I been away from ScubaBoard for sometime now.
I want to share this information for members, hoping you guys can make your compressor/s last as long if not longer while STILL in mechanical pristine condition.
===================
Model : 2010 Bauer Mariner 200 with P41 Tower and stand alone final water separator. 225BAR safety valve setting.
Age : 12 years today, Bought brand new.
Runtime : 4,000 hours today
Oil change frequency since day 1 to today is :
104 hours as 1st running in oil change.
Thereafter 200 to 250 hours oil and oil filter change or 1 year max. Bauer synthetic N28355 2.8 liter per oil change.
Total oil change in 4,000 hours therefore = 18th oil & oil filter change, last was 28th April 2022.
The only time after first running-in oil change which I changed oil and filter under 200 hours was due to Covid of 2020-2021 where
168 hours oil life but it is 21 month 8 days old. That was 27th July 2020 to 28th April 2022.
Filter cartridge change since Day 1 to today, P/N 67724 with Hopcalite ( CO remover ) = 77 pcs.
4,000 / 77 = 51 hours of average use per filter cartridge.
With the extra powerful 750 watt high speed high static blower, I can get final water separator to be as cool as 37C at 32C ambient and get 53 hours actually.
So, I am always within proper clean dry air.
==================
Rule no 1 - Based on my 2010 Bauer K120.2 Mariner 200 Block. 3 stage design and 1,300 operational RPM and at 3,000 PSI air fill, not higher.
No nitrox Cont-Blend ever, not even Partial Blending.
If operating above 25C ambient temperature, DO install a 750 watt high static high speed electric blower to assist, if one need to run compressor
exceeding 25 minutes.
Heat is killer no 1. This Mariner 200 at 30-32C is already actually experiencing mild overheating. 2nd stage will be the earlier victim. Well before 4,000 hours
one can feel dollar wise the effect of the mild overheating lightening one's wallet.
Knowing heat can kill faster, it would be unwise if we do not monitor the heat buil-up in progress.
My version of portable ( can carry to locations ) Mariner 200 is costly and adding monitoring hardware and extra blower is low cost compared to potential damage
overheating will drain my wallet of $$ and the potential of carbon monoxide production at the overheating stages/cylinders killing people
Cheapest temperature monitoring for SKIN temperature of all exhaust/discharge pipe at all 3 stages and of the body of the P41 stand alone final water separator,
is either a 4 channels thermocouple or 2 of 2 channels thermocouple. Logging capability is nice but not crucial. Infra Red thermogun is not accurate, google Infra Red Emissivity. Best to get low end FLIR thermal imager if non contact temperature reading on large area is needed.
Able to read 1st and 2nd stage pressure is good too.
When at 2010, beginning of ownership
Item 1 to 3 are extra stages pressure gauge, digital from Keller. Actually no need all these 3 expensive Keller LEO2 gauges,
capillary mechanical gauges from Wika for 1st and 2nd stage is good enough. Final stage or tank pressure one, Keller LEO2 is good as no mechanical
capillary gauge can give us resolution of 10 PSI.
Now my 1st and 2nd stage uses capillary mechanical gauges. I use the LE02 elsewhere.
Item 4 is Toxi-RAE C0 and Oxygen analyzer. CO alone is good enough.
I use this to monitor the ambient CO of the surrounding air and of the tank too.
Every 3 years I need to buy new sensor module.
Later on I settled for CO only Toxi-RAE and keep the Dual Toxi-RAE CO/Oxy for my own LOB dive trip.
Item 5 and 6 are 2 of Dual Channel Thermocouple from Taiwan, logging capable. At year 9-10th the LCD display has gone dark.
Today I have renewed the thermocouple reader from UNI-T ( cheap China made but okey ) and use thicker gauge Omega K-Thermocouple.
Item 7 is Bauer B Timer. It can detect stand alone final water separator temperature and we program our filter cartridge type and it will
calculate filter life as per dynamic changes of the water-sept temperature....which in turn define the P41 filter cartridge 67244 with CO Remover.
This unit will die usually at 2,000+ hours. I am on my 2nd unit and I have installed a battery powered vibration based hour meter too.
I got this one and so far 600+ hours OK
Item 8 and 9. Autometer engine oil pressure for compressor oil pressure and oil temperature gauge.
I kept it running for like 7-8 years and got enough data and replaced the pressure gauge with WIKA capillary mechanical pressure gauge.
No compressor oil temperature data anymore but I have enough data for it.
