Reliable air compressor
- Thread starter cfs916
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some airgunners bought several cheap compressors.
for example:
3 cheap units for each 200$ = 600$ + filters / parts + 200$ = 800 $
800$ down the toilet
its just an example but if they had bought a bauer for 3500$ (filters included)
ill bet you can resell the used bauer for at least 2500$
and they had a LOT MORE LESS pain in the ass and time wasting with the cheap ones
for example:
3 cheap units for each 200$ = 600$ + filters / parts + 200$ = 800 $
800$ down the toilet
its just an example but if they had bought a bauer for 3500$ (filters included)
ill bet you can resell the used bauer for at least 2500$
and they had a LOT MORE LESS pain in the ass and time wasting with the cheap ones
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some airgunners bought several cheap compressors.
for example:
3 cheap units for each 200$ = 600$ + filters / parts + 200$ = 800 $
800$ down the toilet
its just an example but if they had bought a bauer for 3500$ (filters included)
ill bet you can resell the used bauer for at least 2500$
and they had a LOT MORE LESS pain in the ass and time wasting with the cheap ones
Not true for all. Many have reported the YH serving them very well for a long time. My YH has worked very well filling guns directly and topping off a 97cf tank for over a year. Just read a bit. Some have had issues but to call it money "down the toilet" is only your view. And even if you followed your example above, you have $1000 "down the toilet". All relative.
Should be a fine choice and should work well for you. But several reports of failure of the Daystate (Coltri) have been noted on this forum alone. Nothing is bulletproof and anything can fail. As above, all relative.
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some airgunners bought several cheap compressors.
for example:
3 cheap units for each 200$ = 600$ + filters / parts + 200$ = 800 $
800$ down the toilet
its just an example but if they had bought a bauer for 3500$ (filters included)
ill bet you can resell the used bauer for at least 2500$
and they had a LOT MORE LESS pain in the ass and time wasting with the cheap ones
Completely agree. From my understanding, the Coltri that had issues was the 4 stage but they are back at the 3 stage. There is also a huge difference in performance and ease of use. The yong sounds like it about to self destruct when it gets close to 4500. Also, who really wants to drag out a bucket and deal with that every time you have to fill a tank. The moisture the cheap ones put out is also insane and the noise is even worse.
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I really don't care what the Yong Heng sounds like as long as it continues to fill both my rifles and tank. But the sound doesn't disturb me. And it has continued to fill my rifles and tank for over a year for less than $300. Less than $500 if you include the filter. The cooling is not a big problem at all. Would it be nice to have the self contained Coltri unit? Yes. And I may get something similar at some time. But it isn't what everyone needs and many have been very happy with the performance of the YH, including me. But each shooter should buy what they want, or need, or can afford. Again as above, all relative to ones wants, needs, and ability.
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How these threads always go, I have no idea why...
"I would like to buy some chocolate icecream for $1.00"
"You should buy some vanilla icecream for $00.25, icecream is still icecream!"
Or
"I want to buy some vanilla icecream for $00.25"
"You should not eat icecream for 7 days, save your money, and then buy chocolate icecream for $1.00! Vanilla icecream is horrible tasting!"
Or
"What icecream tastes the best, I have $1.00?"
Queue responses varying from lactose intolerance to horror stories of icecream cones knock out of folks hands to the same back and forth discussion we always have about how you can have four vanilla icecreams for the price of one chocoloate icecream!
"I would like to buy some chocolate icecream for $1.00"
"You should buy some vanilla icecream for $00.25, icecream is still icecream!"
Or
"I want to buy some vanilla icecream for $00.25"
"You should not eat icecream for 7 days, save your money, and then buy chocolate icecream for $1.00! Vanilla icecream is horrible tasting!"
Or
"What icecream tastes the best, I have $1.00?"
Queue responses varying from lactose intolerance to horror stories of icecream cones knock out of folks hands to the same back and forth discussion we always have about how you can have four vanilla icecreams for the price of one chocoloate icecream!
