Cs4i or yong heng

[SakoSierra]

No probs

If you prefer shooting over HPC maintenance, the extra $ is money well speant

I accidentally ordered two for my son who I figured didn't have the level of interest required to rig up a YH.

Long story short, Fedex botched the tracking on an Aliexpress order & I was sure I had been scammed so ordered a 2nd.

Now he has 2 & I'm OK w that

Yeah I’m comfortable enough at this point where I’d rather just get something that is stress and worry free. The less I have to work on stuff instead of use it, the better. Unfortunately this turns into me taking things apart for fun to see if I can make it better anyway so a better compressor will just free up time for me to improve the triggers and other stuff on my rifle!

 

[JimD]

Seems like you've made a selection and I think it's probably a good one. I have no GX experience but that may not remain true. I would offer that it is not hard to get a genuine Yong Heng, however. 4 years ago I ordered mine from Amazon mainly because they are so good about returns. I fully intended to return it if it was not the real deal. It was fine. But it needs good oil and added cooling and air filtration in my opinion. I also use it almost exclusively to fill my old 45 minute fireman's bottle once or twice a month. It's been very reliable for me so far. But it is noisy and certainly is not easily portable. I may buy a CS2 (or 4, not sure which) to have a backup and something much more portable.

 

[SakoSierra]

Seems like you've made a selection and I think it's probably a good one. I have no GX experience but that may not remain true. I would offer that it is not hard to get a genuine Yong Heng, however. 4 years ago I ordered mine from Amazon mainly because they are so good about returns. I fully intended to return it if it was not the real deal. It was fine. But it needs good oil and added cooling and air filtration in my opinion. I also use it almost exclusively to fill my old 45 minute fireman's bottle once or twice a month. It's been very reliable for me so far. But it is noisy and certainly is not easily portable. I may buy a CS2 (or 4, not sure which) to have a backup and something much more portable.

I ended up getting a CS4i though a members affiliate link and got a pretty good deal considering . I think it will work well for what I need right now and I feel confident in the purchase. After I upgraded the YH and the warranty I would have been around $450 anyway.

 

[RM.510bigbore]

I put 10 pistons and other various parts trying to my yong Heng trying to keep it going for 3 years. I bought a used refurbished GX CS4 for $350.00 on ebay.. It has been good..Much better than Yong Heng..Quiet and clean...My Yong Heng had oily Air and made me expierience valve dumps on my Airforce Condors..As soon as I staarted usind CS4 my valve dumps went away..

 

[Spike_9]

I've been using my Yong Heng since 2017. It has been running great. I've been really impressed by It's performance. I keep up on maintenance. The only issue I've had is the burst disk blew from fatigue but it was the original one from the factory that took 6 years to go. I don't fill bottles though. If portability is important, go with the cs4.

 

[JimD]

To fill guns the Yong Heng doesn't need extra cooling steps and probably doesn't need added filtration either.

 

[Avator]

Just my experience...
Before these 12v portable compressors went mainstream I would take my YH compressor with me to my Sister's place and weekends in the RV at the ATV park. I would use it only to top off guns. I would use a large Folgers coffee container for cooling. If the water got too warm during extended shooting sessions I would simply dump and refill the container.
The thing is... the YH tops off my guns so fast that the temps never even reached concerning levels.

 

[AlanMcD]

To fill guns the Yong Heng doesn't need extra cooling steps and probably doesn't need added filtration either.

While I do not have a Yong Heng compressor, I would argue that the speed at which they compress actually requires moisture filtration regardless of how long they run - if they are putting out HPA that air charge will be hot and thus will carry a lot of water vapor that will condense out later. Over time, this will build up in gun reservoirs.

Just because the compressor itself does not show signs of getting hot does not mean that the air charge leaving it is not hot. It is the heat of compression that raises the temperature of the Yong Heng so high. Remember that we are dealing with "dense air" when compressed to 200+ bar, and it won't be transferring that heat to the head/lines very quickly so it will retain that heat (and thus water vapor) into the reservoir. It takes time for the compressor to approach the temperature of the air charge.

 

[PumaCarl]

While I do not have a Yong Heng compressor, I would argue that the speed at which they compress actually requires moisture filtration regardless of how long they run - if they are putting out HPA that air charge will be hot and thus will carry a lot of water vapor that will condense out later. Over time, this will build up in gun reservoirs.

