The short version: I got THIS, it works so far, it isn't bad speed-wise, and it cost 695$ plus shipping and it didn't require me to purchase any additional fittings (although I did anyway). I will continue to update this review, hopefully for years, as I use this booster and have more insights on it.
Why I chose this unit
First and foremost I wanted extreme reliability. Airguns are my hobby, and I spend all day every day problem solving typically on complex mechanical systems. I'm completely capable of ripping apart and rebuilding any compressor out there, it doesn't scare me, however when I arrive at my precious and scarce hobby-time, the last thing in the world I want to be doing is fighting with yet another mechanical device which needs to be repaired or rebuilt. So extreme reliability, and a minimal parts count are pretty high on my wants-list. Please understand I don't mean to besmirch the reputations of Omega or Coltri/Daystate, however both have reports of failures and if you go on the dive forums the general consensus is that you just have to rebuild compressors and it is part of life. They are both also EXACTLY the type of greasy tightly packaged complex mess I didn't want to sink my teeth into when rebuild time arrives. The obvious answer might then be the Shoebox, as it is compact, inexpensive, and simple, however it seems the SB is in constant need of being oiled and rebuilt. Not a calamity for sure, but annoying which puts it further down my desirability list.
This survey was invaluable to me in assessing options, designs, run hours, etc.
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/compressor-survey-results/
Second I wanted the price to be "reasonable." We all have our own definitions of this, and a year ago I'd have said that even the price of this was too high, but I've been slowly worn down by a string of failures on other compressors. Somehow spending 1500-2000$ just didn't seem appealing.
Third I didn't mind if it needed a shop compressor, however I'd like it to run off a good reliable oiled shop compressor. I own both oiled and oilless compressors, however anyone who has run an oil-less compressor in a commercial environment knows that they're disposable. Basically you buy them because they're a cheap wobble-piston thrill to get air to somewhere that you don't want to haul or run line for a real compressor. And this is my other little strike against the SB. I'm not super worried that a filter setup couldn't extract the oil, I'm sure it could, but in general I'm one of those idiots who listens to manufacturers. So if the SB says no oiled compressor, fine, but that makes it that much less desirable as now I'll have to put hours on one of my disposable little pancakes. Meanwhile I've got a couple bigger oiled units kicking around, and will happily buy an even bigger one as I need more go-juice to run air tools anyway. My oiled compressors so far have all been utterly reliable, and were cheap to boot so......
Side note here, all shop compressor ratings are bogus. Here is why:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfjSm_ieRkE
So I arrived at the Altaros, as it uses an oiled compressor as a power source, has a minimum of moving parts, and by absolutely every account is utterly reliable. It is what I decided to roll the dice on anyway. I should note that the two complaints about the Altaros I hear over and over again are that it is slow and that it simply transfers the wear from a high pressure compressor to a low pressure compressor. As far as speed, by the numbers the Altaros is as fast or as slow as the compressor you attach it to. That said, by those numbers, none of them are fast. So if you're looking for a fill-while-you-wait solution, this isn't going to be it. The flip side of that coin though is that it is quiet, so easy to have it quietly hissing back and forth next to you while you do something else. (it is quieter than my Nomad II, even before the Nomad developed a hammering issue) The other complaint is that it "just transfers wear from the Altaros to your shop compressor. This is half-true. Here is the thing: low pressure oiled shop compressors are incredibly cheap, reliable, and long-lived. It really is actually quite remarkable to me just how inexpensive and reliable they are. So while something is still accruing run hours and wear for sure, it is a tool I have and use anyway, it is mechanically quite simple, it has a proven track record of reliability, and they are dirt cheap. In short, I'm not worried.
