QRS5.0HPD-3: a complete compressed-air system in one 474 lbs package

Buying compressed air normally means buying three things. A compressor. A receiver to store what it makes. A dryer to take the water back out before it reaches anything you care about. Three purchases, three footprints, three sets of connections, and three chances to size something wrong. The QRS5.0HPD-3 is those three things assembled at the factory: a 5 HP screw airend, a 60 gallon horizontal tank and an integrated air dryer, delivered as one machine that weighs about 474 lbs and runs about 56.3 inches long.

It is wired for three-phase service and its motor is dual voltage — 208-230/460V — which is a detail worth more than it first appears. A dual-voltage machine can be configured for whichever service the building actually has, and it survives a move to a different premises or an electrical upgrade without becoming the wrong compressor. Chicago Pneumatic's screw range is produced in Italy by Atlas Copco, and this unit carries a 100% duty rating with an output of 16.6 CFM at 150 psi.

Why an integrated dryer changes what the air is good for

Air leaves a compressor hot and fully saturated. It cools on the way down your pipework and gives that moisture straight back — into tooling, into control valves, into blast media, onto paint. A bolt-on dryer solves it, but only if someone specifies it correctly, mounts it, powers it and pipes it in the right order, and that is a project of its own that frequently gets deferred.

Here the drying is factory-matched to the compressor that feeds it and shares its footprint and its commissioning. From the first hour the system runs, the air at the outlet is dry air. If you spray finish, run air gauges or instruments, use pneumatic actuators, or simply do not want to be replacing tool internals that rusted from the inside, that is the feature that justifies the machine.

Continuous duty in a small package

The 100% duty rating is the structural difference between this and a piston compressor of similar horsepower. A piston unit has a stated fraction of each hour it is allowed to run; run past it habitually and the machine gets hot and its life shortens. A screw airend has no such allowance to manage — you size it against the air your shop consumes and then stop thinking about it. In a two- or three-bay shop that turns a compressor from a thing that is nursed into a thing that is ignored, which is the correct relationship to have with one.

Sound is 62 dBA. For a package that contains a dryer as well as a compressor, that is low enough to live in the working area rather than in a separate room that would then need its own ventilation and its own pipe run.

The receiver and the water nobody drains

The 60 gallon horizontal tank does two jobs. It absorbs simultaneous demand, so pressure at the end of the shop does not dip when two people hit air tools at the same moment while the machine comes on load. And it acts as the first stage of moisture separation, collecting condensate before the dryer. Even with drying in the package, the receiver drain still needs opening on a schedule or automating — an undrained tank slowly becomes a water tank, and no dryer downstream of it fixes that.

Will it fit, and will it run?

Confirm the supply first: three-phase, 208-230/460V, and confirm which of those two voltages your service actually is so the machine is configured correctly at commissioning. Physically, allow for about 56.3 inches of length, roughly 474 lbs on the pallet, and real clearance on the cooler side — a package with an integrated dryer rejects more heat than a bare compressor, so ventilation is not the corner to cut. The tank outlet is 1/2 inch. The listing does carry an overall width and an overall height, but both are stored without any unit, so we are not going to publish them as facts; ask and we will send the dimensioned drawing from the manual instead. Confirming clearances, ventilation, floor loading and the electrical supply before delivery is the buyer's responsibility.

Perfect for

• Two- and three-bay repair shops that have three-phase service and want continuous air without a piston compressor's duty ceiling.
• Paint and finish work, where dry air at the gun is a requirement and not an upgrade.
• Shops short on floor space, buying one footprint instead of three.
• Businesses that expect to move or expand, where a dual-voltage motor keeps the compressor useful after the building changes.

What is in the box

What this listing states is supplied: the 5 HP three-phase compressor, the integrated dryer, and the 60 gallon horizontal tank the assembly is mounted on. It does not state that downstream filtration, an automatic drain, isolation valves, interconnecting pipework or an electrical disconnect are included, so plan and price those as part of your installation unless we have confirmed otherwise in writing.

Specifications

Approvals, stated plainly

There is no approval or certification statement in this product's data, and rather than leave a blank space where a buyer might read one in, we will say so directly. This page does not claim a control-panel listing and it does not claim a pressure-vessel registration. Some other machines in the range do carry a panel claim on their own pages; that claim belongs to those products and we are not going to transplant it here on the assumption that the same factory built both. What this means in practice is simple. If an inspector, an insurer or an internal safety programme needs documentation before this compressor can be signed off in your building, tell us before you order and we will ask the manufacturer for it in writing. Finding out at commissioning is the expensive version of this conversation.

Shipping and delivery

Palletised freight to the lower 48 states, free of charge. You will need to get roughly 474 lbs off a truck: a forklift, a loading dock, or collection from the carrier's terminal, which is a normal choice and often the simplest one. Residential deliveries carry a residential fee. Inspect before signing — on a machine with an integrated dryer the cooler fins and the side panels are the parts that suffer in transit, so look at those specifically, then record anything you see on the bill of lading with the driver present. A clean signature followed later by a photograph is a much weaker claim than a note written at the kerb.

Warranty

The standard term is 1 year. A 5 year term is available when the machine receives a factory-authorized start-up, typically billed at $350. That visit does more on this model than on a bare compressor, because the technician commissions the drying circuit as well as the airend and sets the machine up for the voltage you actually have. Standing rule, as with everything we sell: do not open the airend, the dryer circuit or the control panel before a warranty claim has been raised — a unit that has already been apart is very hard to claim on.