The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Air hose quick connects - best brand?

Guys,

I'm about to embark on plumbing my shop for compressed air.

I have a hodge podge of quick connectors for my air hoses and lines. Some from Tractor Supply, some from Harbor Freight, maybe a couple others from who knows where. I have had some fly apart, some get stuck, and some that won't couple.

What brands have you bought and put into service that were durable? I know Harbor Freight is already scratched off my list. They won't get used 10 hours a day, but I would like to buy them once and be able to forget about them.

Background for the setup:
I have settled on 1" black iron pipe for all the piping. once I leave the compressor I am constructing a "cooling tower" from 1" copper pipe. I have the pipe running up, over, down, over, with 4 traps/drains in the drops.

The hard line will have the air exiting in a gooseneck fashion of up, out,and down with a trap and drain at the bottom of each drop as well.

I recently switched everything in my shop to the Oetiker 3/8" Swing Coupling.
Found best price here for about $20 each but I can't find them on their site right now. http://www.industrialsafety.com/
Oetiker Catalog: http://www.wescoproductiontools.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ATP-SwingCouplerCatalogue.pdf


Then bought Milton 3/8" H style plugs (for all my tools) to go with them from http://www.tooltopia.com/
MIL1837 $1.43
MIL1838 $2.44
MIL1839 $1.49
MIL1840 $1.49

Obviously their are lots of choices and styles of fittings to choose from. After my own research decided on the above combo because the couplings are very well made and there is no obstruction to air flow, you can look straight through the coupling and plug. Additionally they work with common Milton plugs, so very affordable and easy to get more when you buy more air tools. I went with 3/8" for everything, and you can get the plugs with the 1/4" NPT to use with your blow guns, die grinders and whatever else you may have had 1/4" fittings on before. Another advantage of this plan is if you don't always need the fancy Oetiker coupler for flow you can use a standard/cheaper Milton coupler with your same plugs.

All together I spent $200 total for 5 couplers and 55 plugs.

This setup flows a lot more than the common size couplers and is great for impact wrenches and other tools that use a lot of air. The couplings are also not very bulky, so I felt worth the higher flow for everything in the shop and not worth having two sizes of couplers and the confusion and frustration that can cause.

Even if you don't swing for the Otiker couplings... I'd recommend the same 3/8" H style plugs and the standard Milton brand couplings that fit them. like I said I use some of those Milton couplings on lesser used or less demanding things, but they're still fully interchangeable with everything in the shop. And either kind of coupler in this style/size flow plenty for most anything I can imagine needing/using, plenty of overkill.

Grigg

Interchangeable is good. I'll check those out. Thanks

I have always had good luck with the Milton connectors. Through throwing away money, I have found that the offshore brands like sold at lowes, harbor freight, tractor supply, northern don't work as intended.

At one time I had two different couplers. When I needed one it was always the wrong one so I threw ALL of them on the trash can, went and bought a bunch of Miltons and hadn't looked back.....and be sure to buy a few extra and put them in a drawer.

I use Miltons

I've used Milton for years, wouldn't consider any off brands.

One thing that I discovered is that you want couplers with at least 4 ball contacts. Look inside the coupler and if you only see 3 ball contacts don't buy them as they will most likely be leakers.

John

We use Milton H style on our larger tools and Milton M style on smaller tools. I buy nothing but genuine Milton. Ever so often I find a deal on a dozen or so on eBay. There is no particular reason we use the H and M except that is the style we started out with almost 50 years ago and we have no reason to change.

We've been using the Prevost safety QD for quite a few years now with no problems. Before that, mostly Camel products. Just push in the connector and you're good to go. Push the red button and the connector pops out with no air blast. No fighting the connection.

http://www.prevostusa.com/categories.php?cat=31