I wish I could help in the bottle fill area but I have no experience. I can tell you that I can hook up my booster, fill three Taipan rifles (about 280cc each) and put everything back in its place in about 20-25 minutes.
Upvote 0
Just received an Altaros booster
- Thread starter Franklink
- Start date
Yes (from my compressor) fill rates are pretty slow. It's a different way to approach filling tanks. Other filling methods are FAST, with the downside being the wear and tear on the components. Pros and cons each way but I sure like the sound of 6+ years worth of use with almost zero maintenance, as a couple of the long-term Altaros booster users have attested to in this discussion.
And like kypop, I also have no idea how the fill speeds of the bottle to bottle version compare.
Upvote 0
I appreciate the responses. My primary use would be to actually make use of the remaining 2kpsi or so that I give back to the supplier when I exchange 6k nitrogen tanks. My perspective is a bit skewed, largely due to having an awesome local specialty gas franchise. Recharging guns is a <1 minute process....
Upvote 0
If you have the ability to regulate the N2 down to the input pressure of the booster, I think the best use would be to set it up with the N2 feeding the high compression cylinder and a shop compressor feeding the working cylinders. That way you would be using the N2 exclusively for high pressure source and not wasting it on running the booster. It might require that you replumb some stuff but it has to be doable . . .
Upvote 0
Understood on efficiency, but one of my "wants" is not running a compressor....
I keep 2 NI cylinders--once they are down to 3-3.5k I replace the reg with a fill station, moving the reg to the higher pressure cylinder of the two. Once the lower pressure tank gets down to 2.5k or so I exchange it for a fresh cylinder. The hope, and hopes do not always work out, would be to use the Altaros in b2b mode and stretch the NI tanks a little longer between exchanging cylinders.
I guess the question becomes around that 2.5k of NI being returned, how far would it go in driving the booster?
I have no way of gauging whether or not this is a realistic expectation. I've also read about alternatives to the Altaros, divers that use rebreathers and blend gasses use various types of boosters. I would assume they are dealing with much greater volume of air than we are, thus would have faster solutions. The time I've spent reading in this space aligns with the most efficient use of a booster is not b2b, but b2b has its place.
Upvote 0
The lower pressure/higher cfm’s never made sense to me.
I turned up my 3 compressors to run higher psi when I incorporated the 3 rd compressor into my system.. Chichentheif suggested this would speed fill times. Today I am going back to the 120 psi the compressors are set at the factory.
Alan’s post about the compressors working too hard hit home, one of my compressors was working hard to make the higher psi, I turned it down last week and will adjust the renaming 2 today..
Thanks Alan, you are the Rocket scientist.
Regards,
Roachcreek
I turned up my 3 compressors to run higher psi when I incorporated the 3 rd compressor into my system.. Chichentheif suggested this would speed fill times. Today I am going back to the 120 psi the compressors are set at the factory.
Alan’s post about the compressors working too hard hit home, one of my compressors was working hard to make the higher psi, I turned it down last week and will adjust the renaming 2 today..
Thanks Alan, you are the Rocket scientist.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Mike,
I have limited knowledge of the bottle to bottle Altaros booster, having said that, from what I do know, I do believe if you used your single CAT just to drive and cool the bottle to bottle booster, it should be just what you need to compress the remaining N in your tank.
BTW are you saying that your gas company does not make use of your residual N when they refill?
RC
I have limited knowledge of the bottle to bottle Altaros booster, having said that, from what I do know, I do believe if you used your single CAT just to drive and cool the bottle to bottle booster, it should be just what you need to compress the remaining N in your tank.
BTW are you saying that your gas company does not make use of your residual N when they refill?
RC
Upvote 0
Charlie- I sent Altaros an email inquiry around leadtimes on the B2B unit, currently they show preorder status.
My gas company exchanges cylinders. I drop off the low pressure cylinder and leave with a different cylinder... it all happens much more painlessly than drop off/pickup at the scuba shop.....
