How much should an airfill be?

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I stopped by South shore yesterday but they were closed for Veterans day, Where is Undersea? I know where Sub Sea divers is but the few times I have tried there he has been closed (during his posted open hours no less).

Undersea is in Beverly


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If my lds offered either $5 fills or 10 fill cards @$45 I wouldnt even be considering a compressor. Remember guys I have all lp tanks 8 72's and 2 lp 80's (2640) so I'm not even talking about filling to 3k psi (yet I still have to pay $8.75 per fill @Lds) I may just try to find a shop that still uses air cards.

$8.75 per fill compared to up front purchase and long term maintenance costs is a losing battle. Saving $3.75 per fill will cost you thousands.
 
My beef with air fills is no so much with air fills but with nitrox fills. They are expensive with a capital E. $20 for 2 tanks.

That's cheap! The most local shop to me charges $20/tank for a NITROX fill and only my doubles are clean enough for blending (no one withing a reasonable 60 minute driving distance from me banks or coninuous blends/membranes).

I'd love to pay $10/tank for 32%.
 
yeah like 7 bucks here in TN and KY for 21%. Some charge more, so I don't go to them. I have one shop I love to visit and it is a 20 minute drive vs. the 10 minute drive to the shop I don't visit.
 
Ok, my local shop charges $5.00 for air any size tank. $10 for EANX. Air fill club membership is $125 for the year. Now this is when they actually charge you, good customers that purchase product from them usually don't get charged for gas. The way they see it is if you can bring divers in and keep them diving they are more likely to purchase more profitable products from the shop, it seams to be working for them. Even the $125 for a year I think is a steal.
 
$8.75 per fill compared to up front purchase and long term maintenance costs is a losing battle. Saving $3.75 per fill will cost you thousands.

yikes! $3.75 per fill is substantial and if I own my own compressor it sounds more like a $6 per fill savings at least according to some of the earlier posters. with 3 in the family diving and 50 dives apiece this year (at least I hope) Thats about a $900 savings If the compressor lasts 5 years I think it would have paid for itself and all the maint/filters not to mention the fills when and where needed!
 
yikes! $3.75 per fill is substantial and if I own my own compressor it sounds more like a $6 per fill savings at least according to some of the earlier posters. with 3 in the family diving and 50 dives apiece this year (at least I hope) Thats about a $900 savings If the compressor lasts 5 years I think it would have paid for itself and all the maint/filters not to mention the fills when and where needed!

Well if you keep going with this fuzzy math and assume a middle of the road $5000. investment and a savings of $3.75 you break even at 1333 dives.

If your family keeps clicking off home filled dives at 150 a year you break even just before 9 years is up.

Puts and takes:
1) You do have a 9 year old compressor for continued use or with resale value
2) You need to maintain of better that dive rate for nearly a decade or the ROI shifts
3) You get to fill your way
4) You need to tend all fills and how may whips will you have?
5) You own the maintenance labor and repair risk
6) It's on your premise, noise and all
7) You'll need to deal with all of your new best friends.

Pete
 
Well if you keep going with this fuzzy math and assume a middle of the road $5000. investment and a savings of $3.75 you break even at 1333 dives.

If your family keeps clicking off home filled dives at 150 a year you break even just before 9 years is up.

Puts and takes:
1) You do have a 9 year old compressor for continued use or with resale value
2) You need to maintain of better that dive rate for nearly a decade or the ROI shifts
3) You get to fill your way
4) You need to tend all fills and how may whips will you have?
5) You own the maintenance labor and repair risk
6) It's on your premise, noise and all
7) You'll need to deal with all of your new best friends.

Pete

For me, it wouldn't be about saving money but about accessibility. I cannot always get to a shop during their business hours to get a fill if I need one. Most shops near me only blend NITROX in tanks with their own VIP sticker (meaning I have to have different tanks for different shops). The more I learn to service my own equipment, when they find out through the grapevine I end up having to endure more hostility and so on. Tank fills these days are about the only reason I visit a shop anymore except to visit diver friends and ocassionally drop some dough to keep a good relationship for the one shop that I want to keep a relationship. Plus, if I pre-blend O2/He and then bring it to a shop for a top-off it pisses them off when they find out that I'm doing that and I get black listed. It's not a friendly world out there.

If you/anyone is ever in a position to completely bypass a shop, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
 
The Max Air 35 Standard Scuba Compressor advertises 3.5 cf/min (100 litres/min) FAD which is identical to the Bauer Junior II that I own. It will also fill tanks to 4800 psi, so filling to 3300 psi or so is nothing. The Junior II can easily fill 10 tanks straight so long as the air temperature is not over 25-30C (who knows what that is in imperial). However, who would regularly need to fill 10 tanks at a time? Even with 3 users and 2 tanks each it is only 6 and you do not have to do all at once since you are home!

Also, the time expended by you on filling tanks is nothing. What are you doing when home on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon? Reading the paper? Watching TV? Mowing the lawns? All you have to do is bleed the moisture separators once every 15 minutes and changing tanks once filled. Not hard and not an inconvenience. The time saved in not needing to go to a dive shop moer than makes up for bleeding the separators. I have under the house and it is relatively quiet (for neighbours). Since most Americans seem to have cellars (at least that is what we see on TV), this makes an ideal place to use the compressor. Space is not a problem if you have a decent garage or cellar. The best place to put it is the coldest place as this extends the life of the filters and ensures cooler fills.

By the way, over the past 11 years I have been into a local dive shop probably less than five times, yet have done about 1500 dives.

Happy to answer any other questions.
 
CFM and PSI are to totally separate scales that have very little in common... :wink: the Max-air limit is 3000 PSI, Thats it.... No more and to overrate the pressure switch is asking to blow a head gasket or rap out a rod and/or worst case broken crankshaft.... can you say BOOM...:bomb: I think I'm ready to call this dive...:banghead:
Jim....
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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