MCH13 for home personal use?

[Ready4Launch]

Does anyone use an MCH13 for home personal use? I'm looking to acquire a compressor, and I know the MCH6 is popular. However, I equate a portable compressor to not being very durable. I'm sure I'll get told how I'm wrong, but that's just my sense in terms of durability. Seems like the MCH13 would be the in-between for personal to shop use.

 

[Aris Penaranda]

I have a MCH-11. It,s the single phase version of the MCH-13. Everything else is the same. If budget permits, the bigger machine is the wiser choice. The portable machines were made so compact. Despite the high speed of the machine, it still takes almost half an hour to fill a standard AL80. The MCH-11 or 13 is a bit heavy at over 100 Kgs. Not easy to move around. Search online for the specifations of the different models for better comparison

 

[Billy Northrup]

What would your typical use look like?

 

[wwunder]

Not sure about durability, but if you can afford the bigger machine and don't plan on moving it around you will appreciate the shorter fill times! Other things to think about are if noise is an issue and the electrical demand.

 

[Ready4Launch]

What would your typical use look like?

Anywhere from 4 or more per week.

 

[tbone1004]

Does anyone use an MCH13 for home personal use? I'm looking to acquire a compressor, and I know the MCH6 is popular. However, I equate a portable compressor to not being very durable. I'm sure I'll get told how I'm wrong, but that's just my sense in terms of durability. Seems like the MCH13 would be the in-between for personal to shop use.

Not with the MCH-6. It's only rated on a 20min duty cycle so filling things like doubles or a cascade would be quite bad for it longevity wise. It's designed to fill an individual bottle, then stop the pump, change the tank, then restart.

The issue you may find with the MCH13 is how fast it is. At 10cfm, it's a pretty quick pump and you're going to need a pretty good sized electric service to run it and the tanks may get a bit warm filling up that fast. You'll be much better off filling 2 tanks at a time. I would also recommend looking at getting a couple of cascade bottles if you can which will let you do a bulk run once a week and top the bottles off as you use them.

 

[Ready4Launch]

Not with the MCH-6. It's only rated on a 20min duty cycle so filling things like doubles or a cascade would be quite bad for it longevity wise. It's designed to fill an individual bottle, then stop the pump, change the tank, then restart.

The issue you may find with the MCH13 is how fast it is. At 10cfm, it's a pretty quick pump and you're going to need a pretty good sized electric service to run it and the tanks may get a bit warm filling up that fast. You'll be much better off filling 2 tanks at a time. I would also recommend looking at getting a couple of cascade bottles if you can which will let you do a bulk run once a week and top the bottles off as you use them.

OK - so I need to go full-on dive shop mode.

 

[tbone1004]

OK - so I need to go full-on dive shop mode.

you don't necessarily have to, but I find that having the banks is well worth the relatively small investment compared to the convenience that it buys you by splitting the obligation between running the pump when convenient for you, and filling tanks when convenient for you. Often times due to the horrific noise they make, those two don't align *read at night, and in the early morning*.

 

[rcontrera]

If you are only filling 4 tanks a week, the MCH6 should do you fine. However, it can take a half an hour to fill a tank so you should add in auto drains and an auto shutdown in case you get distracted. I can pump cylinders all day long with the MCH6 as long as the air temp does not exceed 90 (doesn't happen often in the Pacific Northwest) and as long as I am pumping one at a time.

If, you think you might be adding in a cascade system or even one bulk bottle, then the MCH13 is the better bet since it is rated for continuous duty. But stand by ... there is a HUGE difference in price. The MCH6 starts at $2700 while the MCH13 starts at over $7000. And nobody that gets into the bigger machines leaves out the auto drains and auto pressure shutdown so there are a few bucks more. The cost per fill will come down considerably on the MCH13 over the MCH6. But at your 4 fills per week, you may never reach the temp required to heat the oil and cook off any moisture.

As a seller of these Coltri machines, I do suggest the cheaper to buy MCH6.