Upvote 0
Altaros responded to my inquiry but they are not able to estimate availability of the b2b boosters....
Upvote 0
Ran my booster this morning to go from 3900-4500. It took just under 90 minutes. Referencing my log book, I've got a couple instances with similar fill to and froms that also took just under 90 minutes. So 90 minutes seems a good rule of thumb for that pressure range. Tank being filled is a 60min SCBA.
The mid gauge on the booster shows I'm feeding it with just under 5bar, so definitely on the low end of the first stage pressure that it can handle. (Altaros provides 5-10bar as the appropriate "feed" pressures.) I'm liking the run to rest ratios on the California compressor and don't plan on changing anything at this point.
Like most booster pump users who end up Rube Goldberging the situation, I also added some more drying components a few months ago. The water separator and desiccant canister that come housed within the booster are sufficient, but I wanted an external drying source, with more readily available connectors/fittings than those used by Altaros.
So here are my added components.
Bought dessicant with the same color change as what came from Altaros: orange is dry, green is wet. In the above photo you can see how orange it still is in the OEM dryer. And that the small silica canister in the upper right is wet (green).
Here is a closer image...
I swapped it for fresh silica at this point, roughly halfway through the 90 minutes.
I do get a fair amount of moisture at that first blow out, at the end of the blue hose and before the dessicant/silica.
I'm still running a tampon filter on the output and it is bone dry with the above. Even the OEM Altaros water separator right inside the box is seeing 0 moisture now.
I also added a better fan situation for the heads on the California compressor. Already had the fan so no additional cost incurred there.
Overall Im pretty happy with the Altaros. I sprayed weeds this morning for the 90 minutes while the Altaros was doing it's thing. I still like that feature the most: turn it on and walk away, it can be trusted to do its job, without overheating, or blowing up.
For anyone considering an Altaros booster, I'd recommend making sure you've got a place where it can permanently live. I think getting it out and setting everything up every time I needed it would be cumbersome. As-is though, it's all ready to go, whenever I need some high pressure air.
The mid gauge on the booster shows I'm feeding it with just under 5bar, so definitely on the low end of the first stage pressure that it can handle. (Altaros provides 5-10bar as the appropriate "feed" pressures.) I'm liking the run to rest ratios on the California compressor and don't plan on changing anything at this point.
Like most booster pump users who end up Rube Goldberging the situation, I also added some more drying components a few months ago. The water separator and desiccant canister that come housed within the booster are sufficient, but I wanted an external drying source, with more readily available connectors/fittings than those used by Altaros.
So here are my added components.
Bought dessicant with the same color change as what came from Altaros: orange is dry, green is wet. In the above photo you can see how orange it still is in the OEM dryer. And that the small silica canister in the upper right is wet (green).
Here is a closer image...
I swapped it for fresh silica at this point, roughly halfway through the 90 minutes.
I do get a fair amount of moisture at that first blow out, at the end of the blue hose and before the dessicant/silica.
I'm still running a tampon filter on the output and it is bone dry with the above. Even the OEM Altaros water separator right inside the box is seeing 0 moisture now.
I also added a better fan situation for the heads on the California compressor. Already had the fan so no additional cost incurred there.
Overall Im pretty happy with the Altaros. I sprayed weeds this morning for the 90 minutes while the Altaros was doing it's thing. I still like that feature the most: turn it on and walk away, it can be trusted to do its job, without overheating, or blowing up.
For anyone considering an Altaros booster, I'd recommend making sure you've got a place where it can permanently live. I think getting it out and setting everything up every time I needed it would be cumbersome. As-is though, it's all ready to go, whenever I need some high pressure air.
Upvote 0
Cole!
Thanks for the detailed write-up. Should my Boxes crash, I think that I will purchase an Altaros Booster as I obviously already have a 'shop compressor' I'm using with my Boxes.
