BelAire 318V 5 HP 80-Gallon Two-Stage Air Compressor — Vertical Tank, 1-Phase
The 318V is the space-saving answer in BelAire’s 5 HP range. It stands the 80 gallon tank on end, so the machine occupies a floor patch of roughly 39" by 24" — about the area of a domestic fridge — and gives back the length that a horizontal receiver of the same capacity would eat along your wall. In a two-bay shop where every square foot has a job, that is not a detail; it is the deciding factor.
It runs on ordinary single-phase service at 208 Volt or 230 Volt, and it delivers 18.5 CFM at 100 PSI and 16.6 CFM at 175 PSI from a belt-driven two-stage pump. No three-phase, no transformer, no service upgrade — just a proper industrial pump in a footprint a small building can spare.
Floor space is the specification nobody lists
Compressor comparisons are usually fought over horsepower and gallons, and those are the two numbers least likely to be the constraint in a real workshop. What actually stops people is where the thing goes. A horizontal 80 gallon receiver is a long object that wants a clear wall; a vertical one is a tall object that wants a corner. Most shops have a spare corner and very few have a spare wall.
So measure upward before you order. You need 77" of clear height for the machine plus room above it for the outlet plumbing and a hand on the pressure switch — call it well clear of eight feet in practice, which rules out some domestic garages with low door tracks and suits almost every commercial unit. On the floor, allow a little more than the 39" by 24" outline so the belt guard, the oil sight glass and the tank drain remain reachable without dragging 457 lbs of compressor away from the wall.
Level, solid concrete under all four feet. Vertical machines concentrate their weight and their vibration on a small area, and a floor with a slope in it will loosen the mounts over a season and pull the pump out of line with the motor.
Single-phase, and what to tell your electrician
The 318V is built for 208 Volt or 230 Volt 1-phase supply and can be wired for either, which is the whole point of a dual-voltage motor: you do not have to know which one your building has before you buy. A magnetic starter is fitted as standard, so the switching and the overload protection arrive with the machine rather than as a second purchase.
BelAire does not publish a breaker size or an amp draw for this model and asks that both be confirmed by a certified electrician. That is the correct answer rather than an evasion — the conductor and protection sizing on a 5 HP single-phase motor depend on the length of the run and on your local code, and a table on a web page cannot know either. Book the electrician before the pallet arrives.
Two stages, 175 PSI, and why the second one matters
A two-stage pump compresses the air twice, handing it from a large first cylinder to a smaller second one and shedding heat in between. The benefit is not simply a higher number on the gauge — it is that 175 PSI becomes an ordinary working pressure instead of a strained maximum. Look at what happens across the range: 18.5 CFM at 100 PSI, and still 16.6 CFM at 175 PSI. Very little falls away as the pressure climbs, and that flatness is what keeps an impact gun honest at the top of its torque range.
The pump is belt driven and splash lubricated, with an oil sight glass on the crankcase and a fully enclosed high-flow belt guard over the drive. The guard is worth a sentence of its own: enclosed enough to keep hands and sleeves away from a spinning flywheel, open enough not to strangle the cooling airflow that same flywheel is producing.
One point where BelAire’s own data is not unanimous, and we would rather say so than pick a side: the specification block describes the pump material as aluminium with a cast iron sleeve, while the feature list and the product description both call it a solid cast iron cylinder sleeve. Both are real constructions and both appear elsewhere in this range. If pump construction is part of your decision, ask us to confirm it in writing before you order.
Perfect For
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Small and mid-size shops with no three-phase service — this is the standard answer to that problem at 5 HP.
- Workshops short on floor but tall enough for a vertical tank.
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Restoration and fabrication spaces where a sander or a blast cabinet needs sustained air.
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Well-equipped home garages with a proper sub-panel and the ceiling height to suit.
What’s in the Box
The compressor complete and factory assembled: two-stage belt-driven pump, motor, vertical 80 gallon ASME tank, magnetic starter, start-stop pressure switch, pressure gauge, fully enclosed high-flow belt guard, oil sight glass, 3/4" air outlet, manual tank drain and ASME safety valve.
Not included: the CPXHT25 dryer BelAire recommends alongside this unit, plus any filtration, regulation or shop plumbing.
Specifications
Motor and electrical supply
| Rated power |
5 HP |
| Supply |
208 Volt or 230 Volt AC, 1-phase — wireable for either |
| Magnetic starter |
Included |
| Breaker / amp draw |
Not published by BelAire — confirm both with a certified electrician |
Pump and output
| Pump type |
Two-stage, belt drive, splash lubricated |
| Pump material |
Described two ways on this listing. The specification block says aluminium with a cast iron sleeve; the feature list and description say solid cast iron cylinder sleeve. Ask us to confirm in writing if it matters to you. |
| Delivered air |
18.5 CFM at 100 PSI; 16.6 CFM at 175 PSI |
| Maximum pressure |
175 PSI |
| Aftercooler |
Fitted |
Tank, size and weight
| Tank |
80 gallon, vertical, ASME certified, with safety valve |
| Outlet |
3/4" |
| Drain |
Manual |
| Overall |
39" long × 24" wide × 77" high |
| Weight |
457 lbs |
Certification, stated plainly
The receiver is an ASME certified pressure vessel fitted with a safety valve. That is the certification the 318V’s own data claims, and on a tank working at 175 PSI it is the one that counts.
Nothing in that data claims a third-party safety listing for the packaged machine, and we are not going to imply one. It is a real distinction rather than a technicality: a manufacturer’s own declaration and an independent listing are different documents, and some insurers, corporate facility standards and municipal inspectors will accept only the second on hard-wired shop equipment. If any of those apply to your installation, raise it with us before you order and we will put the question to BelAire in writing.
Getting it to you
The compressor travels palletised as freight to the lower 48 states, with the cost quoted live at checkout for your delivery address.
Two customer responsibilities are worth knowing in advance. Unloading is yours: the driver delivers to the tailgate, not into the building, so have a forklift, a dock or a pallet jack ready — or select terminal pickup and collect the pallet from the freight terminal instead. And if the address is a home rather than a commercial premises, it is a residential delivery and carries a residential fee.
Finally, inspect before you sign. Note every mark on the bill of lading while the driver is still there. A signature with no exceptions written on it closes off the claim.
Warranty
BelAire covers the 318V bumper to bumper for 2 Year, consumer and commercial, on the complete unit and with no additional purchase needed to hold the cover.
The habit that protects a claim is a simple one: if the pump misbehaves, do not open it. Once a pump has been apart, the order in which things failed can no longer be established, and a warranty claim on a stripped pump becomes a negotiation instead of a process. Call us with the symptom and let it be assessed intact.
