I think I just read the CAT has an aluminum tank.
I believe the cat came out recently, I don't think it was on the market when I bought my rolair.
The rolair is a bit more expensive, but it does have 0.5 gallons more of capacity.
I want to say, looking at them, that CAT basically copied the rol-air one I have and did some kind of whizzbang high tech cost reduction shit to make a clone that costs 50$ less.
Differences I can see:
Disadvantages of the cheaper CAT brand:
-There is no roll cage. The Rol-air one has a nice protective cage around it (still shit because it should have a enclosure, but at least it is harder to fuck up then the CAT one)
-Not sure what the heat sinking situation is on it (they have some kind of plastic covers where the "heat sinks?" are on the rol-air brand. Might be hiding some kind of manufacturing muntzing (i.e. tiny heat sinks). I don't know why you would need covers there for aluminum heat sinks like the rol-air has.
-The gauges are oriented weird (probably simplified/reduced cost of fittings). If you put it on a shelf like I did it would be hard to see what the pressure readings are. Seems retarded. The rol-air has a proper 'interface panel' where you can read both pressures and turn it off at the same time and adjust the pressure, even if its located in a difficult area. You don't need to crane.
-rol-air uses combination of square stock and round stock for its frame. The CAT one uses all round stock.
Differences in my rol-air and the one on amazon:
-mine uses all round stock
-the feet are the conical type seen on the CAT one. I don't know if this increases or decreases the isolation.
Disadvantages of rol-air
-Tank is welded to the frame. Might make replacement difficult but its aluminum so it should not matter?
-The pull pin, designed to empty the tank, is oriented sideways, rather then in the front (like on the CAT tools one), so it might be more difficult to actuate though I don't know why you would want to, unless its in a really off place or you have a bad back and you can't bend over to flip the purge valve. Very easy to modify to put a direction change pulley there though, if you are a fan of the string operation air purge. I still think you need to do the bottom purge to drain the tank though?
My opinion?
-I don't regret spending the extra 50 dollars on the rol-air compressor if only because i has a roll-cage thing on it. It makes it easier to put on a shelf and if you are using it as a contracting tool you can drop 2by4's on it and you are way less likely to rip off some kind of high pressure thing welded on the tank that will fly off and kill you.
-Should be 100% enclosure for better protection but rolair cares more about customer safety and ergonomics.
Other:
The CAT one has a air tank which you can replace, but the connection between the air tank and the frame is really janky. I guess it works but I don't know how much a vibration issue it is and if the tank can loosen. I don't think I would manufacture something for sale which such a mechanical interface:
On the lower left corner:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Q0sTqsfPL._SL1354_.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/712UlpiLmQL._SL1314_.jpg
It looks like some mad max shit, with the bracket bent into shake so it kind mates with the tube... I think proper manufacturing would be to weld a small plate with some holes in it to the square tube
On the lower right:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/718N2LpKVKL._SL1190_.jpg
You can see that the tank is only mounted to the tubing stock by 2 points of crappy contact, that is a bolt and a nut. A bolt is not supposed to act as an anti rotation feature in general, and its definatly not supposed to act as a anti rotation feature on a round tube. If they want to use a detachable compressor it should be on 4 points of contact with parallel carefully welded plates, not 2 points of contact using bolt/shitty bent plate interfaces. Also does not appear to use any kind of anti rotation feature like lug nuts etc.
What can happen here I think is that the tank can loosen and increase noise, and possibly damage the welded connections by stress fatigue, especially the copper tube.
Final Opinion: Pay the extra 50 bucks for the well engineered product, considering its high pressure air. If this is the level of thought they put into designing it, they might also have shitty QC etc.
damnit my rol-air one has a fucking magnetic tank.
Oh well, I keep it purged typically. And it has a easy to remove plug so I can inspect it at least with a boroscope.
I wonder how reliable those aluminum tanks are though. I think for aluminum pressure storage I would like a extra layer of fiber glass/epoxy resin like a fire fighter SCBA because the aluminum welding process is much more tricky and niche then steel. Then again those scba tanks are much higher pressure. And cost a shit load more. Might be completely paranoid.
This is also probably very decent, but the CFM is low
http://toolguyd.com/hitachi-ultra-quiet-1-gallon-air-compressor-ec28m/
Other then the low power it looks kinda well engineered (still no god damn roll cage, maybe thats why their called rol-air)..
Why can't you just add the fucking 2 feet of tubing? jesus h chirst what the fuck. How much are they saving if their mass producing that shit and selling it in every fucking home depot in the country.