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I thought that was the purpose of this forum-to figure out which ice cream I really do like. Still expecting the answer to appear any day now. Any ideas?
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G
Guest
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Haha bandg, exactly! Dear all, please eat all flavors of icecream and report back which one I would like the best
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There is no substitute for a Bauer. They just run for years and years without any issues. If you are serious about this sport, make the investment to acquire one and never look back. You can find them used if you look long enough. They never lose their value because they don't break and the parts to repair them are readily available.
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I can certainly agree but finding a quality middle ground is also possible I believe. The $2k is borderline insane yet alone another $1500 on top of that.
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Agree. Bauer's are probably great but they may not be what everyone can afford or would consider sensible.
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The point of my comment I thought was very clear, if not I apologize. I was not commenting on just the quality of the Bauer compressors, I was speaking also about the economics. These lesser ,inexpensive compressors have over a very short time, no resale value. So all money spent on that solution is gone. I even suggest wasted. In comparison, you buy a Bauer, use it for many years and resell it for the same or even more money than you paid for it in the first place. Nothing is cheaper than that. So. in that light, there is no middle ground. A cheap compressor at best is a temporary band-aid, while you save your money and keep your eyes open looking for a Bauer.
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Here is a short story. The Bauer compressor I have now I found 25 years ago in a junkyard all dirty and rusty laying in the mud. No controls, no motor, just a bare pump. It was made in 1968. It is rated at 80 liters/minute. I took it home and stuck it in the corner. This is long before PCP airguns. It cost me a little over $100 at the time. I did nothing with it until 3 years ago. I then cleaned it up, made a mount, bought sensors and control switches and relays and added fresh paint. I then checked the original oil and turned it on. It just worked. I didn't need to take it apart or anything. it is superb and parts for it are still available from Bauer.
Two years ago, I got a call from the President of a local dive club. Their club compressor seized up. The dealer said it wasn't repairable. The club bought a new on and the President asked me if I wanted it just for the cost of removing it. It was complete with all the filters, sound box and controls. I took it home and pulled the head and cylinder of the 4th stage. It had overheated and seized after running continuously for more than 3 days because of a switch failure. I put the piston in a lathe and polished the skirt. Then lightly honed the cylinder wall. I then reassembled and tested it. It worked perfectly. I put it in an auction and sold it for 1500 Euros. My point with this story is they are out there, you don't have to buy them new.
Two years ago, I got a call from the President of a local dive club. Their club compressor seized up. The dealer said it wasn't repairable. The club bought a new on and the President asked me if I wanted it just for the cost of removing it. It was complete with all the filters, sound box and controls. I took it home and pulled the head and cylinder of the 4th stage. It had overheated and seized after running continuously for more than 3 days because of a switch failure. I put the piston in a lathe and polished the skirt. Then lightly honed the cylinder wall. I then reassembled and tested it. It worked perfectly. I put it in an auction and sold it for 1500 Euros. My point with this story is they are out there, you don't have to buy them new.
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I suppose the difference is what one considers cheap. Not only cheap in cost but what is actually under the skin. From my research, the "cheapest" non-cheap compressor was the Daystate/Coltri 3 stage. Are you calling the Italian coltri cheap?
In my case, I just do back yard plinking but live an hour away from a shop that will fill to 4500. Even at that, they get pissy if you want to wait. That led me to the yong but quickly learned I traded one frustration for another. I started out with a marauder and now a crown and impact so my tastes have changed as well. I surely can't fault people for getting cheap but as you mentioned, look at the big picture to see what makes sense for return on investment. I certainly have nothing against Bauer but they are just more than I am willing to spend on this particular hobby, not necessarily more than I can afford.
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As with most things, it's all relative for each person. Some will believe the Bauer is the only way to go and that you could recoup all (or most) of your initial outlay if selling. Quite possible but not certain. Others will believe something as inexpensive as the Yong Heng will serve them well enough for a minor fraction of the Bauer cost. Each person has different relative values and needs. Initial cost outlay for something like a Bauer is quite large but it certainly should last a long time. How much you could recoup on selling is not certain but it should be a substantial amount. Initial cost outlay for the YH is quite small in relation and it almost certainly will not last as long and may have no resale value if sold. All relative.
