Ok, so any reports on the Hatsan Lightning?

Sounds worse than my cheap Yong Heng which has been working flawelessly so far.

Seems that putting the logo of an established brand on a Chinese compressor does not make it any less Chinese.

Definitely a better unit than that young Heng. Mine is working fine two fills of my 45 min. SCBA, 25 minutes run time max. The real proof will be in the long haul. Will fill my tank again today and report back, or not.
 
I asked them for a refund as well and they just told me that i had a 1 year warranty. I honestly don't think this is much worse than the air venturi one, and mine seems to bd doing ok now that I got all the parts replaced and a 12 gauge extension cord. I am still glad I got one of these, but there does seem to be some QC issues they need to work out for sure.
 
After doing the product update or upgrade or whatever Hatsan calls it, I attempted to complete the fill on my 45 min SCBA. Starting from 2800 psi, compressor got to 195 F in 22 minutes run time and reached 4450 psi when I shut it down. After the tank cooled off, tank pressure was only 4150 psi. I'll have to top it off again.

Last email I got from Hatsan Service, they asked if I would replace the temp gauge if they sent me a new one since they now think that's what is wrong. I'm inclined to say no, but the way this disaster has been going, I'm afraid if I don't "volunteer" to replace the temp gauge and send the compressor back to Hatsan, they'll send me another compressor that's even worse than the overheating compressor I've had since Aug 28. 


 
I also had broken parts, the air filter was destroyed, the pressure gauge was dislodged and the mounting bracket bent and the fan cover and mounting bolts were bent. I fixed the gauge mounting bracket and straightened the fan cover. Replaced the hardware with personal stock, Hatsan sent me a replacement filter assembly.

I did all the startup stuff. The only problem was when calibrating the gauge. The compressor shuts down a couple hundred psi short of the auto stop pressure. I tried calibrating several times but still does the same thing. I'll contact tech support about the issue but I'm not to concerned.

Filled a couple gun cylinders with no issues. This past weekend I connected the compressor to a empty 74 cu.ft.tank.. Fired the compressor up, filled the tank with no problems to report. Max temp was around 165. 



Sameole- I found a solution to this problem of calibration. You have to “trick” the compressor. 

When in the calibration mode, instead of setting the shut down psi for 4350, set it for higher. For example, my compressor shut off when my remote test gage was only at 3900 psi(going off of memory here, but you’ll get the gist). So what I did was set the compressors shut off for like 4870(going off of memory) and when it shut off my remote test gage was at 4500 or so.

i slowly opened the bleed screw at the fill whip and slowly bled out air till the remote test gage read 4350 then closed off the bleed screw. Then, I just finished the calibration on that “30” setting for 4350 psi. To date, I am only like 50 psi off, so I’m keeping it there.

lastly, the manual doesn’t say anything about getting out of calibration mode. Shut down the compressor as the manual explains, then unplug the cord for a few seconds. Re plug, then make sure to set your new psi shut off(for tank or gun) BEFORE turning on the coolant switch, for if you turn the switch on first, it will default to the last setting you punched in for shut off. I’ve figured out that the coolant switch holds more duties than just turning the water pump and cooling fan on. To prove this, try turning on the compressor with out turning on the coolant switch. It was actually designed well as a fail safe.



to the one posting about pressure not holding- my fill whip connection needed re tightening, along with every hard line connection from compressor to filter, and from filter to purge solenoid. Tighten these fittings when the compressor is hot. Just a short stab of the wrist, for about a 1/8 turn is all that’s needed. Don’t go gorilla on those fittings!

i added 6 ounces of the Redline water wetter to my 60/40 mix of distilled water/Zerex GO5. That Zerex is designed for Diesel engines, and my coolant temps have hovered at around 140 degrees for a tank top off taking 15 minutes(3400-4500 psi).



i have 120 ounces of distilled water in my tank, and 80 ounces of the Zerex. 

I recently read here on AGN of a person whose fill whip end connection(female QD) explode due to it being made out of brass. I plan on swapping mine out for a SS one shortly.


 
I’m curious as to why I haven’t been notified of this “recall” for the new coolant fitting. I’ve been a Lightning owner since July, and have not gotten notified. I wonder if it’s because I purchased it thru a vendor? 

