Compressor

[R0B]

I like the look of the Hills, but at £850 it's lot of money and I'd really like to hear from someone who's used one for a while..

[angrybear]

Chap on the R7OC has one he's extremely happy with it.

[garym]

I have been using a Hill compressor since last September, well impressed. Topping up smallish bottles, no problem.
After using a chinese compressor for 3 years the Hill is like a Rolls Royce.
Pity about the price rise though.

[derekm]

Those "UK" sellers are all Chinese registered companies if you look at their details,
new Brexit VAT rules have closed the loophole they used to avoid EU VAT & import duty,
There may be stock already here that avoided paying but there's now a much greater chance of the buyer getting had for it.

You may or may not be correct about any loopholes (I've suspected for a while that they were bending rules for small items), but unless these higher value larger goods are in a bonded warehouse here in UK, surely they are in free circulation?

What happens down the line when present stocks run out is I agree, another story.

£107 from China, with all the duties, VAT and "handling charge" to be paid no doubt, or £225 bought in UK, which should amply cover taxes, import handling and local mark-up/expenses I would think. If I needed one, I'd take a punt for £225.

[CMH18A]

I have been using a Hill compressor since last September, well impressed. Topping up smallish bottles, no problem.
After using a chinese compressor for 3 years the Hill is like a Rolls Royce.
Pity about the price rise though.

I'm thinking of getting an EC3000 and looking on YouTube it seems a number of owners have fitted a second filter pack on the output hose (looks like a Chinese made oil / water filter). Are these necessary ? I thought the Hill had a moisture trap built in ?

[Lostkiwi]

£107 from China, with all the duties, VAT and "handling charge" to be paid no doubt, or £225 bought in UK, which should amply cover taxes, import handling and local mark-up/expenses I would think. If I needed one, I'd take a punt for £225.

It's what I did except mine was £216 on Amazon. Happily filled my rifle to 300bar without any issues.

You can get stirrup pump on Amazon for under £6 at the moment and yes they do work. Or spend £13 and get one with a full spare seal kit and a bunch of filters. Have had of the latter for 9 months and it works just fine to 250 bar.

[derekm]

Some people just seem to like paying a lot. It maybe makes them feel better.

[Doobin]

I like my Chinese one. It's a triumph of engineering. Using a fish pond pump to circulate water to cool it. It's no frills, but a good design and works well.

Using water to cool means that the duty cycle is much extended over an air cooled model.

[RapidOwner]

I’ve a air Ventura nomad 2 absolute quality fills up to 300 bar fills any air gun / rifle
not for filling dive tanks / bottles tho

[mjoseph]

I'm more than happy with my NOMAD 2, it's only a matter of minutes to top up a rifle so I'm not too bothered about topping up cylinders. In fact I'll probably sell my cylinders once lock down restrictions have been eased.

[JLB]

I've had my Hills pump since last July, fills my guns fine including a 480cc carbon bottle on the FX Royale. I fitted an extra inline filter more as a belt & braces guard against moisture than a necessity. I would say it is not suitable for bottle filling though, despite the claims. It gets hot, cuts out & restarts over the fill around every 20bar from 200bar to 300bar on a 3 litre bottle. Now this is how it's meant to operate but it just feels like it's trying too hard & gets too hot in the process to me. Hence me only filling direct to guns with it now.

John

[angrybear]

I've had my Hills pump since last July, fills my guns fine including a 480cc carbon bottle on the FX Royale. I fitted an extra inline filter more as a belt & braces guard against moisture than a necessity. I would say it is not suitable for bottle filling though, despite the claims. It gets hot, cuts out & restarts over the fill around every 20bar from 200bar to 300bar on a 3 litre bottle. Now this is how it's meant to operate but it just feels like it's trying too hard & gets too hot in the process to me. Hence me only filling direct to guns with it now.

John

That could be as simple as it being in a location with insufficient air flow around it.
It might just need a window/garage door open or a table fan to get a flow of air across it, as does anything air cooled.

Your extra filter will also be causing a restriction in the output flow which the pump will have to work harder to overcome,
Harder work = more heat.

[CMH18A]

Very interesting about the cutout / restart on filling a 3 litre dive bottle. Out of interest does it usually fill the rifle bottle from 200 to 300bar in one shot (ie without cutting out)? The fact that there is a purposeful cutout / restart cycle suggests that it is not really damaging the pump (but I can see this being a bit stressful given the cost).

I've had my Hills pump since last July, fills my guns fine including a 480cc carbon bottle on the FX Royale. I fitted an extra inline filter more as a belt & braces guard against moisture than a necessity. I would say it is not suitable for bottle filling though, despite the claims. It gets hot, cuts out & restarts over the fill around every 20bar from 200bar to 300bar on a 3 litre bottle. Now this is how it's meant to operate but it just feels like it's trying too hard & gets too hot in the process to me. Hence me only filling direct to guns with it now.

John

[JLB]

The Hills has a cooling fan built in which forces air over the compression chamber when you turn it on. It won't fill a 3 litre bottle from 200-300bar without the stop start cycle. I haven't experimented with extra fans or the like as I just fill straight to gun now which it has no problem at all with.

John

[derekm]

Don't know what the various manufacturers claim for their products, but maybe it needs to be accepted that the mini compressors are only intended/suitable for filling gun cylinders, rather than larger bottles?