Top home 4500 psi compressor choices?

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LRair

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Jun 18, 2022
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Maple Grove, Minnesota, USA
It has been a few years since exercising the big bore members of the "team". The dive shop that is local, does not want to fill my tank past 3800 as they have had in the past. I have been told that there are more compressor choices than there was 7-8 years ago.
Are there a couple of models that are leading the pack for the big bore/ large volume crowd? Thank you all in advance for the reply.
 
Here’s my pecking order. And of course, money talks. First would be a Bauer, any Bauer. Currently in the number two spot would be Alkin and a close third would be a Coltri. There are other expensive heavy duty compressors that are good too but just not as popular in the PCP world.
Bauer Mariner is somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred more than an Alkin if I recall correctly. I have an Alkin that is six months old and am happy with it so far, as are many others.
Those three are in the three thousand to close to five thousand dollar price range depending on how they’re equipped.
One of the nice, and in my opinion very important features, is the fact that they come with a molecular sieve drier and pump Grade E air which is suitable for breathing systems (scuba).
Most any compressor less costly than that often are not equipped with molecular sieve driers, which really are a good idea with PCP guns, especially if you live in a high humidity part of the world.
As far as reliability goes, anything and everything breaks or wears out eventually. Preventive maintenance is always a good idea and not pushing the machine to hard helps too. High pressure air is demanding on a compressor so buying the most you can afford and or justify is a benefit you will appreciate.
Randy
P.S. Parts for the three compressors listed are easily obtained at present.
 
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Maher Kashoqa said:
If anyone has any questions about compressors or setups please email me at [email protected]
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Why? Share you knowledge here for everyone in the community to benefit from.

I'm going to share my 5 years of experience with compressors and summarize it right here - got a Yong Heng, cool it well and get a high pressure oil/water separator. There is no option under $3000 that is going to last. I've used boosters, I've used $1500 compressors, I've tried the $3-500 12VDC compressors. They are all garbage and unless you get one whose parts all happened to fall into alignment with the moon when cast will die within 25-50 hours of use.

So after butt loads of thousands of dollars spent on compressors - I could've already bought my Alkin - I've come to the conclusion that the Yong Heng is no better or worse than all the other sub $3000 crap out there. I'll have to burn through 14-16 Yong Hengs to cover the cost of the Alkin - so I'm good with the YH for a bit.
 
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ctshooter said:
Why? Share you knowledge here for everyone in the community to benefit from.

I'm going to share my 5 years of experience with compressors and summarize it right here - got a Yong Heng, cool it well and get a high pressure oil/water separator. There is no option under $3000 that is going to last. I've used boosters, I've used $1500 compressors, I've tried the $3-500 12VDC compressors. They are all garbage and unless you get one whose parts all happened to fall into alignment with the moon when cast will die within 25-50 hours of use.

So after butt loads of thousands of dollars spent on compressors - I could've already bought my Alkin - I've come to the conclusion that the Yong Heng is no better or worse than all the other sub $3000 crap out there. I'll have to burn through 14-16 Yong Hengs to cover the cost of the Alkin - so I'm good with the YH for a bit.
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The benefit of an Alkin, Bauer, or Coltri over multiple Yong Heng's is time saved not having to prep for each fill. Time is saved by not needing rebuilds and downtime waiting for parts from China. Buying a compressor that is disposable means accumulating broken compressors worth nothing in the end. After many years of service a Bauer,Alkin, or Coltri is still worth most if not all originally paid for it. Resale value and trouble free time savings are the two factors that make a brand name compressor more cost effective than buying several cheaper compressors.
 
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All said and done, the big three will fill at least 3 times as fast as a YH and they are built to run all day.
So 50 hours (do they even last that long?) for a YH compare to 15 hours for the big three.
And you can earn a little towards the price by filling to a true 4500psi for other shooters.

I started with a YH and hated it with a passion every bit of the way from git go till it puked it's guts out.
When i bought my YH the price difference was 1:10 to the Coltri.
Took a little overtime here and there and within a year i bought a Coltri MCH-6.
Now i'm happy as a pig in mud :)
 
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remdds said:
I have been using a Bauer for over 15 years and never did a thing as far as repairs. Routine maintenance is simple and fairly inexpensive. I would not say I am a very heavy user. My caution is that once you get one your friends will all want to use yours.
remdds said:
I have been using a Bauer for over 15 years and never did a thing as far as repairs. Routine maintenance is simple and fairly inexpensive. I would not say I am a very heavy user. My caution is that once you get one your friends will all want to use yours.
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you probably had “friends” coming over for tank fills you never knew you had! Like winning the lottery, all of a sudden everyone is concerned about you and your health!
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