02 Pressure Regulator and Hyperfilter

[Aquanomad]

Hi All,
I have a Drager electric O2 booster that pumps faster than i am comfortable with. It's meant for filling (4) 3L bottles at once. Boosting 1 at a time is just too fast. At a 600-1000psi supply pressure it runs at a good fill rate depending on target pressure. Masterline quoted me ~$850 for a unit they sell. August industries sells these:
High flow: Adjustable Regulator 0-5000 PSI - August Industries Inc.
Economy: Adjustable Regulator 0-5000 PSI - August Industries Inc.
Any other recommendations for quality O2 ready pressure reg? Or alternatives to slowing down the fill rate?

Also I did some reading on OCA. I fill from a RIX SA6. Have had several people say not to worry about it. But I want to use the booster to blend some trimix and I dont want to worry about any contamination. The Drager is heavy and expensive and there are no service techs in Hawaii. Would prefer to keep it pure and not have to worry about stripping it down to O2 clean. The only hyper filter I can find are the Filter Tech ones. The smallest is $1675. Anyone aware of alternatives?
Thanks

 

[RayfromTX]

I use the filter tech filter stack on my Rix and I don't worry one scintilla. Can you fill a AL80 at the same time to slow down the fill rate and then transfill from it next time and just top both off each time? The only downside is that your booster will always be boosting at the high end of the pressure range so you will lose efficiency on the % of the 3L that is transfilled.

 

[tbone1004]

@Aquanomad the boosters will be much happier with a bigger outlet on them vs being starved for inlet pressure. At $800 you are better off using a VFD on the motor and just slowing the booster down. Get one rated for whatever motor is inside of that thing and just slow it down with a dial instead of keeping the same RPM and starving it. Will it affect longevity? Probably not, but it certainly can't hurt.

Your Rix only spits out what it takes in, it is very much unlike an oiled compressor that naturally has all sorts of nasties in it. I would not personally worry about it, but unsure what the rest of your filtration looks like. They don't like any moisture or particulates in there so you're going to need more filtration than what Rix sends with the units from that perspective but you're not going to be taking any oil out because it isn't there to begin with

 

[Aquanomad]

@RayfromTX that's what I've heard from others as well regarding the RIX Maybe I'm just being too paranoid. I just can't imagine how much of a head ache it would be to send that beast in for O2 cleaning. I thought about filling larger bottles and trans filling but the booster has a slick 4 post DIN manifold you can attach the bottle directly to. Quick and easy for topping off a few 3l. I suppose I'll stop worrying about OCA as that seems to be the consensus everywhere I have posted.

@tbone1004 I'm using this filter on the RIX.
X65670, Filter Techs
My buddy has a used electric SA6 that needs to be reinstalled and recently bought (2) new SA6's with the Yanmar diesels on them. I'm not thrilled with his intake routing and trying to get him to reinstall the electric. Curious what mods and plans you have going for your build.
I might go with the VFD. I think you or someone else mentioned the same thing on a FB post I made. The August Industries high flow model seemed like it would keep my pressure pinned and gas moving but they never got back to me on O2 clean status.

 

[tbone1004]

@Aquanomad on an electric rix or one with proper intake routing that should be more than fine for the booster

Regulating the inlet pressure down on the electric boosters makes them significantly less efficient. Cut the pressure in half, you cut the mass in half which means you have to go twice as many cycles to move the same volume. Ideal for slowing the gas flow down, but if you have expensive electricity bills you are using double the power. If you have a VFD you don't change the efficiency of the pump and actually just end up changing the speed which is ideal. The regulator is the low-cost bandaid but it is not the way you should be doing it.

That AI regulator works fine and O2 cleaning it is no worse than O2 cleaning any other regulator. Just take it apart, give it a bath, and reassemble.