The Daystate 110v Compressor! Review and How-to!

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Tominco

Tominco

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Apr 1, 2015
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Colorado, United States
I set aside some time to put together this video for you all about the Daystate 110v Compressor. I've been reading some posts about them and have had some friends considering picking one up. Hopefully, this review and how to guide will help you in making a decision whether this is the right compressor for you or not. I think it's a good idea to have any and all the information you can find before making a purchase on something like this. Larger compressors like this come with a large price tag and should be quality made for years of trouble free service. 

I hope you all enjoy! 



https://youtu.be/P97Cq42AOb8


 
I believe I read that you need to open the vent cap before filling with oil to allow air to exit and oil to enter. Not in instructions?
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Yes, this should be done. I would imagine it would be mandatory to avoid getting a false reading on the dip stick for oil level as a result of trapped air. The compressor takes 330mL of oil.

Instructions at 
1556743917_1645994065cca06edbc6003.70878228_Scanned Document.png



 
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$2000? My Honda Accord is $1800. Dang why can't they make these compressor cheaper like $500-800 max. There's lots of parts on a car, from all the metal to the leather seat, floor, engine, wheels, window etc and they are cheaper than these compressor.. smh
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There are compressors out there for 5-800. I've seen many posts on them asking about where to get repair parts. I think this is one of those, "you get what you pay for," things. 
 
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I believe I read that you need to open the vent cap before filling with oil to allow air to exit and oil to enter. Not in instructions?
Click to expand...

Yes, this should be done. I would imagine it would be mandatory to avoid getting a false reading on the dip stick for oil level as a result of trapped air. The compressor takes 330mL of oil.
Click to expand...

Oddly, I either didn't get that instruction sheet or, I misplaced it during the move. Thanks for sharing! 
 
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What concerns me about these is I've now heard, not one, but two first hand reports of these Daystate/Coltri compressors failing, as well as a few unverified accounts of design changes due to failures/issues. If you go over to the compressor survey, the best data we've got on the subject, the results are less than encouraging taken in this light:
https://syracuseuniversity.ca1.qualtrics.com/results/public/c3lyYWN1c2V1bml2ZXJzaXR5LVVSX2RvakFhc09YblZQRVA1My01YmUxY2ZlNDUzY2YxNjAwMGVjMGRmM2U=#/pages/Page_dfd04df3-efe7-4df5-b66c-9bb374510a24

17 users, one failure, an average run time of less than 8 hours and nobody has run the compressor more than 20 hours. 

I don't say this as a pro or anti DS/Coltri compressor thing, just that I keep hearing "should provide a lifetime supply of clean air" or "get what you pay for" statements about this compressor seem to be made by a lot of people with fairly little run time on the clock. Based on what I've seen that just doesn't seem to be the case for a surprising number of people, given that not many of these compressors have been sold. 

Obviously we don't have enough data for statistical significance in the compressor survey results, so this napkin math should be taken with a huge spoonful of salt, but if you extrapolate the mean hours run time multiplied by the number of users you come up with 136 hours to failure. (this assumes failure is random rather than wear related, which is likely untrue) If the compressor costs 2,000$, while a Yong Heng costs 200$, the Yong Heng would only need to last 13.6 hours to give roughly equivalent value. The YH outputs air at a different rate, again making this not an entirely fair comparison, but I also don't want to sit here quietly while other people may mistakenly believe that these compressors are "lifetime" or "failure-proof" machines. 



I hope that makes sense. I really don't mean to show up and take a leak in your coffee Tom, I very much appreciate the time you take to make your reviews. I also just hope people take this in the context that some of these compressors HAVE failed, and that to my eyes anyway the jury is still out on their long term reliability. Why it is so challenging and expensive to make a reliable high pressure compressor I don't fully understand, but clearly it shouldn't be taken for granted. *shrug* 
 
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Who knows -- ask someone what the best compressor is and if theirs is working, it's the best. If theirs is broken, it's the worst. Some designs are good, some designs are bad, some designs are mediocre, and some designs are good enough. Then of course you have a wide gamut of purchasers ranging from people who never read the no oil warning to the people who have researched the system so well they could build one in their sleep blindfolded upside down.

Put all this into a big bucket, stir it up, and you'll have the failures precipitate out. The root cause will never be known due to all the variables. I don't think anything stands out at the moment as free from breakage or defect. If it did it'd make life pretty easy for all of us.

