Need some help from someone with more experience with tanks and compressors

Hi Guys,

​I'm new to the forum but have been shooting air guns for years. Just got tired of the old hand pump and at 66 years of age, I wasn't sure which was gonna break first ... my back or the old hand pump. Anyway, I figured if I was ever going to truly retire I was going to have to try a compressor and tank so I bought an Omega Super Charger and a Omega 75 cu ft tank. I'm having problems with it though and was wondering if someone with some expertise would lend an opinion as to what my problem might be. I can hook the lines up to the charger and cap off the end of the lines and they fill to 4500psi easily so I know that the compressor is working properly. At that point I can cut the compressor off and it maintains pressure in the lines so there is no leak. I can hook one line up to my Impact and fill it to 250 Bar without much trouble but it takes about 40 minutes to fill from 120 to 250 BAR. In the manuel it says that typically filling an air gun should only take 3 to 5 minutes ... I figured that the excess time was probably due to the large bottle on the Impact ... not sure. But the biggest problem I have is in trying to fill the Omega tank. It will fill to a certain point and then not go any higher ... it doesn't shut down, it's still pumping, but it's not building any pressure. The odd thing is that after hours of frustration, I'll cut the compressor off but not bleed the pressure down ... and come back in a few hours and turn it on and "sometimes" it will fill to 4500 psi. I've sprayed soapy water and windex all over every fitting, the lines, the din valve, the gage, where the fittings connect to the compressor. The auto air bleed is set for 1.5 seconds every 15 minutes. I have had the tank and compressor for about a week or two and only been able to fill the tank twice, both times after letting it sit pressurized over night and firing it up in the morning ... the first time it went from 1800 psi to 4500 in about 2 hours and the second time from 3200 psi to 4500 in about 45 minutes. Have called Todd up at AoA and he's convinced that it must be a leak somewhere, but the only leak I have been able to find was the burst disk on the tank was leaking just a little bit ... gave it about 1/6th of a turn and it stopped. I immersed it in the bath tub and saw no bubbles ............... anybody got a clue as to what my problem might be???
 
Sounds like you have been very thorough in your troubleshooting. I am assuming when you have the Omega tank hooked up and you shut everything down for a few hours and come back that the pressure has maintained at the same level as when you left? (allowing for a few PSI/BAR drop due to temperatures cooling down a bit)

IF that is the case you definitely don't have a leak but it sounds like an issue with the check valve on the final stage. I am not that familiar with the specifics of this compressor but here is the scenario that I think you might be experiencing. As the final stage compressor takes in the air from the previous stage the higher compressed air that it just cycled has to be held beyond the high pressure cylinder and not allowed back into the compression chamber, usually by a valve. I think you might be suffering from a heat / expansion issue on this final stage that is keeping you from reaching your full compression pressure. Hope this helps. Could be simple as a lubrication issue since it seems to work "sometimes"? Best of luck and keep us posted.
 
Why don't you cut the auto bleed down to 1 second every 25 miniutes and see if that makes a difference. If it fills, then cut it back to 20 minutes and see how that works. Todd is very good! I talked with him when my omega burst its burst disk. Also, I found 1 time when my bleed valve on my Omega tank wasn't quite closed and had a very small leak. When you get above 4000 psi any little thing can keep you from reaching 4500 psi
 
Hi Skohl ... no, not yet. Last time I touched base with Todd he seemed to think that the problem might be with a fitting they sent me. I had requested a male to male adapter so I could hook the female end of the compressor hose to the female end of the tank hose. They did not send me one with the compressor and the tank. What they sent was a fitting with a male adapter on one end and a screw in section on the other end. I scratched my head for a way to work around what they sent me and ended up screwing this odd fitting over the adapter coming out of the compressor. Todd said that they had changed the fittings on the SC and decided to go with a ball and socket L shaped fitting at the air outlet. He said it would not work the way I had screwed that odd fitting that they sent me over the adapter on the compressor ... I asked him why not because it carried the air and apparently did not leak. He just said trust me so I didn't carry the conversation any further. I'm not going to get into an argument with the only guy who might be able to help me in the event that I have to send this back to AoA. Soooo, I ordered a male to male adaptor (for the second time) and it should be here tomorrow. I just hope that the male to male adapter works. I took your advice about kicking up the time and reducing the frequency of the air bleeds ... but it still hangs up. I don't understand how something as simple as air flow can be so complicated.