Im the guy Duster was talking about with the flaky gage. What was happening was every time I pressed on the minus button when toggling trying to set my psi shut off, the minus button wouldn’t pop back up. I had to press just outside the perimeter of the button to pop it up. Workable still, but annoying. I notified Hatsan and I immediately got an email saying a new gage was on its way.



hate to say this, but after listening to the replacement of Mark’s Compressor that blew up, I have a feeling that Hatsan would rather have us wrench on our rigs, and they will gladly provide parts for it. I don’t think they want to pay for return shipping, just my opinion, unless it was an outright failure like Marks was. I know when it came to my Hercules Bully, which I bought the same time as the compressor, they quickly wanted the gun shipped back when I complained about crap accuracy and a rattling noise coming from inside the bottle. I sent follow up emails, hinting that they should just send me a new one,(or even the model that Shooter1721 used on YouTube-crazy accurate), but they repaired it instead. Shipping costs for a rifle is one thing, but not sure on the compressor. What gets me is, why not send me the repair part for the gun, so I can do it?

what troubles me about the situation like Duster, is what happens if say you changed your mind about owning a compressor? An emergency came up and you needed to get refunded back the $$. Would hatsan take it back?

Duster, after reading about Mark’s compressor blowing up and getting replaced, if I were in your shoes, and had all the back up emails and correspondence with Hatsan on this problem, I would fix that thing with all the parts they send you, then run it till it breaks. Run it hard. Then, for sure you’d get your refund
 
I don't see any mention of a warranty on the Field Supply Lightning, I would sure ask to be sure it has a warranty, cause nearly every Lightning I'm aware of has needed either support or repair parts. If you get the same 1 year warranty from Hatsan, then its a question of how lucky do you feel? Think you'll get a compressor that's fixable with a little help or get a disaster like I got "lucky" with - an apparently incurable overheating problem that Hatsan seems to be ignoring.

I do mind having to wrench on the compressor, if I'd have known I would be spending a significant amount of my spare time wrenching on the thing, I'd never have bought it. Support for mine has been terrible - it took 4 working days before Hatsan even replied to my customer service form - and that reply was not helpful in the least. I have not had any communication from Hatsan since Thursday last week and I still have an overheating compressor that overheats in about 10 minutes after only making 800 to 1000 psi. The compressor's warranty is worthless if Hatsan won't or can't stand behind it!


 
Update - Hatsan contacted me on Oct 10th. They asked me to test temp gauge with boiling or near boiling water. Turns out the temp gauge reads 14 or 15 degrees low compared to lab grade mercury thermometer, meaning the compressor is running hotter than the the temp gauge indicates. As soon as I reported this to Hatsan, they issued an RMA and asked me to ship it back to them. Took me a week to prep compressor for shipping, get it loaded into its original box and prepared for UPS pickup. I've got a bad disk in my back, so I can only work until my back starts hurting and I have to quit. I paid UPS to pick up compressor which they did Oct 19th.

I told Hatsan Service in a return email that I felt strongly that I had received poor, unacceptable service and would not accept or sign for another compressor. They informed me that they would not process a return on the compressor as long as there was a dispute open with my credit card company. After discussing this with my credit card rep, I dropped my dispute on Oct 23rd.

Compressor was delivered to Hatsan on Oct 24. I got emails from Hatsan asking a lot of particulars about what coolant I had used, ambient temperature I had been running compressor in, was compressor run when it was hot, was compressor plugged directly into 110 v outlet, was I running compressor near a heat source and finally was I allowing adequate cooling for compressor. Then in next email I get, Hatsan tells me they can't replicate the overheating I have have experienced since day one with the compressor!! The tone of that email implied this was some how my fault or that I had returned a perfectly fine, functional compressor back to them. I had uploaded a 22 min large 2 gig video clip of the compressor running (and over heating!!) on my google drive and sent Hatsan a link to it so they could watch it. I'm really glad that I made that clip.

I have not heard anything further, but as soon as I get a written confirmation of the dispute cancellation from my credit card next week, I'll forward Hatsan a copy of same and hopefully receive the credit shortly thereafter on my card for the compressor. I will take the high road at this point and not imply they were trying to pull anything. I guess it's possible that shipping it back shook something loose that had been compromising the cooling all along?? I'd have to see pretty clear, tear down based evidence before I'd believe it!
 
I will admit, there were a few times when I had to contact them twice with the same question about the compressor, but they always got back to me and always seemed like they cared and would take care of me. They finally issued an RMA to me and UPS shipped the compressor back to them on Hatsan's dime. They tell me that they have issued a refund and they had to refund it with a check, which I am expecting in the mail this week. I don't feel like I am getting screwed around, just busy company blues. I think if that compressor had worked for me as it has for a lot of others I am sure, I would have been happy with it.