01242 620903Hydraulic or Pneumatic Baler?
And more importantly, which type of Baler is the best?
Some Waste Baler suppliers will tell you that hydraulic waste baling machines are best. Others will tell you that nothing can beat an air powered pneumatic waste baler. This is normally because they don’t offer both!
At QCR, we view things slightly differently as we offer both types of baling machine for hire or purchase. Both types offer distinct advantages and disadvantages so the right one for your premises will depend on a number of factors.
In this guide written by our expert in-house team, we'll talk you through the key factors that distinguish the two types and share our knowledge of supplying them for over 25 years to help you choose. If you're short on time, contact us with your specific needs and we'll recommend a specific baler model to bale your waste.
HYDRAULIC BALER VS PNEUMATIC BALER: A QUICK COMPARISON
Broadly speaking, you'll have more baler size options if you go for hydraulic as illustrated in the table below.
| Hydraulic | Pneumatic | |
| Power Source | Electric | Compressed Air |
| Vertical | Yes | Yes |
| Horizontal | Yes | No |
| Mill Size | Yes | No |
| Twin Chamber | Yes | No |
What type Baler is best for cardboard waste?
It is generally the case that for cardboard compaction, a hydraulic cardboard baler is the better option. A pneumatic baling machine cannot achieve the pressure that comes with a hydraulic power pack. However, you may not need to achieve very dense and heavy bales for your recycler, you may simply want to make movement of material a little easier.
What type Baler is best for baling plastics?
It is generally the case that for soft plastic, a pneumatic baler has more advantages for low and medium volumes of shrink wrap (or similar material). Constant pressure creates very solid bales and reduces the material rising in the waste baler chamber, making filling easier.
What type Baler is best for high volumes of waste?
We would always recommend a Hydraulic Mill Size Baler to those businesses with 1 tonne of material or more per week, providing that 3-phase electricity is available. Whilst they cost more in comparison to pneumatic machines, you'll unlock the rebate potential of selling mill size bales for recycling which can help to offset your larger investment.
Which type of Waste Baler is easier to use?
We would advocate that all pneumatic waste balers have the edge for ease of use. Bale out kickers are fitted on most models – but do take care on the smaller machines as you may need a bale out kicker to satisfy your own H&S requirements. They don’t all come as standard. We can point you in the right direction as we have both. Air machines used to be less complex to operate although making a pneumatic machine comply with EN16500 regulations (section below) has removed some of the simplicity.
Which type of Cardboard Baler is quieter?
Hydraulic is generally quieter; but you can make a pneumatic waste baler virtually silent, even with a compressor.
What type of Cardboard Baler is easier to maintain?
If you have your own air line – pneumatic Waste Balers. If you don’t and don't have a small air compressor, then a hydraulic Waste Baler. Compressor maintenance checks are pretty straight forward and take up a couple of minutes per month.
What type of Cardboard Baler is more energy efficient?
It is generally understood that compressors can have a relatively high electricity demand. We’ve done back to back tests on the KW/h consumption of comparably sized pneumatic and hydraulic baling machines and hydraulic uses significantly less electricity per tonne of cardboard baled.
What type of Plastic Baler is more energy efficient?
When baling soft plastics with a plastic baling machine, energy use is reversed for small to medium volumes. As your volumes and bale size increases, the calculation does change so it's always best to get a free site survey if this is important to you. It's worth noting that the cost of electricity is likely to be less than 10 pence per bale for smaller balers.
Which type of Baler is cheaper to buy?
If you are wanting to buy a baler and are on a budget, then choose pneumatic because they're typically 20% cheaper than the equivalent hydraulic model. Whatever price you pay, check it has a warranty for additional reassurance.
Conclusion
The fact is, the question of which is better depends entirely on the customer and what they need their waste baler to do. We can offer you unbiased advice because we offer eight pneumatic models and eight hydraulic machines; and this is in addition to the larger Mill-size waste balers and Horizontal balers, which add a further 10 machines to our standard range. You can book a free no-obligation site survey with one of our Experts by clicking below:
Waste Baler Compliance with EN16500:2014
Regardless of what type of baler you choose, it must be compliant with the most recent safety legislation.
It is already in force and is in addition to all previous rigorous legislation. The key areas where this has had impact operationally are:-
- Two handed bale out when ejecting bale
- No access to moving parts
- Isolation of power switch on the machine.
Most other amendments are ‘behind the scenes’ electrical and safety switches.The British Safety Standards have a full report that can be purchased online here. You can be re-assured that QCR will never sell you any machinery that is not compliant with the most up to date legislation.