I do think removing the 14mm crankcase nut is important otherwise I imagine you can end up with an air pocket that doesn't allow for proper lubrication. Who knows, I am not a mechanical engineer but I do follow the instructions to the letter since I assume they receive some engineering oversight. The fact that there is a gap in distribution of documentation (IE, the scan of the above document I did) could be considered a legitimate concern. In the official manual I have on page 17-20 it does say to open the air vent (d) and refers to the crank case nut. I see removal of this nut only referenced for filling not for draining.

Belt tension should be less than 1cm of movement at ~10 Kg of force.

Hose tension is 15Nm and doesn't require teflon tape. I had a leak, I used teflon tape, and now it does not leak. *shrug*


 
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ANYTHING can fail. I'd bet a lot that there have been failures of Bauer compressors as well even though they are viewed as "the best" by many. If issues are handled well and one gets good service out of whatever level of compressor "quality" they purchase then they are probably ahead of the game. I plan to buy a much more "substantial" compressor at some point in the future (the Yong Heng fills my 97cf tank to 4500 relatively quickly right now). Having said the above, If a "better quality" compressor breaks I'd still be irritated as most would but It would be understandable. Stuff happens.
 
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So if you go on the dive forums, the attitude appears to be that all compressors break and need to be rebuilt and that is just the way of life. That is valid, and similar can be said about basically every mechanical device, my questions are generally:
1) What is the average interval, in hours, between failures/rebuilds?
2) What is the parts cost/availability? 
3) What is the total cost to get a repair done by a 3rd party? 
4) What is the difficulty in servicing it yourself? 



To be clear, I'm DEFINITELY not advocating for a Yong Heng compressor (I own one and hate it), nor am I advocating against the Coltri (I don't own one, but have considered it). We really don't seem to have a lot of good data on how long one of these compressors is expected to run before it needs repair, what fails, and once you're out of the year long warranty period what is working on it going to cost you? I think a lot of people assume that, because of its cost and the fact that airgunners tend to use pretty little air as compared to, for example, divers I think there is a tacit assumption that the Coltri/Daystate will simply work "forever." I'm just trying to politely raise the point that, given a few conversations I've had, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not suggesting anyone shouldn't buy one of these compressors, or that they're bad value, or anything of the sort. I just don't know enough about them to have an informed opinion, and given the price of the compressor and how few units there are out there, I think we're going to need to wait a couple years to see how this all plays out to really know for sure. 

Am I being fair? I certainly hope I am/am trying to be. :) 
 
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Oddly, I either didn't get that instruction sheet or, I misplaced it during the move. Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...
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Very happy to help, evidently not everyone gets it for some odd reason. I found it very helpful for an "out of the box, do this" guide. Great video, thanks for taking the time to create and share it. Feel free to use that sheet as needed.
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I'm not too surprised, since I picked mine up in person. Something like that is easy to overlook. I'm going to print out the one you photographed for myself.
 
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What concerns me about these is I've now heard, not one, but two first hand reports of these Daystate/Coltri compressors failing, as well as a few unverified accounts of design changes due to failures/issues. If you go over to the compressor survey, the best data we've got on the subject, the results are less than encouraging taken in this light:
https://syracuseuniversity.ca1.qualtrics.com/results/public/c3lyYWN1c2V1bml2ZXJzaXR5LVVSX2RvakFhc09YblZQRVA1My01YmUxY2ZlNDUzY2YxNjAwMGVjMGRmM2U=#/pages/Page_dfd04df3-efe7-4df5-b66c-9bb374510a24

17 users, one failure, an average run time of less than 8 hours and nobody has run the compressor more than 20 hours. 

I don't say this as a pro or anti DS/Coltri compressor thing, just that I keep hearing "should provide a lifetime supply of clean air" or "get what you pay for" statements about this compressor seem to be made by a lot of people with fairly little run time on the clock. Based on what I've seen that just doesn't seem to be the case for a surprising number of people, given that not many of these compressors have been sold. 

Obviously we don't have enough data for statistical significance in the compressor survey results, so this napkin math should be taken with a huge spoonful of salt, but if you extrapolate the mean hours run time multiplied by the number of users you come up with 136 hours to failure. (this assumes failure is random rather than wear related, which is likely untrue) If the compressor costs 2,000$, while a Yong Heng costs 200$, the Yong Heng would only need to last 13.6 hours to give roughly equivalent value. The YH outputs air at a different rate, again making this not an entirely fair comparison, but I also don't want to sit here quietly while other people may mistakenly believe that these compressors are "lifetime" or "failure-proof" machines. 



