pictures of a garage build, and finally pulled the trigger on one this past week (after going to the dentist, and confirming that there really was an air compressor in one of the cabinets in the office).  It turns out they aren’t as expensive as you might think: cost delivered was $180 on Amazon for a 1-hp, 1.6-gallon model that will fit into the storage bay vacated by the old lead acid batteries.

Of course, when it showed up, I pulled it out of the box and turned it on.  Eventually, I found a package with the instructions, and a muffler and short piece of tubing, which made it a lot quieter.  I still haven’t read the instructions…keeps life interesting!

Here’s a video put out by the manufacturer:

And here’s my video showing just how much of a difference the muffler makes:

It’s not silent, but sitting in the kitchen of the RV the noise is comparable to the rooftop air conditioner.  Far, far, quieter than anything you can pick up at the local home improvement stores.  While it doesn’t always happen, Amazon had just about the cheapest price I could find, and with Prime, it was here in a couple of days.

It’s already been used for a number of routine (for me anyway) tasks, from airing up tires to running an impact wrench and air ratchet.