BelAire Air Compressor 338H4 5 HP 80 Gallon Two Stage 460V 3 Phase

BelAire 338H4 5 HP 80-Gallon Two-Stage Air Compressor — 460V, 3-Phase, Horizontal

The 338H4 is the 460 volt member of BelAire’s horizontal 80 gallon family, and the supply voltage is the reason to pick it. On 460 volt three-phase service a 5 HP motor draws so little current that BelAire recommends a 15 Amp breaker — a circuit almost any industrial panel can spare. Nothing else in the horizontal range installs that cheaply.

The machine on top of that circuit is a belt-driven two-stage pump with stainless steel valves and an aftercooler, on a horizontal ASME tank only 49" tall, with the magnetic starter already fitted.

Why 460 volt changes the installation, not the compressor

Power is power: a 5 HP motor does the same work whatever it is fed from. What changes with the supply voltage is the current, and current is what dictates the cost and difficulty of getting the machine running. At 460 volt three-phase the current is low enough that the conductors are slim, the breaker is small and the run is cheap to pull. That is the entire argument for this variant, and it is a strong one if your building is already on that service.

The corollary is worth stating just as plainly: if your building is not on 460 volt three-phase, this is the wrong model and no adapter fixes it. Look at the lower-voltage three-phase or single-phase builds in the same family instead. Check the panel before you check the price.

BelAire publishes the 15 Amp breaker recommendation and asks that the amp draw be confirmed by a certified electrician, which is the right split — the recommendation is the manufacturer’s, the sizing for your particular run is your electrician’s.

The horizontal layout

At roughly 71" long, 24" wide and 49" high, the 338H4 fits where a vertical tank cannot: under a mezzanine, below a low ceiling, beneath ductwork, or along the back wall of a bay with a roller door overhead. It also brings the serviceable parts down to standing height — the sight glass, the drain and the belt guard are all things you will touch regularly, and reaching them from a step ladder gets old fast.

What it costs you is floor length. Plan the run before delivery and leave air space around the pump end; the flywheel and the aftercooler both need somewhere to push heat, and a compressor boxed into a corner runs hotter than its specification suggests. Level, solid concrete under all four feet, please — the machine is around 471 lbs and vibration finds every weakness in a floor.

What the two-stage pump and the aftercooler actually do

Compressing air in two stages, with cooling between them, is what allows a machine to hold 175 PSI as an ordinary working pressure. A single-stage pump can be pushed towards that number but runs hot doing it, and heat is what shortens a pump’s life. Here the second stage finishes what the first started, and BelAire quotes delivered air of 18.5 cubic feet per minute at 100 PSI and 16.6 CFM at 175 PSI — the small drop between those two figures is the practical signature of the design.

The aftercooler takes the temperature out of the discharge air before it enters the tank. Hot air holds water; cooled air drops it. Doing that at the compressor means the condensate collects in the receiver bottom where the drain can deal with it, rather than travelling down the line into an impact gun or a spray gun. Stainless steel valves handle the part of the pump that wears first, and the oil sight glass turns the weekly check into a glance.

One note on construction, because the data is not unanimous: BelAire’s specification block describes the pump material as solid cast iron, while a separate field on the same listing calls it aluminium with a cast iron sleeve. The description says solid cast-iron cylinder. Both are legitimate compressor constructions and both are used elsewhere in this range, so we are not going to guess which applies here. If the pump construction matters to your decision, ask us to confirm it in writing before you order.

Perfect For

• Industrial buildings on 460 volt three-phase with limited spare panel capacity.
• Low-clearance workshops where a vertical tank simply will not stand up.
• Manufacturing and fabrication shops needing sustained pressure rather than short bursts.
• Fleet and municipal garages already wired for heavier three-phase equipment.

What’s in the Box

The compressor complete and factory assembled: two-stage belt-driven pump with stainless steel valves, motor, horizontal 80 gallon ASME tank, magnetic starter, start-stop pressure switch, pressure gauge, aftercooler, fully enclosed high-flow belt guard, oil sight glass, 3/4" outlet, manual tank drain valve and ASME safety relief valve.

Air dryer, filtration, regulation and shop plumbing are not supplied.

Specifications

Motor and electrical supply

Pump and output

Tank, size and weight

Certification, stated plainly

The tank is an ASME certified pressure vessel fitted with an ASME safety relief valve. That is the certification this product’s data claims, and on a receiver holding 175 PSI it is the one that matters most.

No third-party safety listing is claimed for the packaged machine anywhere in the data we hold, and we will not imply one. That distinction occasionally decides an installation: a manufacturer’s own declaration is not the same instrument as an independent listing, and some insurers, corporate facility standards and local electrical inspectors require the latter on hard-wired shop equipment. If that is your situation, tell us before you order and we will take the question to BelAire in writing.

Delivery, unloading and damage

This is a freight shipment on a pallet, delivered anywhere in the lower 48 states. This item ships free, so there is nothing to add at checkout.

Plan the unload before you buy. The carrier is not obliged to take the pallet off the trailer for you, so you need a forklift, a dock, or a pallet jack and somewhere flat to roll it — or you choose terminal pickup and collect it from the carrier yourself, which many buyers do. Deliveries to a home address are residential deliveries and attract a residential fee; flag it up front.

Then check it on the tailgate. Any dent, any shifted crate, any damage to the pump or guard goes on the bill of lading in writing before you sign and before the truck pulls away. That note is the whole basis of a freight claim.

Warranty

BelAire covers this compressor for 2 Year, consumer and commercial alike, with no additional purchase needed to keep the cover in force.

The one thing that can cost you that cover is opening the pump before the claim is filed. A disassembled pump cannot be assessed, because the order of failure is no longer recoverable from what is left. Call us first, describe the symptom, and let the machine be examined intact.