Makita MAC700 Big Bore 2.0 HP Air Compressor

Comment: First I have to say that my Makita was Fedex delivered without a scratch....box wasn't even marred. Well packed the compressor was without a ding or scratch. This compressor is of high quality. Performs as expected for a smaller type compressor and the recovery time is very good.
Heavy yes but you don't get durability with light weight materials in a compressor. This unit is almost too pretty to take to a dirty work site. The noise level is very quiet...I sold my 4 gal 15amp Makita because it was very loud and if it didn't trip the breakers all the time it sure did dim the lights on start up.....can't have that in a customers home.
Overall the Mac700 is a very nice compressor, it should give me what I need on the job site and last a long time (oil lubed) I also have a smaller Senco for my finish and pin nailers. I would recommend the Makita Mac700 for professional use and home owners as well.

Comment: after visual inspection from the fedex drop off at my house, box was in good condition as was the unit. no scrapes dings or breakage. i have not seen the earlier units that some reviewers say had the shroud cracked, but the plastic shrouding is substantially thick and appears to be made of a softer type plastic of some combination of pvc and resins and flexes quite well. i don't know if it has been changed, but if it is cracked the unit had to have been handled very poorly by the shipping company. i filled with oil to the red mark on the inspection window, opened the drain valve and ran unit for 25 mins. i let it cool for a bit then started the compressor, closed drain valve and let pressure build up in 10 lb increments before opening the valve to purge air. after 10 mins of this building up to the cut out point, i turned unit off and changed the oil. this is good practice when breaking in a cast iron, oil filled compressor. the pressure build in increments helps seat the rings after its been through the standard break in period. this is one of the most important phases of a compressor for longgevity. along with a quality oil. at this time i added 2" wheels to the switch side of the legs and compressor rubber dampening pads to the other. not only does it make it a total of 3" taller to grip the handle, but very easy to roll around quickly. think of it rolling sideways. this was needed due to the tank ends would drag on the ground if not. i have modified a older 6 gallon tank that use to be under a loud oilless compressor if i need more air storage. i removed the motor and compressor and have just the tank. to this i added fittings (input and output quick connects, regulator and saftey valve)to plumb in line with the makita, for a total of 9 gallons. but after seeing how fast the tank on the makita fills, i may only need it for a portable tank for filling tires etc. this makita mac700 looks bulletproof. time will tell. but i as many have read the reviews here on amazon and elsewhere, and they do speak for themselfs.

Comment: Regarding shipping damage:
I understand via other reviews that appropriate packaging for this unit have been lacking in the past. However, I concur with the most recent of reviews, that there appears to have been an upgrade of the packaging because my experience with this purchase was very good. The packaging protected the item well and it arrived in excellent condition.

Manual/Instruction:
Lacking. You not going to get much our of the book in terms of setup/initial assembly. But its pretty basic stuff and easy enough to figure out.

Performance:
Excellent. The weight is an acceptable trade off for the good quite performance. It is as quiet as any I've heard yet very efficient. Charges quickly and is an all around solid unit. I'm glad I went for it. I did find the power cord too short. I installed a longer custom power cord and hubble end. I also bought the goodyear hose which is of excellent quality.

Comment: I use this compressor for remodel work and it is fantastic. Clients love it because it is QUIET on the job. It is well built, reasonably priced and reliable. Air volume is even adequate to hopper gun wall texture. It is heavy and you must tie it up for travel as due to design it will topple over the first turn you make, but this is the compressor I take to the jobs (I also have a Porter Cable pancake, Binks hot dog and a larger Campbell Hausfeld). I have even had customers buy this unit after using it at their homes. I also have the larger 2.5 HP MAC2400 that I use at my shop and it is also fantastic, just bigger, heavier and more air volume.

