Question Bauer Capitano - $2750 - good deal?

[TMurrr]

I've been toying with the idea of building an in-home fill station with a couple of bank bottles so I don't have to run a compressor late at night annoying the neighbors. Been weighing the pros and cons of that, vs filling directly. A topic for another time.

I found a Capitano for sale for $2750 - I believe its continuous duty so it should be able to handle bank bottles or just a lot of HP steel tanks. Eventually I'd probably want to mix Nitrox (yes, I know, read oxygen hacker's companion as a starting point before playing with pure O2).

Bauer Capitano 6cfm, Auto purge timer. 2 fill whips. 314hrs, 5000 psi max.

Is this a good deal? Great deal? "meh" deal?

 

[grantmac]

With service history and depending on age that could be a smoking deal.

 

[VikingDives]

And even if there wasn't, I'd still consider it. . .

 

[TMurrr]

so I should jump on this... it appears as if it was rebuilt by a local (ish) guy who is the compressor guy, and then not used very much (314 hours isn't a ton, right?)

 

[grantmac]

True, I bought mine with none of those things and knowing I'd need to find a new motor for $1600. I considered that a good deal.

Edit: 314 logged hours is nothing. But it is very close to the theoretical 500 hour service. Might be worth looking at whether that's what your guy did.

 

[TMurrr]

True, I bought mine with none of those things and knowing I'd need to find a new motor for $1600. I considered that a good deal.

Edit: 314 logged hours is nothing. But it is very close to the theoretical 500 hour service. Might be worth looking at whether that's what your guy did.

I'm fairly good at following instructions (engineer by day)
Is servicing difficult to do yourself and/or expensive? What realistically am I looking at

Also included "one spare filter, the one on the unit has 15 hours left and we have oil"

 

[Agro]

314 hrs is nothing, nothing, nothing.
What kind of filter is it? P21?
Bauer is asking for a 500 hrs service. In fact this is not necessary at all. I made the follwing services on my Capitano during the last 15 years:
- exchange filter. Mine is a P21, I have to exchange every 10 hrs
- exchange oil onece a year

After 15 years I made a service according to Bauer, price was about $1'000.

The price ridiculous, buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TMurrr]

314 hrs is nothing, nothing, nothing.
What kind of filter is it? P21?
Bauer is asking for a 500 hrs service. In fact this is not necessary at all. I made the follwing services on my Capitano during the last 15 years:
- exchange filter. Mine is a P21, I have to exchange every 10 hrs
- exchange oil onece a year

After 15 years I made a service according to Bauer, price was about $1'000.

The price ridiculous, buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Noted - do you mix yours with pure O2 for nitrox? I tend to follow manufacturers recommendations for service especially when it comes to pure O2

 

[bakodiver391]

They are a workhorse. I've changed the valves on mine, and that's it barring regular oil and filter changes over I don't know how many hours. They are not fast but they keep on keeping on. If mixing nitrox use double or hyper filters and the best synthetic oil you can get.

 

[Tracy]

They tend to bring around $3k as a 5hp base unit with a p0 housing and no auto drains.
Auto drains bring them to around $4k and filtration adds to that. It is a good price for a functional unit. Depending on what it comes with, it could be an excellent price.