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Compressor choices

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Beebuzz

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Hi All,

It is time for a compressor as a charging option. I’ve thought about a second bottle and continue to keep an eye on the sales section here, the round trip to the ‘fill station’ is 2 hrs, testing is due and is 1hr away so the option of a compressor is very attractive for the future, my stirrup pump is my backup backup! Not being able to charge the rifles and pistol means I’m not getting out shooting as much as I would like.

This forum is a fantastic resource and the search function with the compressor/filter links thread has been very helpful. I have read them and followed the links, there is a huge amount of real knowledge from so many people which is very generous. The electrical wiring concerns with some compressors was very well explained here as well. Following this I got my shopping short list and went looking with my budget (following household discussion!!) of around the £200-250 mark which means I’m looking at the Velvor or Tuxing options but there are so many. They obviously make them to look like the Hills, GX, Omega etc but I doubt they are all equal? The comments/reviews suggest they are not- the red one, the orange one, the black one etc!!!!! The links below are for an example of three Tuxing compressors.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TUXING-Com...mzn1.fos.d7e5a2de-8759-4da3-993c-d11b6e3d217f


https://www.amazon.co.uk/TUXING-Com...mzn1.fos.d7e5a2de-8759-4da3-993c-d11b6e3d217f

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TUXING-450...fos.d7e5a2de-8759-4da3-993c-d11b6e3d217f&th=1


https://www.amazon.co.uk/TUXING-Com...5cd-4cb9-843c-9d99c155fcbd&pd_rd_i=B0D17FCGM4

I’m confused as to what’s under the bonnet and fully appreciate that if I want certainty or backup I need to spend more which is not an option currently. So what to do-
buy one and hope?
Trust the reviews on line?
Get some advice/pointers from here? Yes please!!!

I know I could save and buy a more expensive one or one with better support which I might have to do but hope you can see where I’m coming from at the moment.

Thanks for the help

Beebuzz
 
Consider the use you will be putting the compressor to. Field refill, go for a 12vdc version. Home refill, go for a 230Vac version.
Maximum refill pressure. Service needs, replacement parts availability. I am drawn to a GX CS4, the price is higher than the other
types but possibly would be worth the deeper reach in your pocket.
 
For charging a single gun I'd say that any of them would be fine, with the caveat that it's not abused, overheated, or stressed too much. Some here have had bad experiences with cheap compressors, but many, myself included, have used them for years without any problems at all. (touch wood !)

Extra filtration is vital, and there's undoubtably more faffing around & maintenance than with a bottle but it's really not very much, the upside being air on tap whenever you need it without having to rely on anyone else.

I strongly suspect that what's inside any of the compressors you've linked to is very much the same, so any difference in their performance will be negligible & all of them would do what you require.
 
zakdingel said:
Any members using this one? where do you put the water? do you use standard tap water??
Click to expand...
I have one of the "Ying Tong" compressors similar to the one suggested by @trebor2020 , and all I have to do is half-fill a bucket with water & lower the pump into it. Filling a single rifle I've never known the water become even slightly warm, so putting ice in it or any other elaborate means of cooling has been totally unnecessary.
The pump itself is just an aquarium pump, and tap water is fine, though I live in an area where the tap water is very soft so there's no chance of lime scale building up inside the compressor's cooling system.
 
To add to my last post, the pump that came with my compressor is a 600 litre per hour pump, and for a few pounds you can buy a 1000 litre/hour aquarium pump online to considerably increase the cooling.
 
I have the second one on Beebuzz's list and it's fine. It has a decent cooling fan, much better than faffing with water...
 
The only difference in the models you linked are the internal or external transformer. Both types will run on 220-240V and 12V. Personally, I went with the internal version because it's neater but it does mean I'm carrying a little extra weight if taking the compressor to use on a 12V battery.

I believe the separate transformer has been criticised for potential safety problems but so have some of the earlier integrated models. Any up-to-date (RCD protected) domestic mains supply will give additional protection.
 
This is my setup, it takes about 1 1/2 minutes to fill the cylinder of the rifle (Effecto PX4) to 250bar, and when I fill my 7l dive bottle I put cooler blocks in the 20lt of distilled water, and charge it in 3 stages of 100bar, the last time I filled the dive bottle the hose from the compressor to the blue filter burst at 200bar, so I have replaced it with a stainless steel one!
 

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Rexa said:
This is my setup, it takes about 1 1/2 minutes to fill the cylinder of the rifle (Effecto PX4) to 250bar, and when I fill my 7l dive bottle I put cooler blocks in the 20lt of distilled water, and charge it in 3 stages of 100bar, the last time I filled the dive bottle the hose from the compressor to the blue filter burst at 200bar, so I have replaced it with a stainless steel one!
Click to expand...
trebor2020 said:
maybe one of the water cooled ones like this is an option if you have a cylinder bottle to fill also, depending on size of your bottle.

Click to expand...

Thanks to all with the replies and advice.
Would this one fill a 7l bottle(capacity says 6.8l)? Seems quite an ask but very attractive if it does so!!
 