For my situation the Bauer would have been a major waste of funds, at least to this point in time, since my "cheap" Yong Heng is still happily filling my tank after more than a year. If the YH had failed after a few uses then that would produce a different view on the matter. But it hasn't. So all relative. There is nothing wrong with either approach, or any one of the many other options between the two extremes. No single opinion is correct, only informative.
For my situation the Bauer would have been a major waste of funds, at least to this point in time, since my "cheap" Yong Heng is still happily filling my tank after more than a year. If the YH had failed after a few uses then that would produce a different view on the matter. But it hasn't. So all relative. There is nothing wrong with either approach, or any one of the many other options between the two extremes. No single opinion is correct, only informative.
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Exactly, My yong did fail in multiple ways and the seller warranty is a joke. I have oil literally leaking through the case and they replied and said to " tighten bolts" . The time wasted to make a video, post to you tube and send it to the seller was just grossly ignored. I am a very busy business owner and realized the time spent just isn't worth it. It is in the hands of paypal now. It has been a month trying to resolve so I was faced with buying yet another one to get me by or just dive in and get something nicer before I get deeper in a hole. To each his own.
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The problem is no one person here shoots enough and has enough money to have thoroughly wrung out a representative sample size of every major compressor option. As a result, opinions vary dramatically. There is one resource though which is absolutely fantastic:
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/compressor-survey-results/
This aggregates the data so you have at least an educated guess on what to buy. My takeaway was that, for less than "big money" your best options are the Altaros Booster and the Shoebox Compressor. The latter is..... a bit challenging to purchase. It is basically a one man band selling a compressor based on pretty simple parts which is easy to rebuild, and needs that done somewhat regularly. The Altaros booster is based of another pressure booster, and seems to require rebuilds less frequently than the Shoebox, probably because it runs a LOT cooler, however it requires a much much more powerful air compressor as its pre-booster/power source. Ultimately the Altaros is what I went with.
No option is perfect, but one of the aforementioned two would certainly be my pick. (having chewed through a Rong Heng and a Nomad in less than a year) I currently run an Altaros which I update my review on sporadically to say it is still working and almost maintenance free. No need for a rebuild yet.....
As an aside, I considered a Daystate/Coltri, Omega, as well as a number of other big money compressor options made for big tanks. I ultimately chose not to go with them because no compressor is rebuild-free, they'll all need it eventually, and I quite frankly don't want to have to rebuild one of those things. They're also too heavy to reasonably ship somewhere to have someone else rebuild. So I wanted to go with simple and easy to work on, knowing that I'd be rebuilding it eventually.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for the kind words regarding the survey!
My thoughts on this:
1) Pick a dollar amount for your budget and figure out which two or three are in your price range
2) Go to the list of compressors and the sort it by mean (average) hours: https://ql.tc/MaIfkQ
3) See how many many submissions there were for the compressors you are interested in (for example the SPA compressor that has the most mean hours is only represented by 1 submission). This will give you an idea of how representative of sample is in the survey data.
4) Then go to the results and look at the details for any of the compressors that you're interested in.
Yong Heng – https://ql.tc/1V07h9
The Yong Heng is a pretty "polarizing" compressor... It's either cheap junk or a great deal to people. I did combine the various models into one summary so this would include the different voltage and shutoff options. The sample size is pretty big with 87 submissions from owners.
I like to jump down to the question "Have you had any breakdowns or failures of your compressor?" It's not as bad as some may expect... Almost 74% reported NO breakdowns. Honestly that's better than I would have expected given some of the posts we all have read...
I also like to look at the "I recommend my compressor to other air gunners" scale. Again, it's pretty favorable.
And then check out the comments.
(FWIW, I am a fan of the shoebox f10 compressor. That's what I purchased!)
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