I’m brand new to making composites and I’m looking to start out doing some resin infusions and maybe some prepreg down the line.

As I’m new to this hobby I don’t to spend too much money on a vacuum pump as I’m unsure if It’s a hobby I’ll really get into or not.

I had been told by my brother I needed a dual stage pump (I’m assuming he meant for infusions).

I was looking to do quite small jobs. I’m not making boats, probably never do any car sized panels, but a bit smaller.

Do I really need a dual stage pump?

For reference the pump I was looking at was “4.5CFM 2 Stage Refrigerant Vacuum Pump Refrigeration Air Condition 128L/MIN” made by VEVOR.


Any help would be appreciated

No, CFM is Cubic Feet per Minute. So simply refers to how long the pump will take to move a given volume of air. For vacuum bagging small parts, this is the difference between your pump taking 2p seconds to pull vacuum on a bag or 2 minutes to pull full vacuum - it's not worth worrying about. When you get up to making boats in a production environment, then you might not want to wait 20 minutes to pull full vacuum and it's worth getting a bigger pump.

All you are worried about is maximum vacuum; and yes, 0.3 Pascal is super high vacuum - so high that it makes me suspicious...