Just because the compressor itself does not show signs of getting hot does not mean that the air charge leaving it is not hot. It is the heat of compression that raises the temperature of the Yong Heng so high. Remember that we are dealing with "dense air" when compressed to 200+ bar, and it won't be transferring that heat to the head/lines very quickly so it will retain that heat (and thus water vapor) into the reservoir. It takes time for the compressor to approach the temperature of the air charge.

I have been wanting to reply to an answer like yours for a while now, since I have had some years to confirm it, so today is the day.

I put my YH on the floor with the short hose almost vertical having it's small cotton filter and connected above that a Tuxing Gold filter at about two feet and above that my tank. I purge every five minutes. I only fill 2.17L, 6.8L, 9L tanks.

Water that collects in the hose is not shooting up like a squirt gun. The air and pressure building is bubbling past it, and the purge removes at least 99% of it. Why do I say 99%? Because over the last 5 years I have never seen ANY moisture in my molecular sieve media every time I changed it, which depending is usually twice a year. I do change that first little filter every time and sometimes there is a trace of moisture or oil from the YH, but that's it and it's never been enough to show up in the higher filter. The important thing seems to be to keep your fill lines vertical and purge the line every five minutes. I do this with hand pumps too. I put the gun on an ottoman or a bucket so that the fill whip is vertical and never a drop in my guns.

At this point I am going to stop wasting my money and time on the big molecular sieve and Tuxing gold filter. They are doing nothing for me, being careful as I am in how I fill. I take my guns apart all the time, I fill a lot, and shoot a lot. I'm not taking any chances, I've got years of proof. You all worry too much, to the point of dismissing the obvious. I don't.

 

[blackdog899]

I have been wanting to reply to an answer like yours for a while now, since I have had some years to confirm it, so today is the day.

I put my YH on the floor with the short hose almost vertical having it's small cotton filter and connected above that a Tuxing Gold filter at about two feet and above that my tank. I purge every five minutes. I only fill 2.17L, 6.8L, 9L tanks.

Water that collects in the hose is not shooting up like a squirt gun. The air and pressure building is bubbling past it, and the purge removes at least 99% of it. Why do I say 99%? Because over the last 5 years I have never seen ANY moisture in my molecular sieve media every time I changed it, which depending is usually twice a year. I do change that first little filter every time and sometimes there is a trace of moisture or oil from the YH, but that's it and it's never been enough to show up in the higher filter. The important thing seems to be to keep your fill lines vertical and purge the line every five minutes. I do this with hand pumps too. I put the gun on an ottoman or a bucket so that the fill whip is vertical and never a drop in my guns.

At this point I am going to stop wasting my money and time on the big molecular sieve and Tuxing gold filter. They are doing nothing for me, being careful as I am in how I fill. I take my guns apart all the time, I fill a lot, and shoot a lot. I'm not taking any chances, I've got years of proof. You all worry too much, to the point of dismissing the obvious. I don't.

Haa ! I just cracked up about the “ you all worry too much” after reading your procedure.
Im filling my 9 liter right now. Been running for almost an hour. Gx cs4i . Won’t touch till it shuts off.
I do have the large gold twin filters and the hoses are wherever they lay.

 

[Avator]

Haa ! I just cracked up about the “ you all worry too much” after reading your procedure.
Im filling my 9 liter right now. Been running for almost an hour. Gx cs4i . Won’t touch till it shuts off.
I do have the large gold twin filters and the hoses are wherever they lay.

Please... when you finish this fill, open your filter and check for any moisture and report back.

 

[blackdog899]

Please... when you finish this fill, open your filter and check for any moisture and report back.

Spurts a little out, I’d say a teaspoon total.
Even if it was more I’m not going to sit there baby sitting,
especially as long as a Gx has to run.

 

[PumaCarl]

Spurts a little out, I’d say a teaspoon total.
Even if it was more I’m not going to sit there baby sitting,
especially as long as a Gx has to run.

I'm am not advocating to be careless, just careful. My purges do produce moisture. I purge often enough that it never travels up, but make no mistake, water is being produced. By all means, do what you like, but having said what you did I know to never buy a gun or tank from you. Thanks for the tip!

 

[AlanMcD]

I have been wanting to reply to an answer like yours for a while now, since I have had some years to confirm it, so today is the day.

