Booster Pump options for use in the air gun community

[Steveguy]

I've been using the Ayrtekk Booster since the first of the year to help my nitrogen fills last me a little longer. So far so good. My Nitrogen tank is down to 2000 psi now. That's the lowest it's ever been since I've been using Nitrogen as I usually get a fresh tank when it gets close to 3000 psi in years past. Gonna see how close to 1000 psi I can get before I return this one for a fresh tank.

I have learned to use and air compressor on the low pressure side to make my nitrogen go even further. When I use the two SCBA tanks the low pressure side seems to run out as fast or faster than the high pressure side, which was my reasoning for using the shop compressor on the low side recently/

I have a friend in Ohio and he bought the Extreme Booster about the same time I bought the Ayrtekk. He's been using nitrogen for some time like me and he bought a nice shop compressor to use on the low side to make his nitrogen go further as well. He has no complaints.

I guess our only complaints are we wish we had done this sooner? LOL Gotta make those nitrogen fills go as far as they can go. I'm shooting more powerful guns that use more air now days and it really helps.

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/...morning-first-fill-on-the-cricket/?referrer=1

Ok,Camp Fussell,this friend in Ohio now has a MAJOR complaint.The Extreme Big Bore Booster Pump is being sold.As of today,they told me my warranty is dead as they cannot access parts for it ,and Texas Machine Parts told me in a nice way to go get ****ed as far as a parts diagram .They told me it would be like McDonalds taking the recipe for the Big Mac to the grave with them when they go out of business.So,I have a nice booster pump right now that works flawlessly,but the day will come when it needs serviced.I’ve learned a very valuable lesson as far as buying from a sketchy company with limited history.The writing was on the wall with tjhe Extreme Booster Pump.The history of the you tube videos of this pump shows the company changing hands several times in about 6 years.So,I guess I enjoy my booster until it fails,and then at that point try to find a high pressure engineer or mechanic that can get er’ going again.One question I ask myself today,is if I would have known there would be no warranty or support for this item two years after I bought it,and knowing that it functioned as described for the time being,would I still have gone through with the purchase? I honestly don’t know the answer to that question ,but I suspect I would not have done it.The fact is,right now the pump works flawlesslyand theres no electronics to it,so how hard could it be to maintain? Hell,I have seen photos of units that JoE Blow built that were fully electronic solenoids controlling all the valves. Altaros might be a good option.They seem to have a stable history,but hell appear to be in a foreign country.As for the AArytek pump you bought Jimmy,I seem to be able to find no information there with regards to that company other than they say to contact Maddog stocks.I look at Maddog stocks website and see no mention of a warranty, and these pumps now seem to be back ordered and ghosted ,just like the Extreme Booster Pump was 18 montjs prior to going up for sale.I’m thinking personally about saying **** the booster altogether and just using 6k Nitrogen like I was before I bought the booster.One of those cylinders still lasts me years with no booster at all

 

[rcs9250]

Ok,Camp Fussell,this friend in Ohio now has a MAJOR complaint.The Extreme Big Bore Booster Pump is being sold.As of today,they told me my warranty is dead as they cannot access parts for it ,and Texas Machine Parts told me in a nice way to go get ****ed as far as a parts diagram .They told me it would be like McDonalds taking the recipe for the Big Mac to the grave with them when they go out of business.So,I have a nice booster pump right now that works flawlessly,but the day will come when it needs serviced.I’ve learned a very valuable lesson as far as buying from a sketchy company with limited history.The writing was on the wall with tjhe Extreme Booster Pump.The history of the you tube videos of this pump shows the company changing hands several times in about 6 years.So,I guess I enjoy my booster until it fails,and then at that point try to find a high pressure engineer or mechanic that can get er’ going again.One question I ask myself today,is if I would have known there would be no warranty or support for this item two years after I bought it,and knowing that it functioned as described for the time being,would I still have gone through with the purchase? I honestly don’t know the answer to that question ,but I suspect I would not have done it.The fact is,right now the pump works flawlesslyand theres no electronics to it,so how hard could it be to maintain? Hell,I have seen photos of units that JoE Blow built that were fully electronic solenoids controlling all the valves. Altaros might be a good option.They seem to have a stable history,but hell appear to be in a foreign country.As for the AArytek pump you bought Jimmy,I seem to be able to find no information there with regards to that company other than they say to contact Maddog stocks.I look at Maddog stocks website and see no mention of a warranty, and these pumps now seem to be back ordered and ghosted ,just like the Extreme Booster Pump was 18 montjs prior to going up for sale.I’m thinking personally about saying **** the booster altogether and just using 6k Nitrogen like I was before I bought the booster.One of those cylinders still lasts me years with no booster at all

