How much should an airfill be?

[oldschoolto]

I don't know... I have a good friend that had a small compressor and gave up using it... said you have to spend 30 minutes a tank easy for filling, And after the second 3000 psi fill you need to let the thing cool down for a hour before trying the next fill... 10 tanks to 3300psi would take the whole day of screwing around... Now, It would be ok to fill one, two tanks every now and again... If you are going to get a compressor, Get a real compressor and add two cascade bottles to it... Then you're setup will work ok... best price I came up with was $7,500 ... Then add in your time and space to do it... I find people that build their own fill station do it for the fun and convince of filling their and friends tanks....

Jim...

 

[triplecove]

I don't know... I have a good friend that had a small compressor and gave up using it... said you have to spend 30 minutes a tank easy for filling, And after the second 3000 psi fill you need to let the thing cool down for a hour before trying the next fill... 10 tanks to 3300psi would take the whole day of screwing around... Now, It would be ok to fill one, two tanks every now and again... If you are going to get a compressor, Get a real compressor and add two cascade bottles to it... Then you're setup will work ok... best price I came up with was $7,500 ... Then add in your time and space to do it... I find people that build their own fill station do it for the fun and convince of filling their and friends tanks....

Jim...

Is this your experience Clownfish? They don't mention that in the description of the low end compressor I looked at, and the comments seem quite favorable to the unit.

Max Air 35 Standard Scuba Compressor

 

[oldschoolto]

Remember that 3000psi is the top of the compressor limit on the Max air 35... The last 10% and more likely 25% is where all the heat and time is.... Now if you take the Max air 90 the compressor limit is 5000psi... Filling a tank to 3600psi will give you about 3250/3300psi cold and your at about 70% of compressor limit making service life and maintenance a lot easier on it.... adding a cascade of one or two T size bottles gives you a good bank of cool air to work from.... Things don't last long when run full throttle all the time ... I'm not trying to talk you out of it, I'm just giving you the facts that I looked at and other peoples tries at filling tanks....

Jim...

 

[CT Sean]

Pretty sure my LDS charges 5.00 per tank for an 80. A little higher for larger capacity tanks, though I don't recall the amount. I paid 45.00 for a 10 fill card

 

[Paulmal]

What all the calculations I have seen here did not include labor, either the persons or the shop staffs, or the opportunity cost of the space in your home/ shop overhead at a dive shop. Most the people I know that have compressors have banks of gas and do it because they can't get good fills not to save money. Good full is 3400-3800 on LP steels, anything below 3k is a short fill.
Another thing to keep in mind is your LDS is in business to make money so they need to cover cost plus make some profit to stay open. Most dive shops I have talked to and worked at end up loosing money on fills unless they are doing huge volumes of gas.
I know several shops that would love to shut down their compressor because they loose money on every fill but you gotta have one to be in the dive business.

Just food for thought.

 

[triplecove]

Pretty sure my LDS charges 5.00 per tank for an 80. A little higher for larger capacity tanks, though I don't recall the amount. I paid 45.00 for a 10 fill card

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.

 

[oldschoolto]

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.

I would try talking to the LDS that uses the sticker that you hate... You may very well workout a deal being your only filling to 2250 and have so many tanks to fill... I'd buy the owner a beer and have a chat... Can't hurt...

Jim...

 

[triplecove]

I would try talking to the LDS that uses the sticker that you hate... You may very well workout a deal being your only filling to 2250 and have so many tanks to fill... I'd buy the owner a beer and have a chat... Can't hurt...

Jim...

I only hate the sticker because it doesn't work for me, we have a place on Moosehead lake Maine that we go to on the weekends and vacations. If I only had 2 tanks and had to go to the lds I would be driving all weekend long so I leave any full tanks up there and haul the others home and get them filled here in Ma. I think they charge $95 for a single tank sticker, That would be over $1k for a year including tax for 10 tanks. If I find a shop that still uses fill cards nearby that would be nice, anyone know of one in eastern Ma?

 

[Tug]

If I find a shop that still uses fill cards nearby that would be nice, anyone know of one in eastern Ma?

Most of the shops do. Of the top of my head both Undersea and South Shore both have fill cards.


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---------- Post Merged at 04:51 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:18 PM ----------

East Coast Divers in Brookline, United Divers in Somerville, Andy's Sport Shop in Fitchburg and North East Scuba in Chelmsford all offer fill cards

 

[triplecove]

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).