YOU MUST HAVE OIL PRESSURE GAUGE
Item 10. The grey blower was replaced months after I tested it and found it too weak. High static high speed one in place and I am on my 2nd unit.
1st unit last like 2,000+ hours. China made, what do you expect from its coil winding quality ....LOL.
Rule 2 - DO NOT TRUST 2,000 HOURS or 2 YEARS OIL CHANGE as per BAUER user manual, do not even do 1,000 hour. Synthetic Oil.
The compressor oil temperature at crankcase is at best 60C for my low hours per use. However, the oil film or oil mist at 2nd stage and 3rd stage can be very hot.
Typical compressor piston blow by is 5% as healthy ( as per Bauer Tech Doc ) and this blow-by into crankcase is not only AIR but water vapor too.
So your oil will be damaged sooner by water instead of anything else. The compressor oil at crankcase can not exceed 100C and there is no
way to boil off the water vapor in oil which at a mere 50 hours will become a few drops of water. Imagine your engine oil in a car and you do only
1 mile short run under 5 minutes every other day..... your engine oil will be damaged from water contamination.
1st to 2nd stage has no water separator, as is a 6 to 7x compression. So no matter what kind of dry humidity region you are at, 1st stage at 60ish PSI is at 100% humidty already. So its piston blow by is VERY WET with water vapor.
2nd oil change, 200 hours of use, see the water droplets
5th oil change after 245 hours of use. Below is water vapor soon to orgy into water droplets ...LOL
Want to see how filty the oil filters can be merely at 245 hours of use ?
Imagine you trust Bauer 2,000 hour oil change ( and filter change ), your oil filter will get clogged first and you loose oil pressure to 3rd stage.
A guy I knew is the owner of one of Manado dive operator, land based one.
He was used to the older 75BAR oil pressure Bauer Mariner K120 without oil filter. Little did he knew and he is not RTFM kind of guy, that he needed to
replace or there exist an oil filter with this new 5 BAR oil pressure K120.2 block. His compressor jammed up within like 2 years from oil starvation. LOL.
2 years for him would be approx 1,500 - 2,000 hours of compressor run time. Him being old school, his oil change at most would be 400-500 hours I guess.
5th and 6th oil change oils when drained. Sometime lightning condition is tricky to photo oil in pyrex as what our eyes can see.
WILL CONTINUE.....................
I want to share this information for members, hoping you guys can make your compressor/s last as long if not longer while STILL in mechanical pristine condition.
===================
Model : 2010 Bauer Mariner 200 with P41 Tower and stand alone final water separator. 225BAR safety valve setting.
Age : 12 years today, Bought brand new.
Runtime : 4,000 hours today
Oil change frequency since day 1 to today is :
104 hours as 1st running in oil change.
Thereafter 200 to 250 hours oil and oil filter change or 1 year max. Bauer synthetic N28355 2.8 liter per oil change.
Total oil change in 4,000 hours therefore = 18th oil & oil filter change, last was 28th April 2022.
The only time after first running-in oil change which I changed oil and filter under 200 hours was due to Covid of 2020-2021 where
168 hours oil life but it is 21 month 8 days old. That was 27th July 2020 to 28th April 2022.
Filter cartridge change since Day 1 to today, P/N 67724 with Hopcalite ( CO remover ) = 77 pcs.
4,000 / 77 = 51 hours of average use per filter cartridge.
With the extra powerful 750 watt high speed high static blower, I can get final water separator to be as cool as 37C at 32C ambient and get 53 hours actually.
So, I am always within proper clean dry air.
==================
Rule no 1 - Based on my 2010 Bauer K120.2 Mariner 200 Block. 3 stage design and 1,300 operational RPM and at 3,000 PSI air fill, not higher.
No nitrox Cont-Blend ever, not even Partial Blending.
If operating above 25C ambient temperature, DO install a 750 watt high static high speed electric blower to assist, if one need to run compressor
exceeding 25 minutes.
Heat is killer no 1. This Mariner 200 at 30-32C is already actually experiencing mild overheating. 2nd stage will be the earlier victim. Well before 4,000 hours
one can feel dollar wise the effect of the mild overheating lightening one's wallet.
Knowing heat can kill faster, it would be unwise if we do not monitor the heat buil-up in progress.
