Quincy 553D80VCA20M 5 HP 80-Gallon Two-Stage Air Compressor, 208V 3-Phase

The number to look at on this compressor is 942 RPM. The larger machines elsewhere in this catalogue turn their pumps at close to twice that speed; this one is built to work slowly through the same day. That is a design decision with consequences you will actually notice, and it is the reason Quincy is willing to rate this pump for more than 60,000 hours.

The rest is a two-stage cast-iron pump with aluminium heads, belt driven, on a vertical 80-gallon receiver, with stainless steel reed valves, a fin-and-tube intercooler, a mounted air-cooled aftercooler and a magnetic starter. This part number is wound for 208V, 3-phase supply.

Why pump speed is the specification that ages a compressor

Wear in a reciprocating compressor is a function of how far the rings and the piston skirts travel against the bore, and that is set by speed far more than by horsepower. Halve the shaft speed and you roughly halve the distance travelled per hour of running, along with the number of valve openings, the number of bearing load reversals and the number of thermal cycles the head sees.

The second effect is noise, and it is the one people underestimate until the machine is installed. A slow-turning industrial pump on a belt drive is a fundamentally quieter object than a fast one, which matters if the compressor shares a building with a waiting room, an office, or anybody who has to talk on a telephone.

The third is heat. Fewer compression events per minute means less heat generated per minute, and less heat is what lets the oil and the valves reach the service life the manufacturer quotes. None of this makes a slow pump better at everything — it will not out-deliver a bigger, faster machine — but for a shop that runs its compressor every day for a decade, shaft speed is the specification that decides how that decade goes.

The valve deck and the cooling

Stainless steel reed valves with valve bumpers do the breathing. Reed valves are the highest-cycle components in the machine, and the bumpers are there to stop the reed over-travelling and fatiguing at the root, which is how reed valves normally fail. Graphite cylinder and head gaskets hold the joint at the pressures and temperatures that two-stage compression produces.

Cooling happens twice. The high-efficiency fin-and-tube intercooler pulls the heat of the first compression out before the second cylinder gets the air, so the second stage is working on a cooler, denser charge. Then the mounted air-cooled aftercooler drops the discharge temperature again before the air reaches the receiver, which is what makes the moisture condense in the tank rather than in your pipework. Rated maximum pressure is 175 PSI.

Will It Fit?

• Plan area: 37" by 24", plus room to reach the belt guard and the oil fill.
• Height: 74". Allow headroom above that for lifting the pump when it is serviced.
• Weight: 680 lbs dry on a narrow vertical base — level slab, anchored, not shimmed on timber.
• Supply: 208V, 3-phase. Voltage is fixed by the motor and starter at build; it is not a site change.
• Circuit: breaker and conductor sizing belongs to a certified electrician. We do not publish a figure for this model because the correct one depends on your run and your local code.
• Air connection: 3/4" tank outlet, into a header that falls away from the machine.

The site is the buyer’s responsibility — confirming that 208V three-phase service reaches the machine position, that the slab takes the load and the anchors, that the room is ventilated, and that the electrical work is permitted and inspected where required.

Perfect For

• Shops that run all day, every day, where hours on the pump matter more than peak output.
• Workshops attached to a customer-facing space, where compressor noise is a real cost.
• Two- and three-bay service operations on existing 208V three-phase service.
• Buyers replacing a worn-out fast-running compressor and wanting a longer service life this time.

What is in the Box

Vertical 80-gallon receiver, two-stage cast-iron pump with aluminium heads, 5 HP industrial motor, magnetic starter with thermal overload protection, high-efficiency fin-and-tube intercooler, mounted air-cooled aftercooler, stainless steel reed valves with valve bumpers, graphite cylinder and head gaskets, spin-on oil filter and oil sight glass. No air dryer is supplied. The EWK-4 Maintenance Kit required for the extended warranty term is bought separately, at the same time as the compressor.

Specifications

Delivered air volume and full-load current are missing above deliberately. Our catalogue holds both as bare numbers with no unit attached, so we quote the manufacturer’s published values on request instead of publishing a figure we cannot evidence.

Certification, stated plainly

The receiver is built to the North American pressure-vessel code and the unit carries a CSA mark. There is a further reference in our supplier data to a North American third-party electrical listing, and we are not printing that mark: the record is not clean enough to stand behind, and a certification claim is not something to round up. If a named listing is a condition of your insurance or your local code, ask us and we will confirm the data plate before you commit.

Two points to confirm before you order

Published information about this build differs on two points, and both are set out here in full. On lubrication, the manufacturer’s feature list describes a fully pressure-lubricated package driven by a gerotor positive-displacement oil pump, while the structured specification field on this page records a splash oil system — two different architectures. On the tank drain, the feature list and the detailed specification block both record an electronic automatic drain, and a summary field records none. If either point is load-bearing for your purchase, ask us to verify it against the as-shipped configuration before you order.

Shipping and delivery

This ships by freight within the lower 48 states, crated on a skid. Have a forklift or a dock ready on the day; the carrier’s responsibility ends at the tailgate. Terminal pickup is available if you would rather collect it with your own trailer.

Residential delivery addresses carry a residential fee, so tell us when you order whether the address has commercial receiving.

Inspect while the driver is still there. Photograph the crate, check the skid and the sheet metal, and note any damage on the bill of lading before signing it. A clean signed bill of lading is very difficult to argue with afterwards.

Warranty

A 1-year factory warranty from Quincy applies to consumer and commercial use alike, and extends to the 3-year "No Bull" warranty — on-site service and labour included — when the EWK-4 Maintenance Kit is purchased at the same time and the machine is registered with the manufacturer.

Standing advice on any suspected failure: speak to us before anything is opened. A dismantled pump cannot be diagnosed, and that is the most common reason a legitimate warranty claim is turned down.