polar bear 1000 feed back

808armor wrote:

hello all.  i am wondering if anyone on here has the polar bear 1000 air compressor by bearair. if so i was wondering if you guys that do have one could leave a little feed back on it. i am purchasing the tamiya super fine air brush and am wondering if you would recommend this air compressor.  ok thanks.

Dig out your July 2008 issue of the FSM. The Polar Bear 1000 has better performance (wider pressure range, no pulsation) at 1/3 the cost of Iwata Smart Jet and Testors AC200.

No, I do not have this compressor and, thus, no comment.

 

yea thats where i saw the polar bear first, i was just wondering if anyone could recommend it from experience.  but i did go down to a local hobby shop here and they have the iwata smart jet for 240.  is that a good deal?

808armor wrote:

yea thats where i saw the polar bear first, i was just wondering if anyone could recommend it from experience.  but i did go down to a local hobby shop here and they have the iwata smart jet for 240.  is that a good deal?

You can probably do better with the 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby. Most HL store also carry the Sparmax TC-2000 twin piston compressor which is a more powerful option to the Smartjet at similar price.

If you want to stay at the PolarBear price range, the big question is whether is will last as long as the Iwata or the Sparmax.

 

thanks for that advice.  so basically its you get what you paid for

808armor wrote:

thanks for that advice.  so basically its you get what you paid for

Last year, I got a Paasche DA400 after I read the FSM review (and some directly comparison with a Dewalt shop compressor). Basically, it is similar to the Iwata Powerjet Pro Lite and the Sparmax TC-2000 in specification. The workmanship of the Paasche is fine, but clearly inferior to that of the Iwata and Sparmax. They all supposedly come from the same factory in Taiwan.

I am a weekend modeler who use the compressor a few hours now and then. The Paasche price is right and the quality good enough for me. So far, I like my purchase very much.

Only you can decide how much quality is worth paying for. But don't ever buy the cheapie no name brand on the Ebay or Habor Freight.

i appreciate the great feedback and advice.  ill definately stay away from ebay =)  at the moment i think i am going to go with the iwata smartjet.  would anyone know if i would need any kind of adapter for it to run a tamiya airbrush?  i know iwata makes the tamiya airbrush but am not sure if they are compatible without an after market adaptor of some sort.