Yesterday my Tuxing pump said I quit. It will only pump to 500psi. Don't know yet when the Altaros will show up from Czech Republic. Import fee not known at this time either. When it arrives, I'll play around a bit with it and then give my thoughts here.
Tuxing being replaced by Altaros Booster unit.
- Thread starter FLbushman
- Start date
In the long term, it is the most profitable investment for you, and home compressors can be useful in many ways in the household, and if you go on a trip, air is available to you at a gas station or if you have acquaintances who have professional compressors in their workshops...
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Anything over $800 including shipping is taxed at a fairly small rate into the USA.. Likely $50 to $80 extra. I have been looking at those Altoros boosters for a while. Will be interested in your report!
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I have one that I have been using for a year now. As long as you have a really good shop compressor and the water removal filtration, these are absolutely wonderful. For filling the large SCBA style tanks, I believe it is the best option other than Alkin or Bauer type compressors.
Mine arrived pretty quick and I can tell you that their customer service is top notch.
Mine arrived pretty quick and I can tell you that their customer service is top notch.
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Please share the details.
What scfm is your shop compressor?
What size tanks are you filling?
From and to pressures on the tank?
And how long does it take to do the above?
Thanks in advance.
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I have the Omega 100cf tank along with multiple small 90ci tanks. On the big tank I usually fill it once it gets to about 230 bar and fill to 300. I have honestly never timed the fills on any of these. The small bottles I would say maybe 20-25 minutes with my setup being set on the lower side of fill speed. As a guess I would say 2-3 hours on the big tank. The beauty of this is that I can pretty much set it and do other things with this setup.
My compressor is this https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-15-...able-Electric-Vertical-Air-Compressor/1058157 It says 5cfm at 90 psi....I run it at 100-110 psi into the booster. For water removal, I am using one cheap ass harbor freight separator and filter followed up with 2 more filters from Amazon. It also has one more in the booster itself that has yet to receive any moisture.
One other bonus is that you can get a kit from Altaros to be able to use that same booster as a tank to tank portable boosting system. So you can use that one tank to fill a whole lot more if you wanted.
My compressor is this https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-15-...able-Electric-Vertical-Air-Compressor/1058157 It says 5cfm at 90 psi....I run it at 100-110 psi into the booster. For water removal, I am using one cheap ass harbor freight separator and filter followed up with 2 more filters from Amazon. It also has one more in the booster itself that has yet to receive any moisture.
One other bonus is that you can get a kit from Altaros to be able to use that same booster as a tank to tank portable boosting system. So you can use that one tank to fill a whole lot more if you wanted.
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Thank you. That is the exact information I was looking for. I spent a bunch of time on the Altaros website last night, converting Euro units to "normal" units, trying to get an idea of fill times to aide in making an educated decision. I had concluded that fill times were slower than what you're reporting so you're real-world data is very helpful.
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What's the duty cycle running that DeWalt compressor? Is it running at 100% of the time we're like 20% of the time or somewhere in between.
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I have timed the cycle before and it would be somewhere between 50-60% compressor on. I would honestly say that if you have the space and other needs like running air tools in your garage, then I would get the baddest compressor you can fit in your budget and space. That is the part that will really determine your fill times. If you can justify a monster and run it with high psi input and a high flow rate, you will reduce fill times a ton.
I also use it to fill my gun quite a bit. Typically that will be a 580cc bottle from 150ish to 300 bar and that is maybe a 15 minute time. Part of that is due to the compressor tank starting from empty. I like this system more than the Yong Heng for sure. Another bonus with it is that the boosting runs super cool, so you do not lose and pressure as the tank cools back down from filling. Very happy with it overall and it fits the way I would prefer to fill without constant monitoring/bleeding etc.
I also use it to fill my gun quite a bit. Typically that will be a 580cc bottle from 150ish to 300 bar and that is maybe a 15 minute time. Part of that is due to the compressor tank starting from empty. I like this system more than the Yong Heng for sure. Another bonus with it is that the boosting runs super cool, so you do not lose and pressure as the tank cools back down from filling. Very happy with it overall and it fits the way I would prefer to fill without constant monitoring/bleeding etc.
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Search for @Roachcreek's posts on the Altaros. He has extensive (positive) experience with it, and even runs a compressor "farm" with it.
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You mean this?
I really enjoyed designing my Altaros booster system. I enjoy watching it run.
Just make sure you supply it with plenty of air. I started with one California air compressor, aka CAT, then went to two CATS and then bought a third CAT on sale just as a spare. Eventually I could not resist the temptation of plugging that third one into the system, what a difference that made.
I really enjoyed designing my Altaros booster system. I enjoy watching it run.
Just make sure you supply it with plenty of air. I started with one California air compressor, aka CAT, then went to two CATS and then bought a third CAT on sale just as a spare. Eventually I could not resist the temptation of plugging that third one into the system, what a difference that made.
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I’ve had one for 6 years and the only problem I have had with it has been my own fault. Altaros has always responded promptly to my emails and has been very helpful in helping me resolve issues. I love mine and have countless hours on it. It creates basically no heat and fill bottles slowly so there is no heat buildup. I have a 45 minute SCBA and it takes about an hour to go from 3300 to 4500. Compressor runs 60% of the time. I take filtration seriously, I don’t want moisture in my guns. Below is a pic of my setup, I have a coalescence filter and a desiccant filter before it goes into the booster. The Altaros has an additional desiccant filter inside then I have a high pressure molecular sieve between the booster and my bottle. The black iron pipe is there to help cool the air before the filters.
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It's a shame that a large U.S. manufacturer of airgun products hasn't arranged a licensing agreement with Altaros or the designer of Shoebox compressors. Benjamin or Crosman comes to mind. If these compressors were manufactured on a larger scale to bring the manufacturing costs down then they could compete on price with the Chinese compressors that took away Shoebox's market. Altaros units are a basic reliable design but they require a huge booster compressor for reasonable performance. The F10 Shoebox's output was10 cubic feet of 4500 psi air per hour even with a small booster compressor as its first stage. That means it took 8.8 hours to fill a 9 liter tank to 4500 psi from empty. The benefit of Altaros and Shoebox is reliability and easy maintenance. They are easier to service and parts didn't take a month to arrive from China. For awhile the Shoebox F10 was being sold for $1,200 which was high for it's component costs because it was hand built on a very small scale.
I respect the ingenuity of people like @Roachcreek and @scubajeeper and others who are always looking for ways to improve upon affordable compressor performance. Unfortunately, many times if someone adds up all the extra component prices they end up spending as much or more as buying a higher cost compressor that outperforms their setup for the same total outlay.
I respect the ingenuity of people like @Roachcreek and @scubajeeper and others who are always looking for ways to improve upon affordable compressor performance. Unfortunately, many times if someone adds up all the extra component prices they end up spending as much or more as buying a higher cost compressor that outperforms their setup for the same total outlay.
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Sorry , can't say due to a broken gauge on the booster unit. I'll bet my Dewalt Emglo compressor's duty cycle 60/40. Might piggy back another compressor or try a 20 gal. air tank.
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In the end an Alkin or a Bauer will be cheaper with less problems than all these airgun compressors that are not really made to fill tanks. Take it from someone who has already been down this road. If you are going to buy a compressor or booster not designed to fill tanks on a daily basis limit it to filling the gun only unless you want to be a regular contributor to this column with questions on how to fix it.
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