QRS5.0HPD-1: a rotary screw with a built-in dryer that runs on single phase power

Most rotary screw compressors assume you have three-phase service. Plenty of workshops do not — older buildings, leased units, home shops and small commercial bays very often have single phase and nothing else, and their owners get told to keep buying piston compressors because of it. The QRS5.0HPD-1 is the answer to that: a 5 HP screw compressor with an integrated air dryer, wired for 208-230V single phase supply. That combination, not the horsepower, is what this listing is really selling.

The range is produced in Italy by Atlas Copco. This unit is rated at 100% duty, delivers 16.6 CFM at 150 psi with a maximum of 150 psi, and sits on a 60 gallon horizontal tank with the dryer built into the package.

What single phase changes about the buying decision

If your building has three-phase service, you have a wide choice of screw compressors and this is one of several. If it does not, your realistic options collapse to three: keep running a piston compressor and accept its duty limit, pay an electrician for a phase converter or a service upgrade, or buy a machine that runs on the supply you already have. A phase converter is not a disaster, but it is an extra piece of equipment to buy, house, power and maintain, and it is one more thing between the meter and the airend when something goes wrong. Buying single phase from the start removes that entire branch of the project. Confirm your supply and your available breaker capacity with an electrician before ordering — a 5 HP motor on single phase draws considerably more current than the same power on three phases, and the circuit, not the compressor, is usually what needs attention.

The dryer is in the package, and that is the second half of the story

Compressed air leaves any compressor hot and saturated. As it cools in your pipework it drops that water out, and the water goes wherever the air goes: into impact guns, into air-operated tooling, into instrument lines, and onto paintwork. The usual fix is an add-on dryer bought separately, mounted separately, plumbed separately and often specified too small.

Here the dryer is part of the machine. One footprint, one connection, one electrical supply, and a dry-air system on the day it is commissioned rather than after a second purchase. For a shop doing finish work, running air gauges, or feeding pneumatic controls, that is not a luxury item; it is the difference between air you can use and air you have to apologise for. It also removes the most common sizing mistake in small compressed-air systems, which is a dryer chosen to match the pipe rather than the compressor.

Continuous duty and a quiet enclosure

The 100% duty rating means there is no fraction of the hour this machine is required to spend resting. That is the substantive difference between a screw airend and a piston pump, and it is why a screw compressor is sized by air demand rather than by run-time limits. Sound output is 62 dBA, which for a compressor with an integrated dryer is quiet enough to stand in the working space instead of being exiled to a closet you then have to ventilate. The 60 gallon horizontal receiver buffers demand spikes so pressure does not sag when two people pull air at once, and gives condensate a place to collect — put the tank drain on a schedule regardless of the dryer, because a receiver that is never drained becomes a water tank.

Will it fit, and will it run?

Supply is 208-230V single phase. Size the circuit with an electrician rather than assuming an existing outlet will do. Physically the package runs roughly 56.3 inches long and weighs about 474 lbs, so it moves on a pallet jack and clears a standard double door, but it is not a two-person lift. The tank outlet is 1/2 inch. Leave working clearance on the panel side and on the cooler side; an integrated dryer adds heat to the package, so ventilation matters more here than on a compressor without one. The listing also stores an overall width and height, but both are recorded with no unit attached, and we are not going to print a number we cannot tell you the units of — ask us and we will pull the dimensioned drawing. Verifying the electrical supply, the clearances, the ventilation and the floor is the buyer's responsibility, and it is far cheaper to do before the freight is booked.

Perfect for

• Single-phase shops that have been stuck with piston compressors purely because of the incoming supply.
• Body and finish work where dry air is a requirement rather than a preference.
• Serious home and hobby workshops wanting commercial-grade continuous air without a service upgrade.
• Small commercial units and leased bays where changing the electrical service is not on the table.

What is in the box

The listing describes: the 5 HP compressor on single phase supply, the integrated dryer, and the 60 gallon horizontal tank the assembly is mounted on. Downstream filtration, an automatic tank drain, isolation valves, pipework, hose and the electrical disconnect are not stated as included — treat them as your side of the installation unless we confirm otherwise in writing.

Specifications

Approvals, stated plainly

We are going to be straight about this one, because the honest answer is more useful than a confident one. This product's data carries no third-party approval statement at all — not for the control panel, not for the pressure vessel. Other machines in the same family do list a panel approval on their pages; this listing does not, and we are not going to borrow a claim from a sibling product and print it here. What that means practically: if your insurer, your local jurisdiction or your employer's plant safety programme requires documented approvals or vessel registration before a compressor can be commissioned, do not assume the paperwork is in the crate. Ask us first and we will request it from the manufacturer, in writing, before you commit to the order.

Shipping and delivery

This ships as palletised freight into the lower 48 states, with the rate quoted live at checkout rather than estimated, so it reflects the actual lane on the day you buy. Around 474 lbs has to come off a truck, which means a forklift, a dock, or a terminal collection — the last of these is a common and sensible choice for shops with no loading facilities. Deliveries to residential addresses carry a residential fee. Look the shipment over before signing: the dryer section and the cooler are the vulnerable parts on a machine like this, so check panels, fins and the pallet itself, and note anything at all on the bill of lading in front of the driver. A signature with no notes makes a later damage claim very difficult.

Warranty

Standard cover is 1 year. A 5 year term is available where the unit receives a factory-authorized start-up, typically billed at $350. On a package with an integrated dryer that commissioning visit earns its keep, because the technician sets up and verifies two systems rather than one. And the standing rule for every compressor we sell: do not take the airend, the dryer circuit or the control panel apart before a claim is opened. A machine that has already been dismantled is close to impossible to claim on.