I put my YH on the floor with the short hose almost vertical having it's small cotton filter and connected above that a Tuxing Gold filter at about two feet and above that my tank. I purge every five minutes. I only fill 2.17L, 6.8L, 9L tanks.

Water that collects in the hose is not shooting up like a squirt gun. The air and pressure building is bubbling past it, and the purge removes at least 99% of it. Why do I say 99%? Because over the last 5 years I have never seen ANY moisture in my molecular sieve media every time I changed it, which depending is usually twice a year. I do change that first little filter every time and sometimes there is a trace of moisture or oil from the YH, but that's it and it's never been enough to show up in the higher filter. The important thing seems to be to keep your fill lines vertical and purge the line every five minutes. I do this with hand pumps too. I put the gun on an ottoman or a bucket so that the fill whip is vertical and never a drop in my guns.

At this point I am going to stop wasting my money and time on the big molecular sieve and Tuxing gold filter. They are doing nothing for me, being careful as I am in how I fill. I take my guns apart all the time, I fill a lot, and shoot a lot. I'm not taking any chances, I've got years of proof. You all worry too much, to the point of dismissing the obvious. I don't.

Don't give up on that molecular sieve just yet - from what you describe it is doing its job perfectly. You should never expect any water droplets inside it, or after it since it's job is to adsorb the water vapor. What you are doing before it is great - you are getting rid of the condensed water that is in the air stream. Honestly, I'm not at all worried about the liquid water, because as you point out it is easy to get rid of it with a little help from gravity. The challenge is the water vapor in the warm (or in the case of a YH of faster compressor, hot) air stream that will condense into liquid later on - that is the stuff you can't see with what you are doing so far.

The only way to know if desiccants are really "doing nothing" for you is to very carefully weigh them before use, then use them for a while like you are doing (for many fills, depending on the amount of desiccant you are using). If they weigh the same after many cubic meters of compressed air has passed through them then you can safely say that the desiccant is doing nothing more for you. But I can pretty much guarantee that won't be the case, unless you are seriously cooling down the air charge before it gets to your tank - like with a big coalescing filter in cold ice water.

I use 1.5 pounds of silica bead desiccant to dry the air that feeds my Shoebox, and I recharge it after 25 cubic meters of compressed air flows through it and I routinely see about a 50 gram weight difference from the water that is driven out of it. I also use a small molecular sieve filter after the silica one (still before compression) but I have not had it in the path long enough to see how much water vapor it has collected, but I expect it will be very little as the air is so dry coming out of the silica bead drier.

One other thing - any small amounts of liquid water in a tank or filter will likely flash back to vapor when the tank or filter is vented - the air is so dry that at atmospheric pressure it will evaporate almost instantly. People forget this when they look inspect tanks. We should be looking for evidence that water may have been there as much or more than actually looking for actual water . . .

I will say though that you could probably switch to smaller desiccant filter for filling smaller tanks - that will speed things up for you, while still guaranteeing the air is dry.

Here are two longer back to back posts I made on the topic a while ago if you want to read more into what is going on in the air charge: https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/moisture-in-pcp-airguns.1321274/page-2#post-1839752

 

[JimD]

I also vent my YH every five minutes and note that much more moisture is vented at the 15 minute point than at 5 minutes. My filters are above the YH. I understand the the ability of 4000 psi air to hold moisture is much lower than 15 psi air. But it still carries some because of the temperature rise. A lot of that water comes out when the compressed air hits the cooler filter. Then it runs back to the YH and gets vented. Or trapped in the filter element. I use the original YH absorbent filter first then a mid sized additional filter filled with color change beads. It takes more than 6 tank fills before the beads change color. I change the little absorbent filter after every tank fill and squeeze them to see how wet they are. In the summer water always drips when I squeeze but in the winter I often cannot squeeze out water.

I know water needs to be addressed even on a gun fill but if you vent and arrange the filter above the compresser I am pretty confident the little stock filter is enough for a 5 minute gun fill. The line and filter will stay relatively cool condensing our a lot of the water where it will run down to the vent. Water that makes it into the filter is very likely to be absorbed. The filter element will not get overwhelmed except, possibly, for very humid conditions. More caution may be warranted for times of really high ambient humidity.

 

[blackdog899]

I'm am not advocating to be careless, just careful. My purges do produce moisture. I purge often enough that it never travels up, but make no mistake, water is being produced. By all means, do what you like, but having said what you did I know to never buy a gun or tank from you. Thanks for the tip!

