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Thread: High Pressure Pumps

  1. #1
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    High Pressure Pumps

    I apologise in advance if this question has been asked before but just been looking on that famous (or infamous) website at the small high pressure pumps advertised for filling PCPs at between £200 & £300. Little bit dubious as they all seem to be made in China but has anyone any experience of one of these. Are they any good and more importantly are they safe? Or should I resort to the stirrup pump option!!!!!
    Thanks in advance.
    Richard
    Don't bark if you can't bite!

  2. #2
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    Quite a bit of discussion on here about it:

    http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ght=compressor

    Bit 50/50, some people love the idea but many like myself prefer the assurance of the drive bottle for a dry supply. There are a few folks on here who use them.
    Also if you're having a 12L 300bar cylinder filled for £7 you need to refill your rifle with the compressor over 2500 times to break even on cost. I rather suspect the cheap compressor will have died or need servicing by then extending that count further.
    Last edited by Solvo; 16-07-2018 at 01:11 PM. Reason: Speling and tpying

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Solvo View Post
    Quite a bit of discussion on here about it:

    http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ght=compressor

    Bit 50/50, some people love the idea but many like myself prefer the assurance of the drive bottle for a dry supply. There are a few folks on here who use them.
    Also if you're having a 12L 300bar cylinder filled for £7 you need to refill your rifle with the compressor over 2500 times to break even on cost. I rather suspect the cheap compressor will have died or need servicing by then extending that count further.
    That's a surprising amount, can you explain your maths please.

    £7 x 2500 = £17,500 these cheap compressors cost a couple hundred quid don't they? - where does the other 17 grand come from?

  4. #4
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    Brian I did a double take I think he means £7 for the divers bottle, which in turn fills the gun a number of times

    Not sure the maths is quite right though
    A man can always use more alcohol, tobacco and firearms.

  5. #5
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    A hundred fills at the dive centre £700, it would be cheaper to throw away the compressor and buy a new one if it went wrong!!!!!
    ps that £700 dues not include fuel to get there.

  6. #6
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    Like anything else your personal circumstances are what makes or breaks the cost, by the time I pay for fuel it costs me about £12-£13 per cyl fill but I probably only fill it once a year.

    At that rate even the cheapest on the bay would take 10-15 years to break even, & that's allowing for cylinder test costs,

    OTOH for someone who's getting their cyl filled every other month It might pay for itself in 2-3 years, assuming it lasts that long

  7. #7
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    if you have facebook this is the group to look at PCP Compressors & Tanks, "The Good, Bad and Ugly"

  8. #8
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    I based that on 60 fills per bottle with is about what I expect for my gun, it's only an estimate though so yes, the maths is a bit iffy, but there's a lot of variables and it doesn't need to be that accurate really.


    I just worked back from the compressor price. Say £300 inc P&P
    I pay £7 a fill for 300Bar 12L, some people get it for £3, some have to pay £10+ then there's fuel, so £7 seems to be a happy median.

    £300 / £7 = 42.9 = 43
    So you can at that estimate fill the 12L tank 43 times for the cost of the compressor.
    At 60 fills per tank you get 43 * 60 = 2580
    Even if you estimate for 45 fills per tank you still get 1935
    So given the number of assumptions & estimates I think 2000-2500 refills of the rifle is a pretty fair figure for the purpose of this discussion.

    It gets better if you compare to a manual pump, which would be £80-£150 and exhausting work, certainly not recommended for the start of a shooting session. Coupled with the manual pump giving a comparable quality of air it's a lot more tempting.

  9. #9
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    Do you have to fill a Bottle then use that to fill a rifle?

    If you can directly fill the rifle cylinder, then you save the price of a dive bottle.
    I will let other work out the maths for that.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by iwalk View Post
    Do you have to fill a Bottle then use that to fill a rifle?

    If you can directly fill the rifle cylinder, then you save the price of a dive bottle.
    I will let other work out the maths for that.
    The cost of the cylinder has not been included
    It's comparing the cost of refilling a cylinder you already own, to buying a pump which then saves the refill costs.

    Some people DO need to fill a cylinder because they only shoot away from home & need to refill the rifle during the day (& in that case the cylinder still needs to be tested)

    What I do not know is whether these pumps provide DRY air, certainly they don't have filter packs built in, although they sell them at about £160,
    so I suspect they might just use a centrifugal/cyclone moisture trap which will reduce moisture content, but is far from DRY.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by angrybear View Post
    The cost of the cylinder has not been included
    It's comparing the cost of refilling a cylinder you already own, to buying a pump which then saves the refill costs.

    Some people DO need to fill a cylinder because they only shoot away from home & need to refill the rifle during the day (& in that case the cylinder still needs to be tested)

    What I do not know is whether these pumps provide DRY air, certainly they don't have filter packs built in, although they sell them at about £160,
    so I suspect they might just use a centrifugal/cyclone moisture trap which will reduce moisture content, but is far from DRY.
    Can't you buy an inline drypack type filter to use with these compressors?

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by WILBA View Post
    Can't you buy an inline drypack type filter to use with these compressors?
    Yes, I even say so in the post you quote , didn't you read it they're about £160.

  13. #13
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    Thanks for the replies chaps, not unduly worried by the economics but the dry air question is of more concern.
    if you have someone quite close and convenient with a dive bottle compressor that's fine but the place where I've had mine filled in the past is only open quite limited hours and I think he's hoping to retire completely sometime soon.
    Don't bark if you can't bite!

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