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Filling tank with compressor

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Lobi

Lobi

Member
Feb 11, 2023
172
142
Michigan
Noob with compressor.
Been having my big tank filled at scuba shop and topping of guns with the tank.
Bought a compressor. Is it a easy as just back filling from the compressor to the tank? What are the gotcha moves or mistakes in filing the tank with the compressor? I have a female quick disconnect on both the tank and compressor hoses. I assume that a double male connector should work fine to connect then to fill the tank.
Thanks in advance
 
Is your gun regulated or not? Also, just because your gun can handle 4500, doesn't necessary mean you need to fill it to 4500. If regulated, you just need to put more air in than what it's regulated to. For example. I have a rifle that will "fill" at 310 bar (4300ish lbs) of pressure but it's regulated at 1600psi. So even if I just fill to 250 bar, I get a TON of shots.
If it's not regulated, I doubt it shoots it best at 4500psi. Find it's sweet spot and you will see that you probably don't need to fill that high and work your compressor so hard to reach 4500. Just my .02

I promise you that a lot of us run more on partial fills than total fills.
 
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Some things to watch out for: compressor temp, heat will kill it faster than anything, if filling a large tank you may need to do it in shifts, i.e. stop and let the compressor cool down before continueing to refill. Also, let the compressor come up to the pressure in the tank before you open the tank valve to continue the fill. This will reduce the effect of a higher pressure pushing back on the compress and reduce the chance of damaging the compressor.

I recently found this little one way valve from Best Fittings, it allows me to fill my tank using a smaller compressor like the Benjamin Traveler. It prevents back flow from the tank to the compressor, so there's no chance of a higher pressue flowing back at the compressor when resuming a fill after letter the compressor cool. This thing has been a real game changer for me when refilling my tank!

Oneway Valve.jpg
 
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Gerry52 said:
It would REALLY help if you'd describe the type of compressor, type & size of tank(s), etc. There are posts here on AGN that are specific to different compressors. What have YOU got? It's kind of like asking "I have a car, how do I fix it"? GIVE with the DETAILS!
Click to expand...
His 2nd post on this thread says he has a Yong Heng — never mentions size of tank
 
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Lobi said:
I bought the YH.
Want to be able to bring full bottle with me to the range. Local scuba shop could only give me 3k fills, new gun wants 4500
Click to expand...

You should be able to get quite a bit of shooting in if you fill your gun(s) and your tank before going to the range. You won't be able to fill your gun(s) to 4500 psi even once from the tank, though you can get pretty close the first time with the max pressure dropping off with each successive fill. Depending on how much you have to pay to fill your tank to 3000 psi plus gas spent going to the fill shop, you will eventually save enough to pay for your Yong Heng by not having to do that anymore. The convenience alone of not having to drive somewhere for air, is worth more than the money savings for me.

A good water trap is pretty much a requirement for the Yong Heng. I bought a huge double cylinder Tuxing setup but wish I had gotten the second one instead:

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The external cotton filter / trap that comes with the Yong Heng it does a good job at removing "crud" from the air. The built in water trap gets rid of quite a bit of moisture as long as you give it a quick release every now and then while filling, but a final water trap seemed like a good idea for filling my tank and expensive guns.

If you want to be able to keep pressure in your final water trap / filter but still be able to remove the gun from the fill line and restart the compressor with no pressure load in the line, you will need a one way check valve on the compressor side of the big water trap / filter and a shutoff valve with a bleeder on it on the gun side of the water trap. If all you want to be able to do is shut down the compressor to let it cool and start it up again with no pressure on the compressor side, but to not disconnect the gun or tank, then all you would need is the one way check valve.

You can calculate how many shots / fills you can get with everything topped off before you head to the range, using this calculator at AOA.
 
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It is as easy as putting a male to male in to connect the hoses. But the stock YH filter may not get all the water out of the air. I bought a black filter about 8 inches long before getting a big gold Tuxing filter and have never installed the big one. I put color changing desicant into the black one and it takes about 6 tank refills for it to get wet. So I do not think the really big filter is necessary. I have the filters oriented so that the lines slope back to the YH, however, and vent every 5 minutes which removes a significant amount of water. After a tank fill the YH filter has significant water in it but the color changing beads will show very little change.

I've added a computer radiator to mine with fans to help the YH stay cooler. Putting a fan on the YH body also apparently helps. Putting soda bottles filled with water and frozen in the cooling water helps too. But as long as you just watch the temperature gauge and don't let it get over 65 C (I use 60 instead) you can just put in the male to male and use it. But I would keep run times low until you have additional air filtration - or just wait.

I also think the one way valve others have suggested is a really good idea. I put it in the outlet of my extra moisture filter so it does not allow the tank to fill the filters or the YH. That way I can open the tank up when I start the YH and filling starts when the YH pressurizes itself and the filters above the tank pressure. I also lost an O-ring in one of the moisture filters and the one-way kept me from loosing the air in the bottle. Really good low cost addition. But if you put it on, do not dead head the whip coming out of the filter because you will have no way to vent it.

Start up sequence is:

1) Make sure the YH vent is open
2) Start the cooling water pump and in my case the fans on the cooler
3) Start the YH then close the vent
4) Open the tank valve
5) Check the time to prepare for the first vent after 5 minutes.
6) Check the temperature and when it gets too hot (or the gun or bottle is full), open the vent then shut down the YH. Close the tank valve and then open the vent on the fill set to vent the lines. If you are filling a gun there is no bottle to close and the gun has a one way so after the YH is vented and turned off, you vent the fill set and remove it from the gun. Leave the cooling on until the temperature gets back near ambient.

If you do not open the vent before starting the YH or before shutting it off you may damage the compressor and are likely to trip the breaker of the circuit powering it. The switch on the YH should only be pushed when the vent is open.
 
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