Haa Thats ok Carl , they are hardly used . Believe me got all the moisture traps lined up. If it’s something to buy I’ll do it.
With the Gx it takes 20 minutes or more just to pressurize the gold towers. I appreciate the not so subtle dig. Anything I have will be looked into as I don’t have to ship anything off to be worked on.

 

[PumaCarl]

I also vent my YH every five minutes and note that much more moisture is vented at the 15 minute point than at 5 minutes. My filters are above the YH. I understand the the ability of 4000 psi air to hold moisture is much lower than 15 psi air. But it still carries some because of the temperature rise. A lot of that water comes out when the compressed air hits the cooler filter. Then it runs back to the YH and gets vented. Or trapped in the filter element. I use the original YH absorbent filter first then a mid sized additional filter filled with color change beads. It takes more than 6 tank fills before the beads change color. I change the little absorbent filter after every tank fill and squeeze them to see how wet they are. In the summer water always drips when I squeeze but in the winter I often cannot squeeze out water.

I know water needs to be addressed even on a gun fill but if you vent and arrange the filter above the compresser I am pretty confident the little stock filter is enough for a 5 minute gun fill. The line and filter will stay relatively cool condensing our a lot of the water where it will run down to the vent. Water that makes it into the filter is very likely to be absorbed. The filter element will not get overwhelmed except, possibly, for very humid conditions. More caution may be warranted for times of really high ambient humidity.

When I'm filling, I usually swap between two YH so that I don't have to wait unproductively for one to cool. I fill all my tanks, and I purge every 5 and run them for 20 on, 20 off, fill lines up, and my big filter and it's molecular sieve payload has never looked wet, or even used at all. I don't fill when it's really humid, and the house is climate controlled. The big filter has been doing nothing, like I said, for years now. Do what you need to do, but I know what I don't have to do at this point. I recently started using distilled water with Water Wetter and to my surprise, it does keep the temperture down for much longer. So I have even less heat lately.

 

[PumaCarl]

Don't give up on that molecular sieve just yet - from what you describe it is doing its job perfectly. You should never expect any water droplets inside it, or after it since it's job is to adsorb the water vapor. What you are doing before it is great - you are getting rid of the condensed water that is in the air stream. Honestly, I'm not at all worried about the liquid water, because as you point out it is easy to get rid of it with a little help from gravity. The challenge is the water vapor in the warm (or in the case of a YH of faster compressor, hot) air stream that will condense into liquid later on - that is the stuff you can't see with what you are doing so far.

The only way to know if desiccants are really "doing nothing" for you is to very carefully weigh them before use, then use them for a while like you are doing (for many fills, depending on the amount of desiccant you are using). If they weigh the same after many cubic meters of compressed air has passed through them then you can safely say that the desiccant is doing nothing more for you. But I can pretty much guarantee that won't be the case, unless you are seriously cooling down the air charge before it gets to your tank - like with a big coalescing filter in cold ice water.

I use 1.5 pounds of silica bead desiccant to dry the air that feeds my Shoebox, and I recharge it after 25 cubic meters of compressed air flows through it and I routinely see about a 50 gram weight difference from the water that is driven out of it. I also use a small molecular sieve filter after the silica one (still before compression) but I have not had it in the path long enough to see how much water vapor it has collected, but I expect it will be very little as the air is so dry coming out of the silica bead drier.

One other thing - any small amounts of liquid water in a tank or filter will likely flash back to vapor when the tank or filter is vented - the air is so dry that at atmospheric pressure it will evaporate almost instantly. People forget this when they look inspect tanks. We should be looking for evidence that water may have been there as much or more than actually looking for actual water . . .

I will say though that you could probably switch to smaller desiccant filter for filling smaller tanks - that will speed things up for you, while still guaranteeing the air is dry.

Here are two longer back to back posts I made on the topic a while ago if you want to read more into what is going on in the air charge: https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/moisture-in-pcp-airguns.1321274/page-2#post-1839752

AlanMcD,, funny, I was just talking with someone, and they suggested to measure the weight too. I will do that, once, this summer, but for now I like your idea of using a second smaller filter (which I have already) with dessicant in it to easily check for moisture. Good idea!

 

[jim46ok]

Yup. The GX.....buy once, cry once. There is a reason that name keeps coming up.