How are you filling your cylinders?

[ChipEck]

In most cases dive shops can fill your tank while you wait.

[Gwhite]

A 200 bar tank will be nearly useless once it gets down to around 120 bar, so all they really need to do is top it off. That goes a lot quicker than filling from scratch.

I don't know if this is a national, state or dive shop requirement, but the place we use requires an annual visual inspection in addition to the usual 5 year hydrotesting. That may take a few days, and requires re-filling from zero afterward.

[Chicken-Farmer]

There are many high quality compressors on the market that are far less expensive than the model you linked. Just a couple options for you to ponder below. The days of $1500 compressors are behind us in the airgun community.

http://www.shoeboxcompressor.com/
Shoebox F10 Compressor
Price $499
Highly reliable and dead simple to rebuild yourself with a couple o-rings. Fills up to 4500 psi. Able to fill direct to gun or tanks. Does require a separate air compressor, but a cheap pancake compressor will do fine.

https://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Air_Vent ... 5SEALw_wcB
Air Venturi Nomad 2
Price $699
A stand alone compressor that is designed for direct gun fills. Can be run off 12 Volt if needed

[spektr]

My dive shop fills my tank while I wait, never more than 10 minutes.
The only time I leave it is for annual inspections and they fill all my gun tanks before I leave....
Easy Peasy
My tank maintenance bills are maybe 30 bucks a year

Scott

[Rover]

Just make life easy on yourself.

Go into the dive shop, tell them what you're doing, leave a six-pak.

(I know you think I'm kidding.)

[Timberwerks]

I have tomorrow off so I plan to visit a couple dive shops in person, possibly come home with a tank. Hopefully I can get a hold of a 3500 PSI, 90 - 100 CF tank. What attracts me to the Omega tank is the 4500 psi. My Pardini can take 3500 psi so I'd like to match that as close as possible. Thanks for the advice!

[ChipEck]

Tomorrow do not forget to save some time to go shooting:-)

Chip

[Timberwerks]

Made a quick call to nearest shop. $400.00 for a steel 100 cf 3500 psi tank, includes 2 years of fills. Not in stock but I'd have it next week. They can fill the 4500 psi Omega tank if I opted to go that route. I'll visit in person tomorrow.

[ChipEck]

Seems high. I would lift a 100cf tank and make sure you are OK with the weight. When I dove I had dual 50s and dual 80s and the dual 80s, while giving me more bottom time, were a pain to carry.

Chip

[Rover]

Hopefully I can get a hold of a 3500 PSI, 90 - 100 CF tank. What attracts me to the Omega tank is the 4500 psi. My Pardini can take 3500 psi so I'd like to match that as close as possible.

Stop fartin' around! Go on Craiglist, buy a tank for $50, then follow my advice above.

You seem to be determined to spend WAY more than you need to, with no benefit to you except a little longer between cylinder fills.

[Gwhite]

Seems high. I would lift a 100cf tank and make sure you are OK with the weight. When I dove I had dual 50s and dual 80s and the dual 80s, while giving me more bottom time, were a pain to carry.

Chip

The team I help coach has two 100 cf tanks, and two 80's. I really hate it when the 100's are due for a fill because they are a pain in the neck to lug around. I'm also not as young as I once was...

[m1963]

I have tomorrow off so I plan to visit a couple dive shops in person, possibly come home with a tank. Hopefully I can get a hold of a 3500 PSI, 90 - 100 CF tank. What attracts me to the Omega tank is the 4500 psi. My Pardini can take 3500 psi so I'd like to match that as close as possible. Thanks for the advice!

Hello- certainly, pick what makes you happy. Truthfully, though, 3000 psi is more than enough to shoot one air pistol cylinder for a full match. How much are you practicing? If no more than that, 3000psi gets you through each training session for half the initial cost.

Of course, if money is no object buy what you want!

