How much should an airfill be?

[616fun]

To be fair, a compressor a shop would run would be more than $3500, plus you have filters, electric, etc. however, 100 fills a year is way low balling. That would average roughly 2 fills a week. That wouldn't cover the instructors teaching classes. I could average 100 fills a year easily on my diving, let alone if my buddies needed a fill

 

[beaverdivers]

I have run the numbers very conservatively and no matter what beaver divers says @100 fills per year *$20 = $2000.00 A brand spanking new compressor is only $3500 I agree with 616fun.How on earth could charging $20 a cyl be breaking even? how many fills do you do a year? how many do you do for free?

My 30 year old air compressor died after 30 years. Instead of getting a new truck I bought a new Bauer. By the time I got it operating, I have close to $20,000 into my fill station.

Yes you are correct, we give some fills for free to our good customers.

However, we are not a fill station in a place where people do much local diving. We mainly fill and charge for people filling their cylinders for air guns ( to scare bears ), float bags for avalanches and comercial divers.

Yes, you need to make your own decision.

IMO, most shops & people who own compressors don't figure in all the costs to buy, run & mantain their compressor.

Good Luck & Good Diving!

 

[triplecove]

To be fair, a compressor a shop would run would be more than $3500, plus you have filters, electric, etc. however, 100 fills a year is way low balling. That would average roughly 2 fills a week. That wouldn't cover the instructors teaching classes. I could average 100 fills a year easily on my diving, let alone if my buddies needed a fill

This was all broken down earlier with the cost per fill after 2 years was $6 after 4 years it was $4 Including the entire cost of the compressor I just used 100 fills because I filled 100 this year. I will prob fill twice that next year now that my son is ow cert. Owning my own compressor will really pay off diving remote Moosehead lake. Beaverdiver says he just replaced his 30 year old compressor. Now figure that into $20 fills! $20K/30 years is only $667. Per year of service not too bad!

 

[616fun]

This was all broken down earlier with the cost per fill after 2 years was $6 after 4 years it was $4 Including the entire cost of the compressor I just used 100 fills because I filled 100 this year. I will prob fill twice that next year now that my son is ow cert. Owning my own compressor will really pay off diving remote Moosehead lake. Beaverdiver says he just replaced his 30 year old compressor. Now figure that into $20 fills! $20K/30 years is only $667. Per year of service not too bad!

I wasn't disagreeing, only pointing out that a compressor for a shop is much more than a personal use unit. Also note that a business would allow you to write that compressor off as a depreciating asset over the years.

 

[gcarter]

I wasn't disagreeing, only pointing out that a compressor for a shop is much more than a personal use unit. Also note that a business would allow you to write that compressor off as a depreciating asset over the years.

Deductability is an important consideration. A business does this with before tax dollars. An individual does it with after tax dollars. Any comparison between a LDS and an individual needs to take this into account.

 

[spectrum]

Deductability is an important consideration. A business does this with before tax dollars. An individual does it with after tax dollars. Any comparison between a LDS and an individual needs to take this into account.

From a purely business comparison standpoint this may be true. However as the diver deciding between buying fills or operating a personal fill station it is all after tax dollars.

 

[gcarter]

From a purely business comparison standpoint this may be true. However as the diver deciding between buying fills or operating a personal fill station it is all after tax dollars.

Beaver quoted the cost of his compressor as part of his fill price justification. For the purposes of the discussion here, for comparibility to what the OP is dealing with, Beaver is overstating his costs. No, it has nothing to do with the personal business case / justification on whether or not to buy a compressor. It is highly relevant to some of the other discussion taking place in this thread.

 

[triplecove]

From a purely business comparison standpoint this may be true. However as the diver deciding between buying fills or operating a personal fill station it is all after tax dollars.

This is very true. Looking at the tax point of view, we pay 6.25% tax on every fill here in beautiful Taxachusetts add that into the equation and the costs per fill when owning your own compressor are even less. 100fills X 8.75 = $875.00 X 6.25% = $54.69 this alone pays for all the filters for 20 hours of compressor use. (which is a lot of old 72cf fills!)

 

[BRT]

On thing I noticed, when people are calculating cost is that when they are doing electric comparisons they are using RESIDENTAL rates... Businesses pay alot more... In NYC most businesses get a demand meter, it basically monitors peak demand over 5 minute intervals and raises a multiplier each time a threshold is met... The first timne I saw my electric bill I nearly fainted... I had to dramatically change the way I filled my banks and had to set it up for automatic filling during the night as the rates are lower..
In NYC the consumption rate is about 10 cents per KW hour and another 10 cents for delievery charge..

my compressor takes is about out 6KW per hour.. so thats $1.20 an al 80 takes about 20 mins to fill.. thats $0.40 to fill the tank.. sounds cheap doesnt it.. but the shops multipler is usually around 20 (some months less, some more).. so it costs me about $8 in electricity for that fill.... Now this doesn't include my cost for filters, compressor maintenence, gas testing, or labor..

The filters can be a big thing as well.. My gas needs to meet ANDI standards so my filtration costs are much higher than the average shop.

---------- Post added November 20th, 2012 at 01:12 PM ----------

He definitely enhances the point that a $8 fill is more than reasonable.. if we use his 1500 fills at 3 fills an hour thats 500 hours of labor.. even at minimum wage of $8 thats still $4k and that doesnt take into account all the time it takes to maintain the compressor.. I wish I had his electric rates!
The filtration costs are also very low.. the stock unit without additional filtration just meets grade e gas.. I couldn;t imagine having to use grade e.. He needs at least $1500 in additional filtration equipment plus filtration...

At $8 electricity per fill you should be using a diesel compressor or a generator. There is no rate multiplier in the USA that puts the rate at $4/KWH. You are confused.

Brian

 

[Namreg 58]

Just because your compressor has a 6kw motor, it does not mean that it consumes 6kw / hour constantly.
While filling a near empty tank the resistance will be minimal at say 1kw compared to when it reaches fill pressure at maybe 4kw depending on the size of the pump.

Compare it to a car with 300 bhp on tap. Whilst cruising along at 50 mph you would only be realising about 80 bhp of its full potential. When you floor the throttle to see what it can do is when all the ponies come into play as it is pushing against greater resistance just like the increasing pressure in a dive cylinder.

The only way to get a true consumption reading is to plug in a power meter.