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Bought the Hill ec-3000 PCP Compressor, but have a BIG concern

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airgun14

airgun14

Member
Mar 21, 2020
134
1
dalarna, Sweden
Hi, just bought this compressor, tested it out shortly, works like advertised......

I have 4 questions, hoping someone who understand this more then me can answer, and probably still my concerns and/or educate me a bit in this subject

1) Now to my BIG concern: I dont want any water moisture in my guns, do I nee a inline filter to get ride of it,( I live in europe, is there any place within europe to buy a good one) I dont trust the alibaba/aliexpress/amazon "gold" filters to be safe enough and I am a bit skeptical to the PVC tube inside with some stuff to keep the moisture away. Im willing to pay extra for som real quality in line filters, but where?

2) If I suspect there could be small amount of water drops in my scuba tank, how do I approach this problem? is it possible to put the tank upside down, bleeding the water out with short bursts of air, my scuba tank is this :http://www.midlanddiving.com/airgun-charging/gun-charging-cylinders, and it appears the Valve is looking something like this: https://www.airhog.com/valves/138-jubilee-with-ah-gauge.html, leading me to my own thoughts of inverting the tank upside down bleeding out water if there is any, would that work? If not, would it be safe to empty the air and remove the valve (is it possible with home tools?) then dry the tank out. Or is the only solution to let a scuba tank shop open it up and dry it. It is a new bottle when I bought it, and it has been inspected and pressurized for 1 and a half year ago.

3) If I make the decision to remove the valve and dry out my scuba tank myself (if possible), should I empty the tank slow or fast, Im guessing slow to avoid any moisture build up ?

4) I have 2 good dehumidifiers in my apartment, would it be useful to have those running in a small airtight room for a few hours before using my Compressor? as they can lower the air humidity a lot.



I always put safety first, and Im almost regretting buying the compressor now, dont know what I was thinking, just want the air to be super dry when I use it. 

Or do I have to sell it ?



(I have a diving center not far from here, so I can still carry my scuba tanks there once in a while to get them filled, but its hard for me to manage that for some reasons , that why I bought this Compressor to have all at home)
 
On one of your points, inverting the scuba tank will not work, this I garnered from a video I watched by Steven/Stephen from "Air velocity sport" youtube., seek the video out.

I also believe the hill has a decent mositure removal system built in to it, so that and your dry room idea would settle any concerns I would have, you may of course differ.

good luck.


 
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ok, but the tank that Steven/Stephen from "Air velocity sport" has , he did mention that it was not possible due to a tube in the valve that extends longer inside the tank, if you look at the valve if my tube, it looks that it only threads into the top of the tank, so any water should be very close to exit if hold upside down..



Still even if the Hill has good moisture removal system built in to it, I want a good reliable inline filter, If anyone living in Europe has some tip, please leave a link
 
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1) you can get a high pressure filter form Altaros, I got a booster from there, also ordered the filter but they said I did not need it as there was one in the 8 Bar inlet side of the booster

https://www.altaros.cz/en/47-high-pressure-humidity-filter

2) to dry the tank out you will need a dry room and the air to circulate in the tank, use a small tube down the bottom, hot air will carry moist, e.g. use air from the outlet side of a vacuum cleaner

3) slow for you own safety

4) yes, also use the dehumidifier while doing nr. 2 (no pun intended)
 
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I think the tube that extends of the valve that Steven/Stephen from "Air velocity sport" was talking about is called Dip Tube : https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/scuba-cylinder-valve-installation.553725/

see picture nr 2 from top

The valve in my tank is only for airguns, and dont have that dip tube, so it "should" be able to be hold upside down and give a few openings to let som moisture out, if its in there of course...