I had a Hydraulics International two stage oxygen clean booster I bought in 2009. Cost me $7500. I used it for boosting helium and oxygen for scuba diving.
It was a pretty close copy of a Haskel. Very well made, high quality , and a couple thousand cheaper than a Haskel.
Any way, a booster has a ton of O ring that do all the work. If you keep track of how long it takes to boost a common task it can help show if you’re having leak problems. Typically it will be O ring wear but other things can occur as well.
The drive side is just a big piston with a big O ring riding against a metal or non-metal cylinder wall. If the wall gets scored you can lose drive force.
The boost side is just more O rings and possible wear issues to cylinder walls.
The last item is the pneumatic valve, usually on top of drive cylinder. It is just a standard valve for cycling the drive piston back and forth. More O rings.
If you can get a hold of any booster manufacturers service manual or at the very least a parts explosion it would be helpful. They’re all the same. Obvious variation would be O ring sizes. Figuring the sizes would be the hard part.
I did some modifying to a couple Haskels for boosting argon when I was diving, they’re pretty simple devices.
The one pictured below is the one I bought.

 

[Steveguy]

I had a Hydraulics International two stage oxygen clean booster I bought in 2009. Cost me $7500. I used it for boosting helium and oxygen for scuba diving.
It was a pretty close copy of a Haskel. Very well made, high wiality, and a couple thousand cheaper than a Haskel.
Any way, a booster has a ton of O ring that do all the work. If you keep track of how long it takes to boost a common task it can help show if you’re having leak problems. Typically it will be O ring wear but other things can occur as well.
The drive side is just a big piston with a big O ting riding against a metal or non-metal cylinder wall. If the wall gets scored you can lose drive force.
The boost side is just more O rings and possible wear issues to cylinder walls.
The last item is the pneumatic valve, usually on top of drive cylinder. It is just a standard balve for cycling the drive piston back and forth. More O rings.
If you can get ahold of anout any booster manufacturers service manual or at the very least a parts explosion it would be helpful. They’re all the same. Obvious variation would be O ring sizes. Figuring the sizes would be the hard part.
I did some modifying to a couple Haskels for boosting argon when I was diving, they’re pretty simple devices.
The one pictured below is the one I bought.

View attachment 389388

Thats awesome booster there.And yes,I figured these things,like everthing else in the hpa community is only as good as the orings that hold the pressure.Your booster is awesome,and I knew that good ones were very expensive.Texas machinenparts will not so much as send me a parts diagram as they said that secret will go to the grave with them if nobody buys the company.Personally,I don’t shoot a ton of shots.I’m a hunter and a pester,not a sit around and target shoot all day guy.With the limited use that I give it,I can see this thing lasting quite a while before something fails.Like I said,for as much as shoot,I will most likeLy just use the 6k Nitrogen tank all by itself. I have two 98 cu ft Great White tanks that I fill with the Nitrogen,But lets say I have no booster at all ,and am only using the N2 .That means that I’m only ever filling the carbon fibers when they still have 3,000 psi in them already.Doing that,a tank of Nitrogen will top those tanks a whole mess of times.Filling the Great whites when they are totally empty uses up a ton of that 494 cu ft N2,tank though.But ,I should never have to fill from totally empty much.I talked to a company in Valencia California yesterday.I believe they are called High Pressue Technolgy.They service Haskel boosters and also the maximator.They could probably help me they were saying.I know that heat is the enemy of rubber orings,and I cant feel where this thing generates much heat while functioning.I never really paid much attentiontbh,but I never noticed anything getting warm.I did notice heat when I fill my carbon fibers from the steel Nitrogen cylinder.I just try to do everything I can slowly fill wise.The company in Valencia started going off on a tangent about getting me a quote for a new booster.I finally told them,to can it! I already have a booster ,I just need help maintaining it.They told me to email them video footage of it in action,which I did.As for keeping track of how long it takes can help show me leaks,tjats interesting.Its just each time I press a button on the valve that drives the piston,I can hear the piston actuate,and then the psi in the rifle’s tank rises about 200 psi, with each “stroke” and press of the green button.

 

[Steveguy]

Some random Joe Blow built this one !

 

[Steveguy]

 

[Steveguy]

View attachment 389392

 

[Sergey1972]

View attachment 389393

There is no Magic in the unit pictured. Looks like 5-6 machined parts and everything else is off the rack components. They used good components and have small margin, probably reason for going out of business, along with price presssure from Altaros. We used boosters like this and Haskell and Hydrualics Intenational, in the paintball industry during the transistion from Co2 to Nitrogen to Compressed air. Altaros will give you better performance and features. Your unit is probably more robust and easier to figure out for a Scuba compressor/booster service guy. There is no complexity in your unit from an automatic shuttle valve. The Valencia company you mention resells German boosters I can't imagine they would touch the Extreme Booster for liability reasons.

