Guppy Valve removal

[scottg0814]

I have this Airhog guppy that is leaking where the valve seats with the tank. I've drained the air but before I go cranking on things I thought I would reach out for advice on how to remove the valve and then what will I need to re-seal it?

 

[Ca_Varminter]

It should only be hand tighten...
The only sealing is an O-ring...
I like to put a thin film of Krytox on the O-ring when I reassemble......

 

[scottg0814]

It should only be hand tighten...
The only sealing is an O-ring...
I like to put a thin film of Krytox on the O-ring when I reassemble......

Thank you!! I haven't used this bottle in a couple years cuz I knew it wasn't holding air and I have larger tanks anyway. The gauge is flaky too. The o-ring

was completely dried out and flat.
Will reassemble and hopefully that was the only leak. I don't have Krytox but will use some Super Lube o-ring silicon grease

 

[Humdinger]

All you need is the correct sized o-ring and some silicone grease on the o-ring and the threads. Hand tighten the valve. No need to over tighten as the o-ring creates the seal under pressure.

 

[scottg0814]

New o-ring with a little grease seems to have fixed the leak. I'll know more tmrw after an overnight test. BUT... the bleed screw is also leaking. It's always been hard to get a good seal on the bleed screw. Not sure if I can simply replace the seal on the bottom of the screw ?

 

[Ca_Varminter]

BUT... the bleed screw is also leaking. It's always been hard to get a good seal on the bleed screw. Not sure if I can simply replace the seal on the bottom of the screw ?

If your bleed screw has a solid white nylon seal....
You can try boiling the bleedscrew w/seal... This should soften the seal a little.
While hot screw the bleed screw back on.....This should help form the seal to the mating surface!
Good Luck

 

[Trucker3573]

I would not put silicone grease on the threads. That stuff on metal to metal contact surfaces is more like glue than lube in my experience.

 

[scottg0814]

My guppy tank saga continues... multiple issues:

1) Valve leak at bottle - fixed with new o-ring
2) Leak at valve bleed screw - boiled the plug and now seems to be OK. Thank you @Ca_Varminter
The gauge is faulty so I'll be replacing that...
I have an external regulator, with 2 good gauges, that I attach to the guppy to monitor pressure. The bottle was still losing pressure so now I have to test all the regulator fittings. Turns out he female foster at the end of the regulator hose was leaking. Tightened up the fittings and viola... no more leaks.
Back to my Benjamin ReCharge to top off the bottle one more time for the overnight pressure test. Compressor keeps running but pressure won't go above 2000psi. No leaks that I can find or hear. Compressor worked fine yesterday!?!?! Emailed Benjamin Customer Service, waiting for a reply. Benjamin includes various o-rings and gaskets for maintenance so hopefully they'll direct me to the issue. I changed the compressor oil, replaced the internal water/oil filter and verified the water level was good. Tried the compressor again and now it's a little better. It now goes to 3000psi keeps running but the pressure doesn't increase.

A lot of issues to get this Airhog guppy tank up and running. I think the tank itself is good now and I've been using my external regulator for quite a while and never knew it had a fitting that was leaking so now that's been fixed too. So, I'm getting there but the compressor issue has me uneasy.

Ah the joys of HPA...

 

[Ca_Varminter]

Glad to hear you got your Guppy tank leaks plugged..
Not that familiar with the Benjamin compressor..
But if you have trouble going over 3000 psi... check the the fitting and check valve for the Final stage.
Also if it has a safety pop-off valve, check that too for leaks Too.
At the worst, it could be the final stage piston seal.....
Good Luck,

 

[scottg0814]

Spoke with Benjamin customer service today and the diagnosis is a bad compressor. They believe the high pressure piston rings are shot and it's not actually building much pressure. I believe they called it "blow by". I did another test prior to talking to them and realized that the only reason I was seeing 2000 or 3000 psi was because the gauge on the compressor was reading the pressure in my guppy bottle. So, I did a test with the guppy valve closed and the compressor couldn't produce much pressure at all. Based on that test, they feel the compressor died an early death. I gave detail on my usage cycle and they said no way that should have caused any issues. I had to ship the compressor back to them but it's getting replaced under warranty. A big plus is that they told me my warranty will start over now with the new compressor.