 
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I live in Germany, but I use American scuba tanks for air storage. I do that because they are large and I get many gun fillings for one scuba tank (12 liters). I have two tanks. These tank valves can be easily removed if you have a forklift, but you can use a tree or a telephone pole as well. I see people are laughing now, but this method works very well. You place your scuba tank on a fork or against a tree or pole. Then take a cargo strap with a ratchet and wrap the tank fast against the fork with many wraps. Then tighten the strap. This provides all the rotational resistance needed to then take an 1 1/4" (I think) wrench and simply unscrew the valve. Be sure to drain the tank of air first of course. I think the actual thread of the valve is 3/4" NPS. However the thread is identified as a 3/4 Gas thread. There is rubber "O" ring for a seal. They rarely go bad. A little silicone grease here goes a long way. Yes, you can turn the tank upside down and drain the tank with short bursts of air provided you have removed that small tube on the valve. It simply unscrews with pliers. I think that thread is 1/16 NPT. That tube is only there for diver safety. It is not needed for air gun usage.

Water rarely collects in my tanks. I use a Bauer compressor that has filters and has a large duty cycle unlike your compressor. You must be careful to not run your compressor longer than a few minutes at a time or you will kill it. It will overheat. If water does condense in your bottle, it is not an issue assuming the small tube is removed from the tank valve. Just turn the bottle upside down and blow it out.

You must not charge your scuba bottle higher than 235 bar or the safety disc will likely burst on the bottle valve, (which is very exciting) and it isn't necessary anyway. Just because the gun can hold 250 bar does not mean to need to charge the gun to that pressure.

Be advised high quality high pressure valves, switches and sensors are expensive. I have found good pricing in Australia. The Chinese tank valves I purchased from Aliexpress were heavily chrome plated, so thickly the 3/4 Gas thread was oversize. I had to file the chrome off the thread with a thread file on a lathe so it fit the tank, but the new bottle valves only cost $38 each.
 
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...You must not charge your scuba bottle higher than 235 bar or the safety disc will likely burst on the bottle valve, (which is very exciting)...
Click to expand...

This is quite the understatement! I used to work in a dive shop many years ago and every time a burst disk let loose you generally had to peel us back off the ceiling.😨 Many times they fail just due to being old and flexed many times from many fills, not just from overfills.
 
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Thanks...... By the way my tank is a 300 bar one, and It seems I dont have that tube inside my valve, as my Tank is specially made for airgun use: 

Midland Diving Airgun Charging Cylinder range, 

I think this is the valve (Jubilee Range 300 bar cylinder valve) : https://www.bestfittings.co.uk/shop/airgun-charging-equipment/cylinder-accessories/cylinder-valves/airgun-charging-valves/mde-jubilee-gun-charging-valves/



Anyway, Yes I will take any precautions to be safe, always safety first, no exceptions, Low air humidity in the room before using my Compressor, extra inline filter, then once a month blow out moisture with the tank upside down. I will of course leave the tank for inspection to a divers shop like once a year also. This should be good enough .......








 
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yepp, as the tanks I have are built for airguns, then the extra tube that extends from the lower valve is no longer needed.... so probably the inverted tank + release air will help some...



both yes and no regarding connection between the Hill and my Tank, I will only use my Hill to top of the tank, lets say from 250 bar to 290 bar, its a small tank, only 7 liters, and keep it this way, reason is when I finally get my small airtight room to low humidaty (running 2 dehumidifiers for 3 hours) it would be stupid to only fill one or two airgun tubes, better top of that tank, and use that dry air for the rest of the week until it drops to 250 bar, then redo... it only takes 3 times fort he Hill pump to fill this up, 3 times meaning it cooles of in between..

Dont think that will stress the Hill to much...












 
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... reason is when I finally get my small airtight room to low humidaty (running 2 dehumidifiers for 3 hours) it would be stupid to only fill one or two airgun tubes...
Click to expand...

I don't know how much low humidity on the intake side matters, the concentration of moist is higher by the factor of the compression, so by logic should be much easier to condensate in a filter on the high pressure side - if you go for the Altaros filter I would ask those guys about that, they were very helpful when I ordered the booster
 
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I think I will do everything to be as safe as possible, cant hurt to have low humidity when topping my tank 😃. 

Of course, I will have in line filter also on the high pressure side, maybee even 2 of them., will order tomorrow. Every little step in the chain makes a different. But if 30% humidity does not matter at all compared to 60% on the intake side, well then I will listen to that and dont waist time to prepare, but I have to be convinced first that it does NOT matter. 

Im no expert in this subject by any means, but feeding a compressor with half the humidity must be better, otherwise Im confused 😲
 
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