 

[Sergey1972]

View attachment 389390
Some random Joe Blow built this one !

This looks like a single action booster (like the extreme) that has been automated with off the rack automation components. You can do the same to yours. The electronics and solenoid valves replace your actuation button. The Haskell units do it with pnuematic shuttle valves. If you watch some "gas pressure booster" animation videos including Altaros, I promise it will make sense.

 

[CampFussell]

Looks like you're getting some good info here Steve. As you know my airgunning has taken a nose dive lately. My trigger time has turned into ebiking up and down these back country roads and Burgaw city sidewalks.

Keep plugging and I'm sure you'll get your answers. As for my Ayrtek, I'm not gonna sweat it till the time comes to repair it. At the rate I'm using it, it should be pristine for a while.

Maybe you could contact Mr Hollowpoint for some more information?

Peace and oring grease ......Fuss

 

[Steveguy]

There is no Magic in the unit pictured. Looks like 5-6 machined parts and everything else is off the rack components. They used good components and have small margin, probably reason for going out of business, along with price presssure from Altaros. We used boosters like this and Haskell and Hydrualics Intenational, in the paintball industry during the transistion from Co2 to Nitrogen to Compressed air. Altaros will give you better performance and features. Your unit is probably more robust and easier to figure out for a Scuba compressor/booster service guy. There is no complexity in your unit from an automatic shuttle valve. The Valencia company you mention resells German boosters I can't imagine they would touch the Extreme Booster for liability reasons.

I got the vibe that they really wanted to sell me something, and were politely blowing smoke up my ass like most people do who arent man enough to just say no. Thanks for your input.

 

[Steveguy]

Looks like you're getting some good info here Steve. As you know my airgunning has taken a nose dive lately. My trigger time has turned into ebiking up and down these back country roads and Burgaw city sidewalks.

Keep plugging and I'm sure you'll get your answers. As for my Ayrtek, I'm not gonna sweat it till the time comes to repair it. At the rate I'm using it, it should be pristine for a while.

Maybe you could contact Mr Hollowpoint for some more information?

Peace and oring grease ......Fuss

Thanks Camp Fussel. .No need to contact anyone at the moment as there’s no problems.I’m just worrying about poop tjat hasnt happened yet is all. Lol

 

[Steveguy]

There is no Magic in the unit pictured. Looks like 5-6 machined parts and everything else is off the rack components. They used good components and have small margin, probably reason for going out of business, along with price presssure from Altaros. We used boosters like this and Haskell and Hydrualics Intenational, in the paintball industry during the transistion from Co2 to Nitrogen to Compressed air. Altaros will give you better performance and features. Your unit is probably more robust and easier to figure out for a Scuba compressor/booster service guy. There is no complexity in your unit from an automatic shuttle valve. The Valencia company you mention resells German boosters I can't imagine they would touch the Extreme Booster for liability reasons.

Thats about exactly what I envisioned.Couple valves and a machined piston ,and a whole mess of orings waiting to fail.And when they do,would be nice to know the size.

 

[Sergey1972]

Thats about exactly what I envisioned.Couple valves and a machined piston ,and a whole mess of orings waiting to fail.And when they do,would be nice to know the size.

It looks like all the valves/reg's are AquaEnvironment (yellow) Precision pressure (stainless check valve), and miscellaneous hardware. Likely just o-rings on the large drive piston and hydraulic U seals on the high-pressure side (at least that's how Altaros does it) Not likely to have any custom seals. I was even able to source the Altaros metric seals locally. Parts are cheap, experienced labor is expensive, and experienced searching labor is expensive (you have free access to searching labor on this forum).

 

[Roachcreek]

I have used several generations of the Shoebox, but they left us hanging for spares, at the same time I had a Booster that greatly resembles the extreme, which I sold to Doug Noble as I found it easier to just use it he Shoebox. Doug used it to boost helium. When my last Shoebix died nd parts wer not vailabke, I went with the Altaros, but I was greatly interested in the bottle to bottle Altaros, however with no primary source of air, I went with the compressor driven unit.

And never looked back.)

I don’t think any other booster does as well as the Altaros. They need very little maintainence, years between rebuilds, and they are automatic in operation, meaning you can set the PSI and walk away.

This morning I read on the classifieds Member Viper Joe had bought two of them, one to use and one for a backup/spare if the 1st one breaks. After a few years he is selling the backup because the 1st one never needed anything.

