Chicago Pneumatic QRS5.0HP TM: the one in this line that arrives with its air already dried

Compressed air leaves a compressor hot and saturated. Cool it in your pipework and the water comes out where you least want it — in the regulator, in the spray gun, on the panel. Most shops solve that with a dryer bought later, sized approximately, plumbed in awkwardly. This 5 HP QRS is specified with an integrated refrigerated air dryer, matched to the machine and inside the same enclosure, which is why it belongs on a shortlist for paint, body and instrumentation work rather than just tyre and impact duty.

The rest is a serious light-industrial package: a single-stage, air-cooled, oil-injected rotary screw airend on a 60 Gallon receiver, 18.1 CFM @ 150 PSI, an ASME/CRN receiver tank, and a control panel approved by UL, cUL and CSA in a NEMA 1 enclosure. Approvals on the switchgear are the part an electrician and, in some jurisdictions, an inspector will actually look at.

Two points to confirm before you order

Published figures differ on both, and each one decides something you cannot change after delivery, so both are set out here with their sources.

Phase

The product heading describes this machine as 208-230/460 Volt, 3-Phase. A separate specification field on the same product records it as single phase. Those are different machines from your electrician's point of view, and the wrong assumption is discovered at the worst possible moment — after the pallet is in the building.

The dryer

The feature list states an integrated refrigerated air dryer, and a specification field agrees that a dryer is fitted. The descriptive copy on the same product, however, describes the dryer as an option available with the tank-mounted configuration. Integrated as standard and available as an option are not the same purchase.

Before you order, ask us to confirm the phase and the dryer configuration of the specific unit we would ship, in writing. A two-minute email settles both, well before anyone specifies a supply or plans an air-treatment scheme around them.

Built to run, not to rest

This is a single-stage, air-cooled, oil-injected rotary screw designed for continuous operation at full output without that shortening the life of the machine. Where a piston compressor has to stop and cool, the screw airend keeps turning: rotors mesh, air moves, pressure holds. The practical result is a shop that stops planning its work around the compressor's recovery time.

Two design details on this unit support that in the long run. The oil filter and separator are spin-on items rather than parts of a sealed assembly, so routine servicing is a cartridge change instead of a workshop visit. And the whole assembly is vibration isolated — vibration is what walks a machine across a floor over a season, works fittings loose and puts a hum through a building's structure.

Control is start/stop: the compressor makes air when the shop needs it and stops when it does not, rather than idling a motor for nothing.

Will It Fit? Power, space and siting

Confirming the electrical supply, the floor and the ventilation is the buyer's responsibility, and on this model the supply question needs settling first for the reason given above.

• Electrical supply: the heading specifies 208-230/460 Volt, 3-Phase, and another field says otherwise — confirm with us before an electrician quotes for the work. Conductor size and protection depend on the answer.
• Tank: 60 Gallon, horizontal, ASME/CRN receiver with safety valves. Horizontal keeps the package low enough to live under a mezzanine or a low garage ceiling.
• Footprint: overall length 56.3". Overall width and height are stored in our data without units, and we do not publish a number that has no unit attached to it. Ask us if the footprint decides the installation.
• Weight: 419 lbs, on a level and solid pad.
• Tank outlet: 1/2". Size the shop main from that connection.
• Ventilation: an air-cooled machine with a dryer inside the enclosure makes heat and must be able to shed it. Give it airflow and an escape route for warm air.

Perfect For

• Body shops and paint booths, where water in the line is a redo rather than a nuisance.
• Tyre and maintenance shops that need air all day rather than in bursts.
• Light industrial and manufacturing use — the application band the QRS range is built around.
• Dealership service departments running air-driven equipment across several bays.

What's in the Box

This product's own description lists the package contents plainly: the rotary screw compressor element, the main drive motor, the air and oil system, filters, oil cooler, cooling fan and the electro-pneumatic regulating control — mounted on the 60 Gallon receiver, with the spin-on oil filter and separator, the approved control panel in its NEMA 1 enclosure, and the vibration-isolated assembly.

Not supplied: electrical installation, downstream filtration and pipework from the 1/2" outlet, and the authorized start-up described under Warranty. The dryer is subject to the confirmation above. Anything your order depends on, get from us in writing before you buy.

Specifications

With no electronic drain fitted, draining condensate stays a manual weekly job. It takes a minute and it is the difference between a receiver that lasts and one that rusts from the inside.

Approvals, and what they cover

Two claims here are worth reading precisely, because they are narrower than they look. The control panel is approved by UL, cUL and CSA, and the receiver is an ASME/CRN tank with safety valves. Both are real and both are useful — the first is what an electrical inspector examines, the second is the pressure-vessel side.

What neither is: a whole-machine third-party safety listing. An approval on the control gear is a statement about the control gear, and a receiver certification is a statement about the tank. Installation to local electrical code remains your electrician's responsibility, and where a jurisdiction operates a pressure-vessel inspection regime, that regime still applies. If your insurer or your facility standard sets a specific documentation requirement, ask us before ordering and we will establish the position for this model in writing rather than let you assume it.

Shipping and delivery

Palletised freight, lower 48 states, with the cost quoted live at checkout against your own delivery address rather than estimated in advance.

Sort the unload first. 419 lbs of compressor comes off a trailer with a forklift, a dock, or a pallet jack on level ground — the driver brings it to the tailboard and no further. No equipment on site? Take terminal pickup and collect it from the carrier. A residential address is a residential delivery and carries a residential fee.

Inspect before you sign, every time. With the driver present, check the enclosure, the receiver, the panel and the fittings, and write anything wrong onto the bill of lading before signing it. That written note is the whole basis of a freight claim; a clean signature closes the door on one.

Warranty

A 5 year warranty is available on this machine, conditional on it being commissioned through an authorized start-up. Ask us for the current terms and the cost of that visit before you order, so the whole figure is in front of you at the time you are deciding.

A commissioning visit earns its keep regardless of the paperwork. Rotation direction, oil level, control settings and a first-hours check by an engineer who does this every week is how a rotary screw ends up running quietly for a decade instead of failing early for a reason nobody recorded.

If a fault appears, stop the machine, isolate it and call us before anything is opened up. Once an airend has been dismantled, nobody can establish what failed first, and the claim becomes very hard to support. Photograph what you found, leave it assembled, and let it be assessed whole.