Thinking of buying an Air Venturi compressor

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randy_68

randy_68

Member
Mar 29, 2018
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Indiana, United States
Since my Yong Heng went down back around the first of the year and I'm still waiting for parts I thought it might be time to upgrade. I ordered parts on 1-8 and received part of my order a week later however my piston and cover gasket are stuck somewhere between China and here. They are still showing on a plane. Lol. They sent me an email and said if they dont show up by 3-8 to let them know.

So that got me to thinking I might need to upgrade to a compressor that I can at least get parts for. I have been watching videos and reading reviews until my brain hurt and have pretty well decided on the Air Venturi compressor. It has lots of very positive reviews with several having lots of hours on them. Sure there are some that had problems but it looks like AV or Pyramid Air has taken care of the issues. Plus parts and tech service are readily available if needed.

The AV is at my $ limit so that leaves out the Daystates, Coltri, Bauer etc. I did look at the Carette and it seems like a decent compressor too but I'm drawn to the AV. 



Any reasons not to get the AV or to buy a different compressor are welcome.



Only problem with buying a compressor is I can't buy another gun for a while. Lol.
 
I found a few reviews on the Hatsan Lightning but it seems there has been more issues and less support on it. 

I think that the Tuxing , Alpha Carette, Hatsan and AV are all based off of and possibly are the same as the Tuxing as far as the actual compressor. Just different drives, cooling etc. I thought it would be nice to have the cooling system all included but maybe that's not really needed. I could just get the Tuxing 2 cyl and use a bucket of water and save myself a bunch of $. 

I would love a Bauer or Daystate but a that's just not possible at this time and even the AV is pushing my limit . 
 
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I've also been following this (Hatsan lightning from field supply). Pro's low cost and free shipping. Con's some folks have had troubles with this compressor and the vendor. 

I don't think it's the compressor. or manufacturer. I think it's the wide release/vendors. 

From what I've seen this is a solid compressor. But in certain situations it needs some support. hence a better vendor.

My feelings are I'd rather buy. A compressor that's supported by the vendor that has been run for awhile. Hence the Omega choice.

All this said, if you do go with this compressor I'd love to hear about you experience and result over a period of time.


 
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I've had my AV compressor for a few months now and am very happy with it. Before I bought it I looked at the Hatsan, it looks to be the same but has an auto water purge. I was a little leary about that feature as to how it actually worked, i.e. more stuff to go wrong. On the AV I can manually purge it every 7 to 10 minutes and usually get around a teaspoon of water expelled. I do this that often as I don't want the water to back up into the "filter". (You can purge it while it is running.) 

I'm sure Hatsan has good support for their products, but since I'm familiar with AV I went with what I knew to be good customer service (Pyramid Air). Hatsan also has digital gauges if that's important to you.
 
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For those who are adverse to doing a bit of studying and tinkering, the AV would be a great choice or Nomad II for light jobs on smaller tanks and not in a hurry to charge up their tank. For me, if it was more than two weeks delay on YH parts, I'd simply spend another $350 for a new one and have the whole damned thing at my door within 3 days (NOW, I'd have the #$%^&* parts from my old unit):

https://www.amazon.com/High-Pressure-Compressor-Electric-Paintball-Fighting/dp/B07CN74FJB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549168251&sr=8-1&keywords=yong+heng+4500+psi+compressor

Good luck, Michael
 
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For any hesitant about the Lightning for the reasons of service support, do yourself a favor to check that worry off the list by emailing hatsan thru their website. Ask them about parts availability, and all the what if’s. 



To date, there have been three bad cases of unhappy customers over the Lightning that I know of. One was lack of support from Hatsan, the other two the units had issues from the start the minute it was unboxed, due to poor handling during shipment. I’m going to repeat myself as I’ve posted this awhile back in one of those Lightning threads, but I had a phone conversation with customer service at hatsan. They asked me if I liked my compressor, and I said I loved it. But, I also told them to cruise the two major Airgun forums cause there are a couple of unhappy customers voicing their opinions on Hatsan’s lack of communication. They were totally unaware this was going on. Before long, these problems were handled and the unhappy customers who wanted nothing from this compressor were refunded their money.

if you do a search on any compressor it it’s infancy you will see problems, just like Airguns when brand new on the market. There really are more happy customers on this Lightning compressor than you see, but for some reason they aren’t piping in on these Lightning inquiry treads. I see L Leon has piped in, thankfully, but I know of others that are happy with theirs and have not had issues. 