Sorry to show my pictures again as one has gotten tired of them, but I pulled the compressors back to show how thw system works, but bear in mind, a bottle to bottle Altaros booster also works well in the field.

Regards,

Roachcreek

The set up as I run it

This picture shows the three units and a 4 way dispenser that directs each individual compressors to a common storage tank to equalize, store and cool the air. Also shown are the filters, I get zero moisture to the booster.

This image shows the air cooled, cold to the touch Altaros booster and yet another filter that never gets moisture to it.

The CaliforniaAirtools compressors with cooling fans

The three cats running into the storage rank

 

[Steveguy]

It looks like all the valves/reg's are AquaEnvironment (yellow) Precision pressure (stainless check valve), and miscellaneous hardware. Likely just o-rings on the large drive piston and hydraulic U seals on the high-pressure side (at least that's how Altaros does it) Not likely to have any custom seals. I was even able to source the Altaros metric seals locally. Parts are cheap, experienced labor is expensive, and experienced searching labor is expensive (you have free access to searching labor on this forum

Thanks again,yeah as much as I use it I’m pretty confident will last a minute before needing anything.The company in Valencia,Ca that extreme high pressure told me the high pressure side will most likely fail first.That makes sense.

 

[Sergey1972]

Thanks again,yeah as much as I use it I’m pretty confident will last a minute before needing anything.The company in Valencia,Ca that extreme high pressure told me the high pressure side will most likely fail first.That makes sense.

Don't even sweat it. Paintball stores used a similar unit for years for daily fills of customer tanks. Unless Extreme made a drastic mistake (not likely) that thing will last long enough for you to get tired of it and move on to something else. By the way I do have 2 altaros units, that I love and loan to friends with air compressor issues.

 

[Roachcreek]

I always wanted for my set up, a device that would be installed between the compressor outlet and hose going to the storage tank, that would close a valve so the compressor was isolated and would rebound faster and come back on after reaching the desired pressure.
And just so you know: Yes I do have one way valves on each compressor line to prevent one compressor from filling another. I am trying to describe a valve to isolate the individual compressor while it recharged. Not sure if a device like that exists, but not using this set up much anymore, not sure if I would need it these days.

RC

 

[Steveguy]

Don't even sweat it. Paintball stores used a similar unit for years for daily fills of customer tanks. Unless Extreme made a drastic mistake (not likely) that thing will last long enough for you to get tired of it and move on to something else. By the way I do have 2 altaros units, that I love and loan to friends with air compressor issues.

I wanna thank you again for taking the time.You’re right about everything.The technology is ever evolving ,and so am I as a person. I like to think and plan for the future,when really would be better served by staying in today.Guns and fill equipment are just a small area of my life.I love the airgun community as a whole ,and like minded shooters.You guys are more my family than blood is.Again,thanks for your infinite wisdom.Who knows? Someone may just buy this company like Texas Machine parts did and start it up again.They told me 18 months ago that sustainable parts for the booster was their issue and even mentioned the war in Ukraine as a reason.But some resourceful individual may get creative and source elsewhere.You just never know.

 

[Steveguy]

I always wanted for my set up, a device that would be installed between the compressor outlet and hose going to the storage tank, that would close a valve so the compressor was isolated and would rebound faster and come back on after reaching the desired pressure.
And just so you know: Yes I do have one way valves on each compressor line to prevent one compressor from filling another. I am trying to describe a valve to isolate the individual compressor while it recharged. Not sure if a device like that exists, but not using this set up much anymore, not sure if I would need it these days.

RC

Not sure if this ties into your described function,but I know with tjat Aarytek booster that Camp Fussell has,the Maddog Stock ordering page shows the price and then lists a seperate price if you want the “ isolation” valve ,it says.Not sure if the function is what you describe but probably is.

 

[Roachcreek]

Steve,

The function of the valve would be to close when the compressor starts up to refresh, then open the valve when the compressor has refreshed it would shut off. So it would could be wired to the compressors motor, I guess. It allows the compressor to recharge the compressor air tank without the additional load needed to drive the booster and furnish it with air. Also if one of the compressors shutoff pressure is higher or lower it would not affect the recharging compressor.

I have done this manually before and it made a difference in how long the Cats had to run, and of course if they run less, say 20/80 as opposed to 30/70, you produce less heat and in turn less wear and tear not to mention water.

It appears that the isolation valve on the Maddogstocks site is a manual valve. I have a manual valve on each of the 3 compressors that I used to see if my concept of a automatic valve actuated by the compressor coming on to refresh. I suspect a servo could be used, however I am ignorant of such things.

Thanks for the tip Steve.

RC