Hello–
I have a set of Alpex marine horns and I need some help finding some 12v compressors for them. One horn is 27" long and the other is 29". Each horn came with a 24v 18A compressor which is a considerable amount of power for a compressor IMO. The compressors that it came with are now fairly weak and can barely create enough pressure to make sound come out of the horns. What are your guys recommendation? I’d like to find a 12v compressor and stay away from the whole tank setup so that I can mount it on anything and not worry about a pressurized vessel and tube routing. Any help would be much appreciated!
If this company can’t help you then no one will!
This link is to a set of Marine Horns with a 24v compressor.
I am 99% sure somewhere on their website they sell the compressors on their own.
Hope it helps mate?
I does help a bit. When I made the original post I forgot a critical detail–I have no intentions on using these on a boat anymore, hence wanting to find 12v compressors. When I bought the horns, I found the alpex site (got the horns from ebay)–however about a month afterwards when I started repairing the horns the alpex site vanished off of the internet. Did they go out of business or…?
Welcome to the forum. The only 12V compressor that might be capable of running any air horn without a tank is Oasis “The world’s most powerful”, but air horns are very air hungry. Hornblasters should have them in stock.
I looked and there were like $1500! That is just outrageous! So if I understand this correctly, no 12v standard compressor is able to supply enough air to these horns while the 24v ones are?
It depends on the specific horn. Most of the horns that guys here have are train horns which take a LOT of air. However, I don’t know anything about the horns you have and they might not use as much air to do their thing. You would need to get numbers about the horns or their failing compressors to determine the required flow rate (CFM) and pressure (PSI) to see what sort of compressor might be able to run them in a tankless setup.
You’ll get same results from 24V compressors and again only Oasis might do it without a tank unless you want to use 4 or 5 of the smaller ones.
Here I was looking into 24v marine air compressors and lo-and-behold I found this:
Hey Dan, now when were you gonna tell us that you can secretly buy an XD Oasis down-under for $139 … hey? No wonder they’re out of stock … LOL 
I’ve been trying to get numbers on the compressors I have but haven’t had any luck. Currently I’m at college but will be back home Friday and I’ll be able to get some pictures and hopefully spec info. I know my horns aren’t train horns but where else would someone ask questions about air horns?
Edit–found two pictures on my phone. I apologize for the one with the horn on my legs–was trying to make a friend laugh with it. In the other you can see the two 24v compressors which are very different than the oasis.
I think someone purloined a photo. The dimensions don’t match the photo.
But really funny none the less.
Malodave
Very funny because we have only one distributor in Australia - Jedair Compressors in Clermont, QLD
Yep… I knew that. Thought you’d find the page amusing 
You couldn’t get it more wrong if you tried huh.:rolleyes:
Yes, rather amusing. :D:D:D
Those tiny compressors probably don’t make much in the way of psi/cfm at all. I’m guessing you could just BLOW into the horn and it would make noise. Doubt it’s very loud at all. I could pretty much guarantee you that the cheapest Viair compressor would work, but it could even be too big and blow the horn’s guts!
One of the horns I have don’t have the tension/tone(?) adjustment on the back (small set screw) and when I blow into it I can make it sound; however, the other two with the set screws I cannot get them to make a sound when I blow into them.