[spektr]

Not to pop everybody 4500psi dream BUT the percentage of dive shops set up to fill 4500 is maybe 50%. Before you buy a 300 bar tank, make sure you can fill it. and also figgure in the step down regulator to be safe. Personally I find a 200 bar tank so much simpler. Lastly, since we arent diving and the corrosion of salt water isnt an issue.... buy a used 80 footer that has pased inspection, most dive sops have customers selling out or trading in.........

[Timberwerks]

Well, after giving it more thought I decided the best option for me is this compact compressor linked below. Since my primary shooting spot is here at home and I only need to top of my pistol cylinders after 120 shots or so I figured this is far better than using my Hill hand pump. Also, now I don't need to make trips to the dive shop during their limited days and hours of operation. Lastly, the compressor will blend in with all my other tools and the wife won't notice. A scuba tank would be something that would grab her attention ;-)

https://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Air_Vent ... essor/8695

[Gwhite]

I'll be curious to hear you thoughts on the compressor after you've used it for a while. The price isn't too bad, and the reviews are mostly favorable, but they seem to occasionally ship a lemon.

One frequent complaint is that the instructions are minimal. They give you spare parts, with no info on what to do with them. I haven't seen any info on how often you need to change out or refill the desiccant cartridge, how you do that, and where to get the material.

[Chicken-Farmer]

The enemy to any high pressure compressor is heat! Direct fill to guns only take a few minutes and will keep that compressor chugging along for many years, literally the compressor doesnt have time to heat up. Where folks run into trouble is when they start trying to fill large tanks. The compressor will fill the tank, but at the cost of massive wear and tear. For filling bottles the little compressors just cant handle the job for very long.
The small compressors on the market today take a large amount of low pressure air in, squeeze it down to a tiny puff of high pressure air out. Most of the initial volume of low pressure air is lost in the process. The compressors are highly inefficient, but do provide 4500 psi of air in the end. Very high pressure, low volume. If you are shooting in the same location as your compressor you do not need a bottle. This was the hardest hurdle I had to overcome when I bought my compressor. I had to change my way of thinking. "I now have an endless supply of high pressure air"

[Timberwerks]

For those that have been following. The dive shop returned my email saying, sure we can fill 4500 psi tanks. They suggested a steel 100 cu tank that holds 3442 psi, $400.00. Or the Luxfer 106 that holds 4350 psi, $555.00. Out of curiosity I looked up the Luxfer, I could buy it online for $100.00 less. Posting link in case anyone is interested in such a tank, looks like a couple reviews are from air gunners. https://www.diveseekers.com/Luxfer_Limi ... alw106.htm

Anyway my compressor will be here tomorrow, I'll keep you posted. Even more so I feel this compressor was the right choice for my needed use.

[Rover]

[/quote]
The team I help coach has two 100 cf tanks, and two 80's. I really hate it when the 100's are due for a fill because they are a pain in the neck to lug around. I'm also not as young as I once was...
[/quote]

Ahh, c'mon! You know you have a flock of devoted love-slaves to hump this stuff around for you.

Jeez, fifty bucks vs. seven hundred plus to plink in your basement. How could you possibly go wrong.

[Gwhite]

The team I help coach has two 100 cf tanks, and two 80's. I really hate it when the 100's are due for a fill because they are a pain in the neck to lug around. I'm also not as young as I once was...
[/quote]

Ahh, c'mon! You know you have a flock of devoted love-slaves to hump this stuff around for you.
[/quote]
I wish... Given the very limited practice time they have, I'd rather they spend it shooting.

We have a SCUBA compressor on campus, but it's A) up & down several sets of stairs to get to, and B) always broken. When it was working, I could ask the students to haul the tank cart back & forth. The nearest dive shop is only about 3 miles away, but with traffic & current construction, the round trip is about an hour. It's on the far side of some railroad tracks, and they have all the nearby bridges closed...

[spektr]

We are going to relocate somewhere as soon as my flesh eating bacteria repairs are done. If we go back east to Kansas or No, I will get a compressor to go all g with my range I plan on building ..... Untl then, tanks are good, and I always have tank for friends who shoot with me