I hope that makes sense. I really don't mean to show up and take a leak in your coffee Tom, I very much appreciate the time you take to make your reviews. I also just hope people take this in the context that some of these compressors HAVE failed, and that to my eyes anyway the jury is still out on their long term reliability. Why it is so challenging and expensive to make a reliable high pressure compressor I don't fully understand, but clearly it shouldn't be taken for granted. *shrug*
Click to expand...

I follow what your saying and can appreciate your point of view. To be clear- when I stated, "get what you pay for" I wasn't solely talking about the Daystate. I was referring to other brands as well which tend to carry a big price tag, such as the Omega. True, this was the first time I turned this on so, I can't speak to long term performance. I have also heard (today) about the design changes that have been implemented to this model such as 3 stage (new) vs. 4 stage (video), auto shut-off features, etc. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that everything that is manufactured has a level of failed units and it doesn't matter what brand. Compressors, rifles, cars & trucks, even a box of pencils can have defects. Maybe I haven't been looking too hard but, I seem to see more topics popping up on repairing low priced compressors rather than high priced compressors. 

I was very impressed by the "Altaros" compressor that runs off air pressure. Any time you have moving parts generating heat and requiring lubrication, you have wear and the likelihood of something going wrong goes up quickly. That's why I was so impressed by it. It was very slow moving. But, I don't hear much about those and mine has long since been sold because, the downside to it is that you really do need a high output shop compressor in order to run it efficiently and you effectively transfer the wear and tear that you'd see in a stand alone high pressure compressor over to the shop compressor. 

The statement "Who knows — ask someone what the best compressor is and if theirs is working, it's the best. If theirs is broken, it's the worst." does make quite a lot of sense. Your list of questions 1-4 is good but, consider adding in the question of number of units with issues vs. number of units sold or produced. 

After reading the discussion many of you have posted, I'm considering running this through a torture test. This is my 4th or 5th source of high pressure air. So, I could just repeat the filling process for 8-10 hours. But, would that be an accurate test? I can't think of many people that run their compressors like that. And, with my other sources of air, I don't foresee myself turning this one into my main source as I prefer to preserve them for longevity. Every hour of run time is one hour closer to an issue. That statement holds true with everything, even ourselves. Also, running a test like that would not simulate changes in temperature, humidity, storing for long periods, and the list could go on.

I'd consider doing it but, what do you very fine AGN folks think? Would an 8 hour "fill, bleed, rest, fill, bleed, rest, repeat..." be worthwhile? And, if I did run this test, could I count on a few donations towards my channel to help cover the cost of any possible repairs should I run into an issue? Also, is it useful at all to put this one through a test considering that it is an older model and the newer ones have had significant design changes? 

Tom
 
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None of these tests would be empirical and would show sampling bias/selection bias. A good compressor is one that works. A bad compressor is one that is broken. A failed compressor is one beyond repair.

I'd happily trade a broken Yong Heng for a Daystate. I'd happily trade a broken Daystate for a Yong Heng. MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) is great and all but at the end of the day there are WAY too many variables to even consider trying to isolate MTBF and produce a reliable data set that says $x brand is better than $y brand.

Again, not being criticial, but in that sheet I have and in the manual it says you have to remove the crankcase 14mm bolt cover. The point I am trying to make, likely ineffectively and not intentionally insulting, is that everything is prone to error. Unless we have lab level MTBF calculations based on a controlled environment we're actively performing selection bias as a result of sampling bias.

I love the video and I'm glad you shared it. We need more sharing and less "Yong Heng" versus "!Yong Heng" :)


 
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Personally I don't really think it would be that helpful. I would guess that the Daystate compressor you have would pass such a test with ease. As you note, long term information on many of these modern compressors won't be available for awhile and such a test sequence as you mentioned might not produce much of a result. And that would seem to necessarily include the other considerations you mention. One thing that has always kept my interest on the Omega compressors is that they have a longer term record (relatively) and still seem to serve people well without a lot of complaints of problems or failure. In any event, your efforts are appreciated and helpful.
 
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 Thanks for the nice review, as I was looking to buy a nicer compressor. However now I’m confused a little. I thought that all the 110 units, as per AOA’s website, were 3 stage units. In your last post it says 4 stage (video). Are you reporting that the new 110 units are now 4stage compressors? I’m just going off their website and it says, if I’m understanding it, that the 220V units are 4 stage. Thanks for any follow up.
 
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