Purchasing/setup
So it is unclear from the website how exactly to purchase an Altaros booster, but long story short they send you an email, you confirm the details to them, and then they send you an invoice. I'll pull this quote right out of an email they sent me:
Most info which you want to know can be found on this web:
http://altaros-compressor.com/main-page/how-to-order/
What is main difference:
http://altaros-compressor.com/main-page/parameters/
Price and shipping:
http://altaros-compressor.com/price/
Total price for the "advanced" unit was 815$, plus a couple fittings I bought (turns out I didn't need) and the booster was here in a week. Everything was neatly packaged in what looks like a good quality upholstery foam. It also came with an American standard QD that connects to the air fittings everyone uses. I didn't use it though because, despite having an initial water separator and dessicant pack, I wanted a redundant dessicant pack and water separator so I just wouldn't have to worry about it. Thus I picked up ONE OF THESE. I should note at this point that there were various reports on the input thread of this compressor. I picked up THIS ADAPTER because that is what it claimed to be. The adapter fit, but so did 1/4NPT so I just put a little teflon tape on an NPT thread and put the adapter in my fittings box.
How does it work
Simple version is that this has no motor whatsoever, all the power comes form your air compressor itself. It uses some of the air and a compound piston system to compressor the other portion of the air. It comes with an inbuilt water trap and dessicant filter, it has an automatic stop, and an input pressure gauge. The power cable is only to run the brainbox and the solenoid which shunt the low power air around and run the thing. This
https://youtu.be/fVcZmZXEFhY
shows how it all works. The whole thing is actually a pretty slick piece of kit and elegant engineering in my opinion. Also, credit to them, in their gallery they show cutaways of the whole thing.
In the pictures above, on the right hand side, you can see the additional filtration I put on the unit. Again, I want things to just F******* work, so adding a department of redundancy department to the air input seemed like a good plan.
So having run it a bit, how does it perform? Well I decided to try running it on this little 2HP unit first. It is rated for 4.5cfm@90psi although that doesn't actually mean anything as the above video demonstrates. That said, on this little compressor, it seems to be about as fast a fill as my Nomad II. A top-off of a bottle airgun takes a couple minutes with the compressor running absolutely flat out. To be clear my impressions are definitely what you'd call initial, however they are also very positive. The unit works well, is quiet, and has a bunch of nice little features. I love the input side gauge, so you know what your actual pressure is at the machine. I love listening to it hiss and slide back and forth. I love the fact that it runs quite cool, so you don't see the big drop in tank pressure like you have with some other units. While some people complain about speed, for my uses I don't have any great need or desire for it to run faster. If I did, I could easily run it off either a bigger compressor or simply multiple smaller ones. After all my 2hp compressor is only about 100$ new, and I've seen these units run hard for years without issue.
So for now that is all I've got. I do want to be super clear about two things:
1) I'm quite early in my testing/use of this unit, so I'll continue to update this thread, but please keep in mind that all observations here are "preliminary" at best.
2) I'm not yet prepared to recommend this unit to anyone. I simply don't have enough hours on it to say conclusively whether it is good, bad, or meh.
If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll do my best to answer them.
*update 7/6/19*
Unit is still running well. On my Crown's 480cc bottle it takes about 10 minutes to go from 150-250 bar (a full fill) running on a Harbor Freight 2HP oiled compressor running intermittently (about 80/20). There is a key to getting the most out of this unit I've found, and that is increasing your input pressure and reducing the cycle rate using the flow restrictor on the Altaros. Why? Because it dramatically increases the amount of air going into the low pressure pump side, thus making it pressurize more air with every stroke. Meanwhile the air in the central actuator will, by virtue of the design, automatically drop down to whatever the minimum needed to cycle the machine is. So, put all together, I get faster fill times with higher input pressures, and I control the rate using the Altaros' flow restrictor made for exactly this purpose. I should also add that, now having tweaked and timed it, the unit is very comparable in output to the Air Venturi Nomad II, however the air it outputs is substantially cooler so there is a lot less "post-fill-drop;" it basically stays at its as-charged pressure, whereas with the Nomad I'd see maybe a 5 bar drop and with a Rong Heng I'd see maybe a 10-15 bar drop.
*update 12/3/19*
Unit is still running well. Charged two crowns and an AAA Slayer in one straight go on a single compressor. The compressor was toasty by the end, but unharmed. For really really long runs/big tanks, pairing up two compressors or turning the flow restrictor down even further would definitely be the way to go. I've also had to change the pre-filter's desiccant, however the unit's in-built desiccant filter looks unchanged, so clearly the pre-filter is working well.
