Question Best setup for filling at home

[iain/hsm]

What's a good price for a Rix SA-6? I am looking at a used electric motor version, and curious about what would be a fair price assuming good condition.

I can't help with the price of a used Rix SA-6 I have no idea. These are now either sold from ex divers as genuine personal sales but most sold today are bulk sales from Ebay sellers that get them off government surplus auction web sites and bid on them by the dozen for a few hundred dollars only to flip them to you lot for a few thousand dollars not short of the equivalent new price.

This supply path is now pretty much dried up with by example the Nuclear submarine base here in UK dumping what they had in a skip together with new but old folded zodiacs. SEAL team and diver ship protection is no longer needed and the Royal Navy swimmer of the watch also retiring off as electrocution is more effective solution.

Note I posted back in July 2017 that the Rix SA-6 had been discontinued with spares being available until 31st December 2022 That's five years of support that finished getting on three years ago now.

Now some eight years later you can still get spare parts and even new builds but don't call it an SA-6 I guess. LOL

For divers again I don't know, its not my call but I don't think it will be back again no real interest.
No reason why it couldn't engineering wise that would be the easy part.

All current new builds are either for pure air authentic air sampling as the compressor design doesnt need oil therefore the air compressed is not polluted during the compression stages with oil carry over and the science you can get doing spectrographic analysis in the parts per billion and parts per quad trillion range of airborne contaminated pollutants is greater than the application for scuba purposes.

The other current product production is used with a Joule-Thomson cryogenic mini cooler DEF Stan 58-96/2 for missile production and these again will probably never be seen scrap on a government web site not in our current political situation. (One would hope)

For guidance (if) a new industrial build scuba equivalent to the SA-3 at 80-100LPM and 250 bar discharge pressure for scuba with filtration to BSEN 12021 and a single charging clamp DIN 200/300 with gauge would be around £2,700 to £ 2,900 GBP sterling and the SA-6 equivalent size 160 LPM x 350 Bar around £5,500 GBP again with filter and charging assembly both running electric single phase or 3 phase 50 or 60Hz motors on a standard steel powder coated baseplate.
Detail may be better on a separate post if any continued interest. Iain

 

[Umuntu]

I can't help with the price of a used Rix SA-6 I have no idea. These are now either sold from ex divers as genuine personal sales but most sold today are bulk sales from Ebay sellers that get them off government surplus auction web sites and bid on them by the dozen for a few hundred dollars only to flip them to you lot for a few thousand dollars not short of the equivalent new price.

This supply path is now pretty much dried up with by example the Nuclear submarine base here in UK dumping what they had in a skip together with new but old folded zodiacs. SEAL team and diver ship protection is no longer needed and the Royal Navy swimmer of the watch also retiring off as electrocution is more effective solution.

Note I posted back in July 2017 that the Rix SA-6 had been discontinued with spares being available until 31st December 2022 That's five years of support that finished getting on three years ago now.

Now some eight years later you can still get spare parts and even new builds but don't call it an SA-6 I guess. LOL

For divers again I don't know, its not my call but I don't think it will be back again no real interest.
No reason why it couldn't engineering wise that would be the easy part.

All current new builds are either for pure air authentic air sampling as the compressor design doesnt need oil therefore the air compressed is not polluted during the compression stages with oil carry over and the science you can get doing spectrographic analysis in the parts per billion and parts per quad trillion range of airborne contaminated pollutants is greater than the application for scuba purposes.

The other current product production is used with a Joule-Thomson cryogenic mini cooler DEF Stan 58-96/2 for missile production and these again will probably never be seen scrap on a government web site not in our current political situation. (One would hope)

For guidance (if) a new industrial build scuba equivalent to the SA-3 at 80-100LPM and 250 bar discharge pressure for scuba with filtration to BSEN 12021 and a single charging clamp DIN 200/300 with gauge would be around £2,700 to £ 2,900 GBP sterling and the SA-6 equivalent size 160 LPM x 350 Bar around £5,500 GBP again with filter and charging assembly both running electric single phase or 3 phase 50 or 60Hz motors on a standard steel powder coated baseplate.
Detail may be better on a separate post if any continued interest. Iain

Thank you Iain

The prices look quite reasonable.

Are you able to share data sheets for both ?

Also, are they able to do Nitrox and what would it cost to add that capability ?

 

[davehicks]

Pretty sure we are both looking at the same unit. Seems rather expensive to me.

My thought as well.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I can't help with the price of a used Rix SA-6 I have no idea. These are now either sold from ex divers as genuine personal sales but most sold today are bulk sales from Ebay sellers that get them off government surplus auction web sites and bid on them by the dozen for a few hundred dollars only to flip them to you lot for a few thousand dollars not short of the equivalent new price.

This supply path is now pretty much dried up with by example the Nuclear submarine base here in UK dumping what they had in a skip together with new but old folded zodiacs. SEAL team and diver ship protection is no longer needed and the Royal Navy swimmer of the watch also retiring off as electrocution is more effective solution.