Sounds like it's a good rig to me.
Mike
Thanks for the detailed write-up. Should my Boxes crash, I think that I will purchase an Altaros Booster as I obviously already have a 'shop compressor' I'm using with my Boxes.
Sounds like it's a good rig to me.
Mike
Upvote 0
I know my life is much simpler since I found a perm ant spot for my set up. Setting it up in the kitchen only took about 20 minutes, and my wife never griped, but I still looked over my shoulder. 
I use 3 desiccant filters between my 3 CATS and my storage tank. First one gets saturated after an hour and a half, second one gets about half of its desiccant doing the color change, the third one shows very little color change and the desiccant filter inside the cover never gets moisture. No hissing or spitting water in my bleed valve at the tank filling line when I bleed the line.
I change the first three filters desiccant after each use, perhaps having 4 in total desiccant filters us over kill, but it certainly stops all moisture from entering my booster.
My Altaros oil/water separator inside the cabinet developed a leak early on and being as the CATS don’t put oil in the lines I removed it.
RC
I use 3 desiccant filters between my 3 CATS and my storage tank. First one gets saturated after an hour and a half, second one gets about half of its desiccant doing the color change, the third one shows very little color change and the desiccant filter inside the cover never gets moisture. No hissing or spitting water in my bleed valve at the tank filling line when I bleed the line.
I change the first three filters desiccant after each use, perhaps having 4 in total desiccant filters us over kill, but it certainly stops all moisture from entering my booster.
My Altaros oil/water separator inside the cabinet developed a leak early on and being as the CATS don’t put oil in the lines I removed it.
RC
Upvote 0
I cant find the video for the original but they have changed them a bit anyway so you cant buy the original. Hoover should anyone not mind running a shop compressor AND wanting to fill with Nitrogen (got $$ and want power, Helium) this video is handy :
John
John
Upvote 0
Here is my solution to removing water manufactured during the booster pump operation.
All three of my CATcompressors run through these dessicant filters. I had 4 of them at one time, but one cracked and it works well without it, so it was never replaced.
I bought these off of Amazon for around $45.00 each.
The three filters absolutely stop any moisture from reaching my Altaros dessicant filter located inside the cabinet.
RC
All three of my CATcompressors run through these dessicant filters. I had 4 of them at one time, but one cracked and it works well without it, so it was never replaced.
I bought these off of Amazon for around $45.00 each.
The three filters absolutely stop any moisture from reaching my Altaros dessicant filter located inside the cabinet.
RC
Upvote 0
It's been about 8 months so thought I'd do an update.
Last week I was in the garage for most of the day, just doing routine vehicle maintenance. I figured it'd be a good day to top off my tanks since I was already using the shop compressor. The Altaros ran from about 8am to 6pm. In that time frame it filled my 45 min SCBA from 3700-4600psi, the 80cf SCUBA from 2700-3200, and the 60 min SCBA from 4100-4600. The Altaros just quietly did its thing while I was doing mine. I changed the dessicant in the tiny dryer ahead of the Altaros once, and touched the three moisture blow outs a couple times each. The same compressor that was feeding the Altaros was also running my air wrench so not much data of any use can be derived from fill times that day. I had music going and was able to hear the music just fine. The combination of California Air Tools compressor and the Altaros booster, is much less offensive to the auditory organs than El Yongo Hengo.
I'm still pretty pleased with the Altaros as a fill source. At my elevation and climate there's about 4 weeks in the summer where the temps and humidity levels are high enough to be an annoyance, which simply requires more ventilation for cooling on the shop compressor and more frequent dessicant changes. The rest of the last 8 months with the Altaros have been smooth sailing. It doesn't top off a tank NOW, so the instant gratification folks probably wouldn't be pleased with it. But with a little bit of responsibility towards knowing when tanks need filled and simply turning on the booster when it's convenient, full tanks are ready and waiting for me when it's time to shoot.