Why I chose this unit
First and foremost I wanted extreme reliability. Airguns are my hobby, and I spend all day every day problem solving typically on complex mechanical systems. I'm completely capable of ripping apart and rebuilding any compressor out there, it doesn't scare me, however when I arrive at my precious and scarce hobby-time, the last thing in the world I want to be doing is fighting with yet another mechanical device which needs to be repaired or rebuilt. So extreme reliability, and a minimal parts count are pretty high on my wants-list. Please understand I don't mean to besmirch the reputations of Omega or Coltri/Daystate, however both have reports of failures and if you go on the dive forums the general consensus is that you just have to rebuild compressors and it is part of life. They are both also EXACTLY the type of greasy tightly packaged complex mess I didn't want to sink my teeth into when rebuild time arrives. The obvious answer might then be the Shoebox, as it is compact, inexpensive, and simple, however it seems the SB is in constant need of being oiled and rebuilt. Not a calamity for sure, but annoying which puts it further down my desirability list.
This survey was invaluable to me in assessing options, designs, run hours, etc.
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/compressor-survey-results/
Second I wanted the price to be "reasonable." We all have our own definitions of this, and a year ago I'd have said that even the price of this was too high, but I've been slowly worn down by a string of failures on other compressors. Somehow spending 1500-2000$ just didn't seem appealing.
Third I didn't mind if it needed a shop compressor, however I'd like it to run off a good reliable oiled shop compressor. I own both oiled and oilless compressors, however anyone who has run an oil-less compressor in a commercial environment knows that they're disposable. Basically you buy them because they're a cheap wobble-piston thrill to get air to somewhere that you don't want to haul or run line for a real compressor. And this is my other little strike against the SB. I'm not super worried that a filter setup couldn't extract the oil, I'm sure it could, but in general I'm one of those idiots who listens to manufacturers. So if the SB says no oiled compressor, fine, but that makes it that much less desirable as now I'll have to put hours on one of my disposable little pancakes. Meanwhile I've got a couple bigger oiled units kicking around, and will happily buy an even bigger one as I need more go-juice to run air tools anyway. My oiled compressors so far have all been utterly reliable, and were cheap to boot so......
Side note here, all shop compressor ratings are bogus. Here is why:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfjSm_ieRkE
So I arrived at the Altaros, as it uses an oiled compressor as a power source, has a minimum of moving parts, and by absolutely every account is utterly reliable. It is what I decided to roll the dice on anyway. I should note that the two complaints about the Altaros I hear over and over again are that it is slow and that it simply transfers the wear from a high pressure compressor to a low pressure compressor. As far as speed, by the numbers the Altaros is as fast or as slow as the compressor you attach it to. That said, by those numbers, none of them are fast. So if you're looking for a fill-while-you-wait solution, this isn't going to be it. The flip side of that coin though is that it is quiet, so easy to have it quietly hissing back and forth next to you while you do something else. (it is quieter than my Nomad II, even before the Nomad developed a hammering issue) The other complaint is that it "just transfers wear from the Altaros to your shop compressor. This is half-true. Here is the thing: low pressure oiled shop compressors are incredibly cheap, reliable, and long-lived. It really is actually quite remarkable to me just how inexpensive and reliable they are. So while something is still accruing run hours and wear for sure, it is a tool I have and use anyway, it is mechanically quite simple, it has a proven track record of reliability, and they are dirt cheap. In short, I'm not worried.
