new here, and i need advice on a compressor.

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whitewhale

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Messages
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Location
kuwait
# of dives
50 - 99
don't know how this thing works yet. sorry if i'm posting in the wrong place. i have the privilege of working for the local university with the department of marine science to set up a dive/research base for faculty and students. don't know the first thing about compressors except that i know i want to go with bauer. willing to learn as much as possible. going to start some courses in that area soon so i can feel comfortable working with the machine when we actually acquire it (probably a year from now). the budget it open and unlimited. i know i want to go with electric. i'm going to equip them with about 50-60 tanks, catalina s19's and c80's, and i don't think we will ever be diving with more than 10-15 people at a time. any help, advice, recommendations, please, would really really help.
-n
 
most important thing to do for this is to make sure you have as big of a storage bank as you can possibly get to prevent intermittent use of the compressor. Lots of information on here though not sure what specific information you're looking to get....
 
i'm going to be completely frank, i have 0 understanding on the issue, haven't touched or seen a compressor in my life - the dive community here is a little bit weird like that, my dive center keeps the compressor offsite somewhere else and i was never quite invited to participate as they are an odd bunch and like to fill up the tanks at 1 am and we dive the next day at 7am. if you have a way of explaining what to look for in basic terms, that would be great. if you were to equip a marine science center with a compressor what would you choose? that's really my question. if you have any links that are helpful, great too. my internet searches leave me with a migraine. quite overwhelmed.
 
Depends on your budget...

For that application I would probably try to get dual compressors for redundancy. Bauer 15cfm compressors would work fine.

I would try to set up a nitrox blend stick on the intake system *they can share a sufficiently sized intake* if you are doing anything that would benefit from nitrox *so deeper than 60ft*

Largest bank system you can afford/fit into the area. The bigger the banks, the more continuous you can run the compressors which like your car, make them happy. Cycling them on and off is not good for them, so having a bank to act as a buffer will allow you to fill more tanks faster, and then let the compressors run to catch up while you are gearing up. They will have an auto-shutoff so they'll cut out when the banks are full.

Bank bottles should be able to be isolated into at least 4 sets of banks for optimal filling efficiency.

Fill station is required for safe filling imho, so don't just have open whips for a scenario like that.

Oh, I would argue against Catalina 19's, especially if they are slung. They have strange buoyancy characteristics that make them quite heavy for a pony bottle but that's just my opinion. They also aren't really great for anything deeper than about 60ft, so imho it's better to go straight up to a slung 40cf bottle for better buoyancy characteristics and safety margins. *They are 6" longer than the 19's, but are 0.5lbs less negative when full and have more than twice the capacity*.
 
that helps so much you have no idea. thank you! this area in the persian gulf does not exceed more than 40 m, at its deepest which is 131 ft. looks like you're saying i need to determine the space first, and the compressor second? as for the catalina 19s i'm interested in them for their size, i'm 5'0 ft tall and looking for something shorter for my little back. what about the s53s? i'm looking online and they are only listed on the catalina page and nowhere else, seems like nobody dives with them? we are built petite in the middle east and i'm looking for a tank that is small frame friendly. especially for the females. and for me, as i'll be doing most of the lugging around.
 
also like i said the budget is totally open. no limit.
 
19's aren't something that is going to get you any actual dive time and it means you'll be adjusting cam bands if you go back and forth. I was assuming they were for pony bottles not for actual diving bottles. At 5'0" you should be able to dive with a c63 with no problems and that will mean you don't have to adjust the tank cam bands if you're going back to 80's.

Steel tanks would be ideal as they have a larger capacity for the same size, and allow for a lower total rig weight due to the buoyancy characteristics.

re. the compressor. Yes, you need to determine space first and what you can fit in there. The compressors need access to open air away from any sort of vehicle exhaust to breathe properly so they are usually in rooms closest to exterior walls, and they need adequate air flow to keep them cool. For depths like that I would highly recommend nitrox blending for deco safety.

Banks you want banks that match the output of your compressor for efficiency. I.e. if the compressors are putting out 350bar, you want bank bottles that are at least 350bar or higher. I'm not sure what bottles are available in your area, but the welding/fire departments usually have access to high pressure storage/cascade bottles, and I would recommend at least 4 of them. Common ones in the US are 4500psi/444cf, 5000psi/474cf, and 6000psi/509cf. Get the highest pressure bottles you can afford, but I would recommend no less than 4 of them, and more preferably 6 set up in 2x,2x,1x,1x for the banks, or more. Cascade setups aren't complicated if the bottles all have the same working pressure because to fill them all, you just open all of the banks and let them fill together. If you have different working pressures *many shops use 2400psi O2 bottles for storage*, then you have to be watching the fill block the whole time to make sure to shut off the low pressure banks before they get seriously overfilled. Cascade setups will allow you to fill the most tanks to the highest pressure in the shortest amount of time by cascade filling, and frankly if you have enough of a storage volume, it allows you to use smaller compressors.

Unfortunately in terms of specific equipment, I can't help that much without knowing which brands are available.

For Bauer specifically, and if money is not an object
Compressor: Vertecon VTC20-E3. 20cfm compressor at 5000psi, you don't need higher than that. Depending on price I'd either get two of them, or two of the VTC08's. This all depends on how long you want to wait for it to recharge the bank bottles, and if you can afford to be without a compressor for a few days if something breaks or you need to do maintenance.
Auto Cascade-this is an automatic 4 stage cascade system which takes some of the mystery out of cascade filling and is a nice toy. Same can be done with a manual manifold block that is cheap to set up, but if money is no object I'd go for the fancy toys
Securus air purification system. Never hurts to have more filtration, especially when diving deep
Air Storage-Bauer sells bank bottles, and I'd just get the 5000psi bottles here since you don't need the 6000psi bottles since the compressor doesn't go that high. Buy whichever are cheaper between UN or ASME. I think the UN's are usually cheaper. They also have rack systems and can set up the cascades for you.
CF525.5-3 fill station, can be either the M or the S, but is a 3 bottle fill station that is basically explosion proof if something goes wrong during filling. Verify that this will fit an AL80, and you'd obviously have to order with scuba fill adapters instead of scba adapters

This setup would be horrifically expensive, but it depends on how big your budget is. Point is that Bauer can get you set up with everything you need to fill tanks except for the nitrox blending station which will depend on whether or not you want to use nitrox, and how you want to fill it.
Tri-Hunter 6000 Trimix/Nitrox Mixing Stick | TriHunter6000
This is the best system on the market that I am aware of, but you have to commit to having certain banks or all banks being the same nitrox mix if you're going to do that, otherwise keep everything O2 clean and PP fill
 
BLESS YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH
 
. SNIP don't know the first thing about compressors except that i know i want to go with bauer.

Not wishing to confuse you but before offering you a solution and with respect can I first ask you why only Bauer. Iain
 
your Bauer sales reps should also be able to help you based on your diving requirements with their products. I'm not an expert on compressor systems, but have seen these systems all running and have an idea of how I would build one given unlimited funds. They key to this whole thing is going to be appropriate sizing of the compressors and the storage system to ensure appropriate cycle times on the compressors. Too big compressors and they don't run long enough and run the risk of stop/start action if they are running while you are filling. Too small and you run the risk of having to wait until the compressor can catch up which can impede your diving operations.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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