Note I posted back in July 2017 that the Rix SA-6 had been discontinued with spares being available until 31st December 2022 That's five years of support that finished getting on three years ago now.

Now some eight years later you can still get spare parts and even new builds but don't call it an SA-6 I guess. LOL

For divers again I don't know, its not my call but I don't think it will be back again no real interest.
No reason why it couldn't engineering wise that would be the easy part.

All current new builds are either for pure air authentic air sampling as the compressor design doesnt need oil therefore the air compressed is not polluted during the compression stages with oil carry over and the science you can get doing spectrographic analysis in the parts per billion and parts per quad trillion range of airborne contaminated pollutants is greater than the application for scuba purposes.

The other current product production is used with a Joule-Thomson cryogenic mini cooler DEF Stan 58-96/2 for missile production and these again will probably never be seen scrap on a government web site not in our current political situation. (One would hope)

For guidance (if) a new industrial build scuba equivalent to the SA-3 at 80-100LPM and 250 bar discharge pressure for scuba with filtration to BSEN 12021 and a single charging clamp DIN 200/300 with gauge would be around £2,700 to £ 2,900 GBP sterling and the SA-6 equivalent size 160 LPM x 350 Bar around £5,500 GBP again with filter and charging assembly both running electric single phase or 3 phase 50 or 60Hz motors on a standard steel powder coated baseplate.
Detail may be better on a separate post if any continued interest. Iain

A little off topic, but what is the lowest ambient air temp you would recommend running the SA-6 compressor? I know oil compressors have a lower cutoff?

 

[iain/hsm]

A little off topic, but what is the lowest ambient air temp you would recommend running the SA-6 compressor? I know oil compressors have a lower cutoff?

Is this a trick question LOL
Nah Its not a little off topic it's -70F to +180 F degrees off topic and a ceiling height above 50,000 foot off topic. So no comment.

But the coldest place an SA is at the moment is in a ventilation tunnel shaft opening out on the Jungfrauojch at over 3000meters at the Eismeer station. Its a tunnel inside the Eiger mountain on the Jungfrau Railway taking pure atmospheric air samples at 200 bar without the compressor contaminating the ambient air so the same high pressure cylinder can be passed around the various air pollution laboratories for same gas calibration purposes while all testing in effect the same gas sample.

It's high altitude with a lower batametric pressure and oxygen concentration. The air is cold but very dry therefore the water vapour condensate is pretty much non condensing and non existent.

The next cold project units would be what you could call something like home land security where basically sealed shipping containers are dotted around the place Sweden Finland Norway etc and left until a need occurs. A sort of disaster recovery project with the added nuclear biological chemical interests.

That was for a -30 centigrade (-22F) design and any oil lubricated alternative couldn't be used because to maintain oil viscosity while on standby would have required a constant power supply to the crankcase oil heaters and glow plugs. So a pretty standard oil free SA block modified was used for that project.

High altitude and lower temperature lowers the ambient air water vapour content.
A combination of very lower temperature and higher altitudes works out better as less consideration has to be given to water condensate freezing inside the separators when idle between fills. I do have a protocol procedure for those situations but its a bit out of the range of scope for this post.

I know the British Antarctic survey crew use standard oil lubricated scuba compressors and Atlas Copco provides air on the Survey vessel with the RSS "Boaty McBoatface but the compressors themselves are in warm below deck locker rooms with only the air intake hoses poking out into the minus ambient conditions so a little easier as to the temperature the compressor is operating in. The same with the small scuba compressors they use. Still it beggars the question why all that emulsified oil and water carry over out of an oil lubricated compressor is doing splattered all over a once pristine Antarctic sheet ice. Just saying.

The only other project I can think of that's really relevant to the post are the Navy Divers Filling Sheds
The compressors are stacked on the left hand side each 170 LPM at 350 bar and 3.7Kw motors single or 3 phase Red and White lighting Heating and air conditioning are included and a secret hidden plug socket is located with the cups and tea bags to make a brew. You only have to bring your own kettle not supplied. I guess we could offer coffee for you lot but all the pressure gauges are in Bar G and that may be as confusing to you as degrees F, Quarts and diving in feet sea water is to us lot. Iain

 

[RyanT]

A little off topic, but what is the lowest ambient air temp you would recommend running the SA-6 compressor?

Temps this week got you thinking, huh?

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Temps this week got you thinking, huh?

Sure does, lol. I think it got colder as the day went on today.

 

[Tracy]

Sure does, lol. I think it got colder as the day went on today.

No kidding, I had frost on my van this morning. It barely got over 60 this afternoon.

 

[RyanT]

No kidding, I had frost on my van this morning. It barely got over 60 this afternoon.

60? Really, my high here in Md today was 38. Maybe I need to consider Detroit!

 

[Tracy]

60? Really, my high here in Md today was 38. Maybe I need to consider Detroit!

I'm in Florida teaching a rebreather course this week.
I assume it was cold at home judging from the snow in the yard on my cameras.