Milairjunkie
keilau:Not sure what you mean.
I'm saying that the current picture of the DA400R on the Paasche website doesn't look like a Sparmax built compressor. What other images I have seen of other versions of the DA400R don't look like Sparmax built models either.
I'm not saying that they aren't built in Taiwan, but I don't think that they are built by Sparmax - an easy way to check is to remove the chrome end plate at the front of the compressor where you should find the casing clearly marked with the Sparmax name/logo.
Many of the Chinese compressors mimiz the popular Dinghwa/Iwata compressor style. It is no proof that the compressor comes from the Sparmax/Iwata factory even if they look similar. There are quite a few manufacturers in Taiwan that produce airbrush compressor and Dinghwa is not even the biggest one. Most of the twin piston airbrush compressor from Taiwan use a 1/6 horsepower motor and rate maximum pressure at 90 psi or higher. On the contrary, similar Chinese compressors will rate the motor 1/3 horsepower and maximum pressure at 60 psi.
I believe that a real measure of the compressor quality is how hot the piston head gets after extended continuous run of, say, 30 minutes. When I forced the Paasche DA400 to run continuously for 30 minutes, the compressor cylinder head got warm, but I can keep my hand on it without feeling burnt. A laser thermometer registered 104°F in a 80 degrees basement. In normal use, on and off, it hardly even gets warm.
It all boils down to have a good design, use the right coating material for piston and cylinder wall and tight tolerance in machining. I tested a few Chinese compressors which heated up to 45-55°F above room temperature. It still provides good, quiet service for modelers, but may not last as long as the cooler one. It is not bad at all compared to my first airbrush compressor. It was a Silentaire Scorpion-I (Model MA-1000A) clone from China, sold by Airbrush City. It looked identical to the Scorpion down to the last details, same instruction manual. But it ran hot and will shut down itself in a 30 minutes normal airbrush (on off) session. (It has a thermal protection shut-off switch when it gets too hot, but the motor runs continuously.)
If you do a search on "DA400" or "DA400R" at this forum, you will find a few complaints on hot running Paasche DA400 during the 2008-2009 period. Some ended up having to return theirs. Paasche probably learnt the lesson and switched back.
I hope that the DA400R that Scott got runs as cool as mine. It does not matter who made it.