Last week I was in the garage for most of the day, just doing routine vehicle maintenance. I figured it'd be a good day to top off my tanks since I was already using the shop compressor. The Altaros ran from about 8am to 6pm. In that time frame it filled my 45 min SCBA from 3700-4600psi, the 80cf SCUBA from 2700-3200, and the 60 min SCBA from 4100-4600. The Altaros just quietly did its thing while I was doing mine. I changed the dessicant in the tiny dryer ahead of the Altaros once, and touched the three moisture blow outs a couple times each. The same compressor that was feeding the Altaros was also running my air wrench so not much data of any use can be derived from fill times that day. I had music going and was able to hear the music just fine. The combination of California Air Tools compressor and the Altaros booster, is much less offensive to the auditory organs than El Yongo Hengo.
I'm still pretty pleased with the Altaros as a fill source. At my elevation and climate there's about 4 weeks in the summer where the temps and humidity levels are high enough to be an annoyance, which simply requires more ventilation for cooling on the shop compressor and more frequent dessicant changes. The rest of the last 8 months with the Altaros have been smooth sailing. It doesn't top off a tank NOW, so the instant gratification folks probably wouldn't be pleased with it. But with a little bit of responsibility towards knowing when tanks need filled and simply turning on the booster when it's convenient, full tanks are ready and waiting for me when it's time to shoot.
Upvote 0
Franklink (Cole!)
Thank you for the update. As you know, my Boxes are currently running smoothly, and I am in the middle of improving the cooling of the cylinders/pistons (I hope) with a small radiator and front mounted fan that I'm experimenting with on the Box that was purchased from you. I should have it assembled next week; fingers crossed.Since I don't use my Boxes extensively, I'm hopeful that they last for a few more years. I simply top them off after each shooting session from around 3,800PSI to 4,300PSI taking about an hour to do so. I also live in a dry clime (it's been around 10-15% humidity of late), yet still have moisture protection before and after the Box, so that issue is a low issue for me at least. My biggest problem is heat as the outside temperature goes from mid 70° into the low 100°. Thus, my cooling experiment.
However, from your experience and guidance, if/when my Boxes go, I'm procuring an Altaros for replacement.
mike
Upvote 0
Glad to hear the Shoeboxes are still pumping away for you!
For those of us accustomed to boosters, I feel this Altaros is about as close as we can get, with current market options. With the shop compressor that I'm using, the Altaros booster is slower than the Shoebox F10, but gets the job done just the same.
Upvote 0
I had a Altaros for a while and it worked well enough. I have a 30gal shop compressor and it cycled on and off quite a bit because most of the air used from the shop compressor works the actuating pneumatic parts. I now have F10 and have had for a few years and being powered by an AC motor 100% of the shop compressor's discharged air is recompressed. I'd guess my 30gal shop compressor might cycle on every 20 min or so, maybe a tad longer. I use it in conjunction with AirVenturi 4500, using it for the bulk of the fill and usually topping off with the F10.
Upvote 0
1 year update.... exactly one year actually. Tallied my logbook today and the first entry was on 4/5/23.
84.55hours in the last year. Occasionally also filling with the Yong Heng, mostly just to keep it running.
I've got the input cranked way down so the Altaros fills slow, but also doesn't tax the shop compressor.
Today's fill was 3400-4600 in a 60min SCBA and it took 7.5hrs. While it was running I changed the oil in my truck and a bunch of other vehicle maintenance tasks, ran kids to a fro a couple times, etc.
84.55hours in the last year. Occasionally also filling with the Yong Heng, mostly just to keep it running.
I've got the input cranked way down so the Altaros fills slow, but also doesn't tax the shop compressor.
Today's fill was 3400-4600 in a 60min SCBA and it took 7.5hrs. While it was running I changed the oil in my truck and a bunch of other vehicle maintenance tasks, ran kids to a fro a couple times, etc.
Upvote 0