Made in china "Scuba" air compressor

[Wetkiwinic]

Dose anyone actually answer questions on forums anymore or are smart-ass comments all I can expect?
I am a tech diver, instructor and fitter and turner by trade, so understand the concept and the potential risk pretty well. Im not exactly reinventing the wheel here guys. This system is essentially the last two stages of alot of older 3 stage pumps & its its beautifuly simple! So surely why not is a valid question? Dose someone make them already? I'd like to reiterate that I would find a decent quality pump. Not the crap on eBay.

 

[SnohomishDiver]

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that one concern about using compressors not intended for air is that heat and friction might volatilize plastic-y bits in the system, putting toxic vapor into the air. If it's volatile, an oil/water filter may not remove it.

 

[Wookie]

Dose anyone actually answer questions on forums anymore or are smart-ass comments all I can expect?
I am a tech diver, instructor and fitter and turner by trade, so understand the concept and the potential risk pretty well. Im not exactly reinventing the wheel here guys. This system is essentially the last two stages of alot of older 3 stage pumps & its its beautifuly simple! So surely why not is a valid question? Dose someone make them already? I'd like to reiterate that I would find a decent quality pump. Not the crap on eBay.

If you are careful, you can get a fine deal on EBay for a top quality used compressor with worldwide parts and tech support.

Smart fella like you ought to be able to ask the right questions of the seller and see if the deal is decent or not. If the seller won’t answer or “is selling it for someone else”, keep looking.

 

[Wetkiwinic]

If you are careful, you can get a fine deal on EBay for a top quality used compressor with worldwide parts and tech support.

Smart fella like you ought to be able to ask the right questions of the seller and see if the deal is decent or not. If the seller won’t answer or “is selling it for someone else”, keep looking.

I've regularly cried over the price of dive gear on eBay, the coast of freight and import tax to NZ is a killer.
I looked at importing the pump only and putting a new drive motor and filters that are easy and cheap enough to find here, but then I'm just left with a pump like any other, hence the question, why can't I just use a little 2stage pump that can run on a single phase electric motor.... And here we are...

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

I'm looking for a bit more of a scientific answer to the same question. All compressors rely on filters to remove oil or water, so why can't they be added to a small single piston 2 stage compressor like these?
I am aware the heat produced will make it a slow process and that there is some coin required to add filter and probably pressure maintaining systems. But if the end result is a cost effective portable compressor that's actually portable then why not? I wouldn't go for dirt cheap Chinese piece of crap, but the same compression method as what we are talking about here.
I'm from NZ so to import a full size one isn't practical, most privately owned high pressure compressors are home built or old as.
I am looking for answers from people smarter than me, that's not setting the bar high, so please don't tell me it's a stupid idea unless you can tell me why!

If you get one of the cheap ones made for paintball and such, add filters to it for big bucks, add a timer so it runs for short time and then cool down and start again.

You would maybe get something that works, but It would take forever to fill an AL80.


I think it is much more effective to buy one of the smaller SCUBA compressors and import it, if you cannot find any for sale native.

 

[Wookie]

I've regularly cried over the price of dive gear on eBay, the coast of freight and import tax to NZ is a gnus killer.
I looked at importing the pump only and putting a new drive motor and filters that are easy and cheap enough to find here, but then I'm just left with a pump like any other, hence the question, why can't I just use a little 2stage pump that can run on a single phase electric motor.... And here we are...

What Magnus said above. I think you’d be more invested in a crappy pump and all of the filtration than a used pump with shipping. But you’re right, you don’t need to ship motors, etc.

 

[rcontrera]

Can you buy one of the little crappy Chinese compressors and add a filtration system to it? Yes. I have several paintball and PCP gun customers that do just that. Unfortunately, you will spend more for the filtration system than you did for the compressor. Would it be good for diving? I can't say. Not that I don't know. I really am not allowed to say without losing my liability insurance. The small MCH6 is only $2700 but is a complete system. All you need to do there is add gasoline and oil to the engine or your local plug for the electric motor.

 

[rjack321]

I looked at importing the pump only and putting a new drive motor and filters that are easy and cheap enough to find here, but then I'm just left with a pump like any other, hence the question, why can't I just use a little 2stage pump that can run on a single phase electric motor.... And here we are...

You could, but it wont last. The duty cycle for something like that is perhaps an hour, max. To fill a scuba cylinder is at least 5x larger than what that should be doing. The bearings and shaft and other critical parts are going to get too hot, the oil sump is too small, basically its all going to burn up fast. You could just run it 20mins at a time and let it fully cool off then repeat. So it might take you a day to fill an AL80 that way. But I would guess the overall tolerances and build quality is in the 150-250hour range, even if you baby it with more hours of your time than any human should invest in it. And once any part on it fails you wont be able to get spares so the whole thing is a worthless brick at that point.

 

[kelemvor]

Dose anyone actually answer questions on forums anymore or are smart-ass comments all I can expect?

Well, it IS the internet...

...and a lot of scubaboard users work at or own dive shops. Dive shops lose money when folks DIY. That said, the compressor you're talking about sounds like a P.O.S. and I wouldn't want to use it. Better to find a used one. Some Europan (or European, I'm not sure if he was from Europa or Europe) dude was on SB the other day who had found a couple of real compressors both for around $1,000 USD (after currency conversion) if memory serves.

You could replace all the crappy parts and add the necessary filtration to this one, but you'll probably spend more than you would have if you'd just bought a proper compressor.

 

[RayfromTX]

People routinely come on scubaboard asking if they can use these cheap little compressors for scuba and are told no a dozen different ways. I don't recall anyone coming on here and telling about how they have been successfully doing it for years without consequences. Never