Shoebox Freedom 10 Doing Well

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chasdicapua

Member
Jun 3, 2015
1,715
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Massachusetts, United States
I wanted to give a thumbs up to this compressor. I've got some number of hours on it now and it works just great. Turn it on and walk away. The shop compressor comes on about every 10 - 12 minutes for around 15 seconds.

The fill rate is roughly one minute per bar. The other night I ran it for 40 minutes and it went exactly from 210 bar to 250 bar. Perhaps as the pressure increases the fill rate may slow down a bit due to the higher pressure? Don't know as I haven't filled my tank with it past 275 bar yet.

The longest I've run it for is one hour and the motor is warm, but not hot. I can easily put my palm on it and leave it there. 

I like that I can work on this myself when need be (70 - 100 hours per the literature) and that there are videos to support that. 

So, just some information for those who may be looking to buy a compressor.

Chas
 
I have the base model Shoebox Max for almost 4 years now and it has been reliable the whole time. Very minor maintenance to keep this little engine that could up and running. All joking aside I honestly believe the Shoebox is the best bang for your buck fill system to date, with a near flawless working history, you rarely here of issues and parts are cheap and easily obtainable here in the good ole USA. I’ll most definitely buy another at some point should I feel the need. Good to hear yours is working out for you, keep us updated. Are you using any type of moisture removal? If so whatcha got going on there Chas?
 
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I wanted to give a thumbs up to this compressor. I've got some number of hours on it now and it works just great. Turn it on and walk away. The shop compressor comes on about every 10 - 12 minutes for around 15 seconds.

The fill rate is roughly one minute per bar. The other night I ran it for 40 minutes and it went exactly from 210 bar to 250 bar. Perhaps as the pressure increases the fill rate may slow down a bit due to the higher pressure? Don't know as I haven't filled my tank with it past 275 bar yet.

The longest I've run it for is one hour and the motor is warm, but not hot. I can easily put my palm on it and leave it there. 

I like that I can work on this myself when need be (70 - 100 hours per the literature) and that there are videos to support that. 

So, just some information for those who may be looking to buy a compressor.

Chas
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This sounds about on par with my F8. My gauge is in PSI and mine does a little over 100psi in 10 minutes. This equates to about .7 bar per minute. The F10 is supposed to be about 20% faster (IIRC)
 
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AirRanger, I've got a Wilkerson moisture trap between the shop compressor and the Shoebox. Costs about $80. Very easy to set up.

Chas
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Chas i know they say to use an oilless compressor but i have a shop compressor i was thinking of buying a shoe box and using my 25 gallon compressor it uses so little air i figured if i put a double dryer with one haveing silica in it would surfice is that what youre doing ?
 
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I'm not sure why they say to use an oiless shop compressor. You'll have to contact shoebox and ask. They are very good at getting back with e-mail correspondance. I have a silica drier between the shop compressor and the shoebox. Yeah, if you've already got a shop compressor and they say it's good to use, getting a shoebox is a no brainer. 

Chas
 
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The reason they say you should use an oilless compressor is to absolve the Shoebox manufacturer from liability if oil vapor from an oil lubricated first stage compressor detonates being compressed in the Shoebox. If you are using an oil and moisture filter between your compressor and your Shoebox it is unlikely to have any problems. The amount of air being compressed is so miniscule in a Shoebox that a detonation is unlikely unless you have no filtration and worn seals in the oil lubed first stage compressor.
 
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I've had my F10 for the better part of a year now. The only issue I've had with it was that initially I was putting too much oil on the self lubing felt pads and that lead to oil working it's way through the pump and up into the fill line. I've checked the tanks and the oil never made it's way far enough to get into the tank, but this lead to me doing a full take apart and clean of the pump internals to clean out all the gunk. Since then I only put about 5 drops of oil on the felt pads every 8-10 hours and it's been running much cleaner.

I don't mind the slower fill times as I will likely never be willing to spend $2k for a Daystate compressor and the Yong Heng compressors have not been my friend from a reliability standpoint.
 
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Same (minor) problem here. 

Got my Shoebox F10 about six weeks ago. I've got around 5hrs on it and the only gripe I've got is that it's hard to not overlube it. I've got a high pressure filter on the outlet side that's been catching my extra lube in a tampon-type filter as I try to learn how sparingly to apply the lube. 

What I did when I started seeing the lube in the filter was remove the filter to expose the output foster. I also removed the felt oil wicks and squeezed out the excess oil with paper towel. Put the felt back and just let the pump run without being connected to my tanks, collecting the lube that would come out in the pfft, pfft, pfft of the compressor strokes with a paper towel. About five minutes of that and it quit pumping lube and I connected it back to my tank. 

FYI: takes 1hr and 45 min to go from 0 to 3100psi in my 19cf scuba tank/pony bottle. And only about an hr from 2200-3100 for my 80cf scuba tank. 

I settled on the Shoebox for the same reason that I see listed above: disposable nature of the Chinese stuff and the really expensive nature of the Daystate/Coltri/dive type compressors. 

User serviceability on the Shoebox is a nice feature as well. When it first arrived I was kinda underwhelmed with it as i checked it out. It just seemed too simple. After setting it up and letting it quietly fill my tanks in the garage while I do other stuff, I've now decided that's what's cool about it-super simple and bullet proof. (If I can just resist the urge to overlube it).
 
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