Building a personal fill station

[imwright1985]

One of my dive buddies has been thinking of building his own fill station and i got to thinking of general layouts for him, now we are wondering if this should work ok. He has a choice between 2 types of pumps for very cheap (both capible of filling tanks to 5000psi) an Oil less and an oiled pump so we were going to go with the oilless. He has a few commercial gas cyls that can be cleaned and converted to banks, the rest is what we have to actually spend cash on.

The layout i was thinking was going to be like this
Compressor to filter to banks, banks to shut off to purge, purge to manifold (psi gauge on manifold) Whips to fill fittings, shut offs on whips.

I dont remember how big his tanks are for the bank and i dont know what size compressors hes got access to so i think we are going to start with a 7 post manifold (1 for inlet, 1 for gauge, plug 3 of them and start with 2 whips and depending on how good his set up works slowly add an extra whip)

my questions are how do you know when to change filters, what filters are good and are we missing anything from our plans?, he is setting this all up in his airconditioned garage so it shouldnt have much humidity going through the pump

Thanks
-Ryan

 

[mike_s]

not to point the discussion away from this board, but check over on Decostop. there are some great dicsussions, photos, diagrams there on how to bill a personal fill station with lots of examples of members own stations.

 

[imwright1985]

Thanks ill check it out, am i atleast on the right track with plans for this though. I know between me and my buddy we can prettymuch build anything its just a matter of cost

 

[coldsmoke]

I am in the process of build my fill station as well. This is what mine will look like. It's almost there, but I am still getting feed back on a few things so I might make some changes. I have learned alot along the way from others and would love to pass on the favor so feel free to ask. For filter questions I would say that Lawrence Factor has been very good to deal with.

Hunter

 

[Doc Harry]

I found courses in gas mixing and fill station operation were invaluable when I was starting out.

It is especially helpful if you take the course in a place where there is a large fill station and other smaller fill stations in the area to tour.

 

[mike_s]

I am in the process of build my fill station as well. This is what mine will look like. It's almost there, but I am still getting feed back on a few things so I might make some changes. I have learned alot along the way from others and would love to pass on the favor so feel free to ask. For filter questions I would say that Lawrence Factor has been very good to deal with.

Hunter

Nice diagram.

question. wouldn't you want a check valve between the panel and your fill whip?

that way when you open the valve on the tank, it won't back fill into your panel? (reduces cleaning of the panel and changes of contamination? just an idea for discussion/thought).


EDIT: See my response below where I saw the check valve

 

[Doc Harry]

Nice diagram.

question. wouldn't you want a check valve between the panel and your fill whip?

that way when you open the valve on the tank, it won't back fill into your panel? (reduces cleaning of the panel and changes of contamination? just an idea for discussion/thought).

You are absolutely correct.

 

[mike_s]

Nice diagram.

question. wouldn't you want a check valve between the panel and your fill whip?

that way when you open the valve on the tank, it won't back fill into your panel? (reduces cleaning of the panel and changes of contamination? just an idea for discussion/thought).

You are absolutely correct.

Actually on 2nd look... it's there. Looks like a rotated Z. However, looks more like an angled L coming off the fill panel because one side of the "rotated Z" is on the same line as the fill panel. so I didn't catch it at first look.

However, didn't see any drains... (but you might have that integrated into your stacks).


Thoughts on breaking up the 4 2400psi bottles into 2 banks? (pro's / con's ? )

 

[coldsmoke]

Actually on 2nd look... it's there. Looks like a rotated Z. However, looks more like an angled L coming off the fill panel because one side of the "rotated Z" is on the same line as the fill panel. so I didn't catch it at first look.

However, didn't see any drains... (but you might have that integrated into your stacks).

Drains are between the stages on the compressor and before the first filter stack.

Thoughts on breaking up the 4 2400psi bottles into 2 banks? (pro's / con's ? )

Well I'm no expert, but I am not sure you would gain much from this. What advantage do you see?

Hunter

 

[imwright1985]

Ok so it looks like we're on the right track but were just running 1 bank. DO you guys use the CO card indicators for when to change filters?