Comment: We ordered ours on Aug 2, received it Aug 12 by Fedex. Before we ordered, I was concerned about the damage many had reported in the shipping process. I decided to call Amazon to see if they had addressed this. Amazon's call center really is not connected with the 12 major shipping warehouses around the U.S. and really couldn't tell me if they had changed anything. I figure they would have since you don't make much of a profit having items returned frequently. They did say they sold a lot of these units and they actually stock the items rather than have the manufacturer ship them out.

So I called Makita's call center and once again they are no where near the warehouses and hadn't a clue. After waiting for return call from them and getting the run around they told me they called the warehouse and said yes they did change their packaging. Couldn't tell me how (to verify). It felt like their call center consisted of two guys and not that impressed with them.

Did try to track this unit down at Home Depot and Lowes and anyone else in Portland Oregon area but no one stocks these. Special order only and we needed the item now. So relented and took my chances with Amazon.com. I hope they are listening that when the reviews are poor about shipping even if the price is low many will look elsewhere to avoid the hassle.

After I ordered the compressor I did talk with Amazon.com again, they have a "tool dept" and asked them if there is a way to request better packaqing for the unit. No. Even if I had wanted to pay like $145.00 for two day delivery (which I didn't) it was not available for this item as well. Since this supervisor in the tool dept works closely with buyers I did make a pitch for the fact that Amazon.com has to be selling a significantly large share of these compressors since no one else in this area was or stocked them. My guess is Amazon.com has some leverage with manufacturer to get them to improve packaging much like the great packaging Porter Cable does for it's omni jigs. When will tool manufacturers figure out that consumers buy tools online a lot now with competitive pricing and they have to package the units to be shipped individually to with stand damage vs packaging them to go only to brick and morter stores on pallets? So many stores like Home Depot tend to carry fewer power tools and not the best brands or models, so if you need a particular brand and model of a power tool which is rated well you most likely will find it online at a good price. Amazon needs to get more up to speed on this and make sure the items they sell are prepared for arriving without damage to consumer. Yeah there will be the odd time where nothing could prevent damage but too many times Amazon plays dumb on this where as Tools Plus.com repacks their tools so they arrive without damage. Online retailers need to be more proactive than damage reactive.

The unit arrived and the box was in great shape but the oil had leaked inside. No damage was apparent on the compressor. Makita needs to stop the oil leaking issue.

After reviewing the owners manual, it is confusing and vague. The air filter comes in a separate bag with no directions on how and where to install it. We had to hunt to find the information on how much oil to put in it. It said to pour it in until it was in the correct position in the viewing window. We had to search for info about what is the correct position. The correction position is half way in the viewing window.

We ran it through it's initial start up procedure for about 30 minutes and then hooked up a hose and filled the tank with air. We couldn't get the pressure regulator to reduce the pressure before we snapped on the nail gun. It kept going up to 130lbs. We adjusted the regulator and bled air out of the tank but it always went back to l30lbs. Finally we turned the compressor off and bled the tank and restared it and it appears to be working fine. Again the manual was no help in finding out why the pressure was not adjusting properly.

We used it today along with Hitachi 18 gage brad nailer with 1.5" nails to install baseboard trim. It worked great at 100lbs for the mdf baseboard. It was very quiet kept steady pressure and didn't run much. The handle which has a rubber cover with finger grips makes it very easy to pick up and move even though it is a bit heavy. It is easy to get through door ways.

We also bought the Goodyear 50' hose they frequently sell with this and that works great too. We bought the Hitachi NT50AE2 on Amazon and it is light weight and great tool for trim and a bargain at $67.26 cheaper than what Lowes sells it. We did find that Lowes is a great place to find nails for Hitachi nailer compared to our local Home Depot. We also found the hose connectors at Lowes. (Since I posted this review we found more nails at Home Depot but in another section of the store not with the other tools which was poorly thought out by whom ever sets up their stores.)

Overall this is a slick set up for doing trim and molding. We had almost bought a Porter Cable pancake nailer/compressor set for about $230.00 but looked into it further and discovered what a short life span it has. So for about $37.00 more we have a much better compressor and nail gun which will last way beyond the two year life span of the pancake no oil compressors.