I believe it will do it, but filling a 7ltr bottle in one go will cause the compressor to become very hot as it would be under prolongued stress, so it would be wise to fill the bottle in stages, keeping an eye on the temperature gauge & allowing the compressor to cool between steps.
The "piston rings" in these compressors are actually O-rings, so subjecting them to extreme heat is very likely to damage them. They must also be properly lubricated, so regular oil changes are wise.

There's a chap named "Aaron Cantrell" on YouTube (though he hasn't posted for about a year) who has used a very similar compressor to fill his dive bottle, and though the compressor failed after a couple of years, it may be worth looking up his channel to see what he did when filling his bottle.
 
Hello, Is there no RFD or Dive Centre closer to fill/Test Cylinders, Those cheaper Compressors may be able to fill your Cylinder so it would not be used a lot if you then fill rifle/rifles from Cylinder, But i would be inclined to go with your top budget of £250 ( Not Water Cooled )
 
I'm with post #7. The OP mentions a second bottle and 7Litres. The Ying Tong water cooled plus a second filter for peace of mind fills his budget. My example fills a typical gun from 100 to 200 bar in a total time of around 2 minutes. (The spec of 50L/minute input is a nonsense- the real figure is more like 20L effective). I do throw some ice into the water bucket when the outside temperature is warm, but I also use a freezer gel pack round the output filter. That is probably the most cost effective improvement to output air quality and temperature.
I've never observed any problems with damp or oil. I treat things gently, allowing the compressor to cool a bit between guns- I fill 5 at a time and the whole thing takes about 45 minutes, including setting up and carrying guns about etc.
The OP needs to just shift his thinking a bit. If he takes a 7L bottle to dive centre, he wants it filled. But with his own compressor, there is no need to completely fill it. He just needs to have enough air for a day's shooting. So if he shoots about 500 pellets in a day, as I do, he need only first fill his gun(s) direct from the compressor.
If the bottle is at, say, 220 bar, then he need only charge that for 10 minutes or so to 220 Bar in order to get enough top ups for the 500 shots. eg refilling my HW100 from 100 to 200 takes about 25 Atmosphere- Litres (AL). (I keep my 3L bottle at 240 bar.)
So five fills needs 125 AL. A 7L bottle would drop just less than 20Bar (Atmospheres) in doing that. There is no need to fill such a big bottle to more than the minimum you need. It's wasteful and totally unnecessary. Keeping the pressure low gives any compressor a cooler, easier and longer life. I ignore part fills in this scenario.
I have never had to service my Ying Tong. There are very minor things that could be better, but nothing is perfect.
 
I use a Yongy,similar to the one in the ad,to top up my 7L from 200 to 300.
This works out best for me.
But,
I have upgraded the cooling and the filtration.
I regarded it as a good base for a 'project'.
Touch wood,I'm pleased with the results so far.
 
If you've read the FAQ as you state, then i'm going to repeat the same thing again as you've asked the same questions it addresses.

All Tuxing's are basically the same, relative to when they are produced. The colour, lights, display, auto-cut-off, internal and external PSU, fill port etc. and other options are specified by whoever is paying the bill. Up from that are the GX type, again they are fundamentally the same core compressor with various options in terms of power source and cooling type. You then get the Yong-Heng's, which come in either single or dual head designs and again are basically all the same. What you want to fill in effect determines what you want to buy, what filters you want to consider and the type of filtration.

sagalout

Thread 'Useful Compressor Links'

This is intended as a single store of links to useful info on compressors and filters

filters
filter medium
Hill filter

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Everyone else telling you what they have and how it's great for them is lovely, but if you want to fill a larger bottle, your options are Yong-Heng, Hills, GX CS4 (or larger) and Coltri, any of which (other than Hills) can be rebranded for the right price, some of them are even re-branded by other OEM's who make the compressors mentioned eg Tuxing sell GX and Yong-Heng compressors in addition to it's own now. Personally I have owned a Tuxing and a Hills, both served different purposes and both are reliable to this day, though the former is relegated to emergency use now, a CS4 is basically Hills money and a Hills is made in the UK, supported in the UK, has excellent CS/TS in the UK and is higher output, the CS4 is slower, which produces less moisture, if you get it from the official UK distributor it's apparently pretty well-supported, but realistically you would side step them to buy it and parts. The output from a Yong-Heng is horrible and requires a lot of filtration, I personally wouldn't go that route, but some do and are happy, i'd at least convert it to a closed loop system and use some biocide in the loop, it'll suffer from galvanic corrosion eventually, but as it'll presumably be drained down between fills and the pump not left running that’s not realistically an issue for most.
 
A club member had one of these Chinese compressors and when it started playing up another member who is an engineer
took it apart to see if it could be fixed.

When it was taken apart it was apparent that some internal moving parts which should be made of metal to ensure longevity were made
of plastic.

His conclusion was that although these compressors might work for a time when used just for filling a PCP if they were used to fill a dive tank they would fail quickly.
 
ricardolamos said:
A club member had one of these Chinese compressors and when it started playing up another member who is an engineer
took it apart to see if it could be fixed.

When it was taken apart it was apparent that some internal moving parts which should be made of metal to ensure longevity were made
of plastic.

His conclusion was that although these compressors might work for a time when used just for filling a PCP if they were used to fill a dive tank they would fail quickly.
Click to expand...
thyeyre not made for filling dive tanks .

as you said . the plastic bits dont like it
 
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