What truly gets me, is there are countless treads on Yong Heng and Yong Heng clone issues. Folks struggling with repair parts finding, over heating, units busting down after an hours use, etc., etc. But folks still are in line, buying those things. There’s a saying that been around for years, and I know you all have applied it to your Airgun purchases- YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. 

Another thing that cracks me up, is the few that have strongly voiced their negative opinions about the purchasing of Yong Hengs, get flamed. Really? What did one expect of a compressor, made to push up to 4500 psi of air, that cost $300? But folks complaining about a $1300 unit don’t get flamed. I don’t get it.

My opinion only coming up next- The compressor is the life blood of this hobby, put a better investment toward that before spending $1500-$2000 on an Airgun. It’s one thing to buy a $300 compressor and a $300 air rifle if you are debating wether to dive deep into this hobby, and you want to invest as little as possible just to see if this hobby will pan out, yes, I totally understand that. But to invest in the YH to fill up your three tanks or top of your ten PCP guns, I don’t think that makes sense to me.

Understand that the Lightning, The AV, are both upper level, residential type compressors. No way would a Lightning or AV be used at an Airgun club house, commercially used for filling guns and tanks constantly. For that you need one that’s like $4000 or more. But to top off your tanks and guns two to three times a week, no problem for these. The Yong Hengs are definately a very very light duty compressor, and really should be made to top of small tanks and guns only. The folks that are not having any problems with their Yong Hengs are the ones that don’t abuse them by trying to fill 88 cu foot tanks from zero to 4500 psi.

All of my opinion only, based on all the treads I’ve read on multiple forums. I’m retired, and I spend a lot of time reading thru these forums, if that means anything. I’ve read a ton.
 
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I want to add, for the benefit of the original poster of this tread(and I’m suggesting this as a “knowing what I know now” kind of deal) if I didn’t already have an Airhog 88 cu foot tank, I would invest in one of these 12v/120v portable compressors instead. I’m seeing so many positive feedback from folks. They are portable, made to only fill guns directly and can do it in a decent time frame. I probably would go with the Hatsan Spark, only because I have not seen any returns or problems on these, and also because I know Hatsan will take care of me should issues arise, just like they have with my other purchases from them.
 
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I have the gold tuxing filter with desiccant on my YH. Works great.

I agree with Bigragu that you get what you pay for. I tried the YH and yes it worked fine, for a while, but now I'm ready to move up. I was planning on getting another air rifle but I'm going to buy a compressor instead. Since I use a 88cf tank I want a bigger, better compressor. The Hatsan has moved to the top of my list.

I'm not sure how the smaller Nomad, etc would work on filling g my Cricket directly since it has the slow fill valve in it.
 
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Randy, last July of 2018 my wife said ok to a $3K budget towards an air rifle and a compressor. I had my heart set on an FXBoss synthetic, and it was to be my first 30 caliber, high dollar gun. But, I knew I wanted a decent compressor, and the SHOT SHOW of 2018 reviews showed the Hatsan Lightning compressor. After all my research I decided on that compressor for sure, but after looking at my budget of $3K I could not swing both the Boss and the Lightning, if you include the scope, mounts, pellets, blah, blah all into that. So, I had to make a choice, and hand pumping an FXBoss was out of the question. So, I let the Boss go, and got a decent mid range gun in the Hatsan Bully in 30 cal. 

Looking back at all that, I’m glad I opted for a decent compressor. The fancy guns will eventually make it to me, but buying a decent compressor had to be in place first. 

Im telling you all of this, cause your making a wise decision in taking care of the need of air first.
 
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Randy, I've owned a AV for about 14 months. I've had a couple of issues with mine that I got squared away with the help and parts through Air Venturi. First issue was a power supply, under warranty and the part was readily available. The second issue was the failure of the high pressure rings letting oil past. I sent it back to AV for this issue since it was still under warranty and they paid for the return shipping which was great of them. Upon return it still then had issue's compressing and after visiting with Jordan at AV and him sending me the parts (high pressure ring seals and a tool) i made the repairs myself. I really glad that I did the repairs myself instead of sending it back again.

Would I buy another one now that I've had the issues.... yes. Knowing that the service and parts are available is a big plus.

No, its not top of the line but for what it features and what it's capable of I think it's worth the money. I think the Hatsan is very similar with a few added features so I think it would be a good option as well.

jking
 
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