I’ve had the lightning compressor for over a month now. I’d like to say I’m probably the first to have one, for sure before hatsan released it to the general public just a week or so ago. I’ve never owned a PCP compressor, but in the last year that I’ve been involved in PCP’s, I decided a compressor over a pump and fill shops was the only way to go, so I sarted reading up on forums and YouTube vids. Asked a lot of questions along the way. I told myself I had a budget of not to exceed $2K, as I am not made of $$.
exerything in the review video is 100% correct, but wanted to add a couple of things. First off, the compressor talks to you! As soon as I plugged it it a electrical voice came on to tell me it was ready to turn on. Also, the first button to turn on has to be the coolant pump and fan. Run that for a minute or two, to get things circulating, then turn the motor on. You want to leave the bleed screw open for a few minutes to purge out any moisture(no load). Then after that, start filling up your tank or gun. Topping off my Marauder and hatsan bully from 1800 psi to 3200 took a minute or less, and my tank took about 15 minutes from 3000 to 4500. Another cool feature not mentioned in the video is the ability to calibrate the compressors digital gage to match up the psi/BAR readout to a known good gage. I ordered a liquid filled 0-5000 psi gage, followed the written instructions in the manual(step by step procedure); and got the compressors digital gage re calibrated. It was off from the factory by a hair over 200 psi.
As as far as the auto purge, I contacted Hatsan to ask what the ideal time frame was to have it come on automatically, and they suggested every 15 minutes. Well, since the compressor came with a built in check valve to allow the pressure not to drop after a purge, I went better and set it to come on every 10 minutes. My suggestion is, if you never hit that purge time, say in filling rifles, I would run it till it purged anyway before shut down and putting it away, to release any moisture in the system, and also run the compressor for 5 minutes with the bleed screw opened will also release moisture before shut down. The manual says to run the coolant pump and fan for as much as 10 minutes after the motor is shut off, to allow a better cool down.
Sounds like Ike a lot of added work, but I’m following all that the manufacture recommends, cause to me this is an investment to an already expensive hobby, and I want this to last.
I highly reccomend this compressor to anyone anyone in the market looking for a residential, light commercial unit. At almost $1400, it is definately a cry once, buy once kind of thing.
Oh, lastly, as far as oils go, I use Amsoil synthetic ISO 100 SAE 30/40 grade compressor oil. $15/quart bought directly from Amsoil. The system takes 13.5 ounces to fill.