Purchasing/setup
So it is unclear from the website how exactly to purchase an Altaros booster, but long story short they send you an email, you confirm the details to them, and then they send you an invoice. I'll pull this quote right out of an email they sent me:
Most info which you want to know can be found on this web:
http://altaros-compressor.com/main-page/how-to-order/
What is main difference:
http://altaros-compressor.com/main-page/parameters/
Price and shipping:
http://altaros-compressor.com/price/
Total price for the "advanced" unit was 815$, plus a couple fittings I bought (turns out I didn't need) and the booster was here in a week. Everything was neatly packaged in what looks like a good quality upholstery foam. It also came with an American standard QD that connects to the air fittings everyone uses. I didn't use it though because, despite having an initial water separator and dessicant pack, I wanted a redundant dessicant pack and water separator so I just wouldn't have to worry about it. Thus I picked up ONE OF THESE. I should note at this point that there were various reports on the input thread of this compressor. I picked up THIS ADAPTER because that is what it claimed to be. The adapter fit, but so did 1/4NPT so I just put a little teflon tape on an NPT thread and put the adapter in my fittings box.
How does it work
Simple version is that this has no motor whatsoever, all the power comes form your air compressor itself. It uses some of the air and a compound piston system to compressor the other portion of the air. It comes with an inbuilt water trap and dessicant filter, it has an automatic stop, and an input pressure gauge. The power cable is only to run the brainbox and the solenoid which shunt the low power air around and run the thing. This
https://youtu.be/fVcZmZXEFhY
shows how it all works. The whole thing is actually a pretty slick piece of kit and elegant engineering in my opinion. Also, credit to them, in their gallery they show cutaways of the whole thing.
In the pictures above, on the right hand side, you can see the additional filtration I put on the unit. Again, I want things to just F******* work, so adding a department of redundancy department to the air input seemed like a good plan.
So having run it a bit, how does it perform? Well I decided to try running it on this little 2HP unit first. It is rated for 4.5cfm@90psi although that doesn't actually mean anything as the above video demonstrates. That said, on this little compressor, it seems to be about as fast a fill as my Nomad II. A top-off of a bottle airgun takes a couple minutes with the compressor running absolutely flat out. To be clear my impressions are definitely what you'd call initial, however they are also very positive. The unit works well, is quiet, and has a bunch of nice little features. I love the input side gauge, so you know what your actual pressure is at the machine. I love listening to it hiss and slide back and forth. I love the fact that it runs quite cool, so you don't see the big drop in tank pressure like you have with some other units. While some people complain about speed, for my uses I don't have any great need or desire for it to run faster. If I did, I could easily run it off either a bigger compressor or simply multiple smaller ones. After all my 2hp compressor is only about 100$ new, and I've seen these units run hard for years without issue.
So for now that is all I've got. I do want to be super clear about two things:
1) I'm quite early in my testing/use of this unit, so I'll continue to update this thread, but please keep in mind that all observations here are "preliminary" at best.
2) I'm not yet prepared to recommend this unit to anyone. I simply don't have enough hours on it to say conclusively whether it is good, bad, or meh.
If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll do my best to answer them.
*update 7/6/19*
Unit is still running well. On my Crown's 480cc bottle it takes about 10 minutes to go from 150-250 bar (a full fill) running on a Harbor Freight 2HP oiled compressor running intermittently (about 80/20). There is a key to getting the most out of this unit I've found, and that is increasing your input pressure and reducing the cycle rate using the flow restrictor on the Altaros. Why? Because it dramatically increases the amount of air going into the low pressure pump side, thus making it pressurize more air with every stroke. Meanwhile the air in the central actuator will, by virtue of the design, automatically drop down to whatever the minimum needed to cycle the machine is. So, put all together, I get faster fill times with higher input pressures, and I control the rate using the Altaros' flow restrictor made for exactly this purpose. I should also add that, now having tweaked and timed it, the unit is very comparable in output to the Air Venturi Nomad II, however the air it outputs is substantially cooler so there is a lot less "post-fill-drop;" it basically stays at its as-charged pressure, whereas with the Nomad I'd see maybe a 5 bar drop and with a Rong Heng I'd see maybe a 10-15 bar drop.
*update 12/3/19*
Unit is still running well. Charged two crowns and an AAA Slayer in one straight go on a single compressor. The compressor was toasty by the end, but unharmed. For really really long runs/big tanks, pairing up two compressors or turning the flow restrictor down even further would definitely be the way to go. I've also had to change the pre-filter's desiccant, however the unit's in-built desiccant filter looks unchanged, so clearly the pre-filter is working well.