My version of portable ( can carry to locations ) Mariner 200 is costly and adding monitoring hardware and extra blower is low cost compared to potential damage
overheating will drain my wallet of $$ and the potential of carbon monoxide production at the overheating stages/cylinders killing people
Cheapest temperature monitoring for SKIN temperature of all exhaust/discharge pipe at all 3 stages and of the body of the P41 stand alone final water separator,
is either a 4 channels thermocouple or 2 of 2 channels thermocouple. Logging capability is nice but not crucial. Infra Red thermogun is not accurate, google Infra Red Emissivity. Best to get low end FLIR thermal imager if non contact temperature reading on large area is needed.
Able to read 1st and 2nd stage pressure is good too.
When at 2010, beginning of ownership
Item 1 to 3 are extra stages pressure gauge, digital from Keller. Actually no need all these 3 expensive Keller LEO2 gauges,
capillary mechanical gauges from Wika for 1st and 2nd stage is good enough. Final stage or tank pressure one, Keller LEO2 is good as no mechanical
capillary gauge can give us resolution of 10 PSI.
LEO2 | KELLER Pressure
keller-druck.com
Item 4 is Toxi-RAE C0 and Oxygen analyzer. CO alone is good enough.
I use this to monitor the ambient CO of the surrounding air and of the tank too.
Every 3 years I need to buy new sensor module.
Later on I settled for CO only Toxi-RAE and keep the Dual Toxi-RAE CO/Oxy for my own LOB dive trip.
Item 5 and 6 are 2 of Dual Channel Thermocouple from Taiwan, logging capable. At year 9-10th the LCD display has gone dark.
Today I have renewed the thermocouple reader from UNI-T ( cheap China made but okey ) and use thicker gauge Omega K-Thermocouple.
Item 7 is Bauer B Timer. It can detect stand alone final water separator temperature and we program our filter cartridge type and it will
calculate filter life as per dynamic changes of the water-sept temperature....which in turn define the P41 filter cartridge 67244 with CO Remover.
This unit will die usually at 2,000+ hours. I am on my 2nd unit and I have installed a battery powered vibration based hour meter too.
I got this one and so far 600+ hours OK
Item 8 and 9. Autometer engine oil pressure for compressor oil pressure and oil temperature gauge.
I kept it running for like 7-8 years and got enough data and replaced the pressure gauge with WIKA capillary mechanical pressure gauge.
No compressor oil temperature data anymore but I have enough data for it.
YOU MUST HAVE OIL PRESSURE GAUGE
Item 10. The grey blower was replaced months after I tested it and found it too weak. High static high speed one in place and I am on my 2nd unit.
1st unit last like 2,000+ hours. China made, what do you expect from its coil winding quality ....LOL.
Rule 2 - DO NOT TRUST 2,000 HOURS or 2 YEARS OIL CHANGE as per BAUER user manual, do not even do 1,000 hour. Synthetic Oil.
The compressor oil temperature at crankcase is at best 60C for my low hours per use. However, the oil film or oil mist at 2nd stage and 3rd stage can be very hot.
Typical compressor piston blow by is 5% as healthy ( as per Bauer Tech Doc ) and this blow-by into crankcase is not only AIR but water vapor too.
So your oil will be damaged sooner by water instead of anything else. The compressor oil at crankcase can not exceed 100C and there is no
way to boil off the water vapor in oil which at a mere 50 hours will become a few drops of water. Imagine your engine oil in a car and you do only
1 mile short run under 5 minutes every other day..... your engine oil will be damaged from water contamination.
1st to 2nd stage has no water separator, as is a 6 to 7x compression. So no matter what kind of dry humidity region you are at, 1st stage at 60ish PSI is at 100% humidty already. So its piston blow by is VERY WET with water vapor.
2nd oil change, 200 hours of use, see the water droplets
5th oil change after 245 hours of use. Below is water vapor soon to orgy into water droplets ...LOL
Want to see how filty the oil filters can be merely at 245 hours of use ?
Imagine you trust Bauer 2,000 hour oil change ( and filter change ), your oil filter will get clogged first and you loose oil pressure to 3rd stage.
A guy I knew is the owner of one of Manado dive operator, land based one.
He was used to the older 75BAR oil pressure Bauer Mariner K120 without oil filter. Little did he knew and he is not RTFM kind of guy, that he needed to
replace or there exist an oil filter with this new 5 BAR oil pressure K120.2 block. His compressor jammed up within like 2 years from oil starvation. LOL.
2 years for him would be approx 1,500 - 2,000 hours of compressor run time. Him being old school, his oil change at most would be 400-500 hours I guess.
5th and 6th oil change oils when drained. Sometime lightning condition is tricky to photo oil in pyrex as what our eyes can see.
WILL CONTINUE.....................