New to me Compressor set-up

[WETSU Scuba]

Looking for thoughts or suggestions on adjusting the configuration of a new to me compressor set-up?

I own operate a Dive Charter and Instruction business in Carolina Beach, NC. Charters are 4-6 divers and 2-3 tanks. My rental tanks are primarily STL HP 100s & 120s with about a dozen STL LP 125s, 95s & 85s and about a half dozen AL80s mainly used for teaching. Typical post charter maxium fill requirement is 15-18 HP 120s. I intend to only bank one Notrox mix but have not decided on 32 or 34 percent. 85% of our charters are for MEG Teeth in 85-100 feet of water with a HARD Bottom at 100 feet or less, remainder is either shallower Wrecks OR offshore long-range spearfishing in 105-120 feet of water.

I have recently purchased a Bauer K14 compressor with an Eagle control panel, a 4 x 4500 psi bottle bank system and a Nitrox Stick set-up.
The control panel is set up to control 4 banks and is currently configured with 1 4500 bottle per control lever.
- 4 additional 4500 psi bottles are included but not currently plumbed into the system
- system currently has 2 x fill whips installed, I have 2 additional fill whips on hand to add
- control panel best utilization for banks

Any thoughts or suggestions on bank configuration with all 4500s or adding in several lower pressure or higher pressure bank bottles, etc with minimal replumbing requirements, and with the goal to be able to fill the max 18 x 120s completely from banked nitrox. While also minimizing as much as possible the bank refill time since it has to be continuously monitored while running the Nitrox Stick. I attached a few pics of the system for reference. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[DiverDiverRUOK]

I live in Wilmington and would be happy to chat with you about this.

 

[WETSU Scuba]

I live in Wilmington and would be happy to chat with you about this.

That would be awesome I appreciate it!

I am out of town until Thursday evening. I will be moving the compressor from its current location to my own location in the near future. I am meeting another buddy on Friday to walk through the new location and determine the layout and requirements. If you are available anytime on Friday I'd be happy to chat over your favorite beverage and get your thoughts/input. I will try to DM you my cell #. Steve

 

[WETSU Scuba]

Well it wouldn't let ne send a DM. My cell is 334-380-1770. Steve

 

[Boarderguy]

Well it wouldn't let ne send a DM. Steve

Post a few more times (I think a total of 10) and then you can send a DM. Just do a 1 or 2 word reply to interesting topics. And that way you can delete your cell from the interwebs. You never know what kind of deviants are lurking here.

 

[tbone1004]

Looking for thoughts or suggestions on adjusting the configuration of a new to me compressor set-up?

I own operate a Dive Charter and Instruction business in Carolina Beach, NC. Charters are 4-6 divers and 2-3 tanks. My rental tanks are primarily STL HP 100s & 120s with about a dozen STL LP 125s, 95s & 85s and about a half dozen AL80s mainly used for teaching. Typical post charter maxium fill requirement is 15-18 HP 120s. I intend to only bank one Notrox mix but have not decided on 32 or 34 percent. 85% of our charters are for MEG Teeth in 85-100 feet of water with a HARD Bottom at 100 feet or less, remainder is either shallower Wrecks OR offshore long-range spearfishing in 105-120 feet of water.

I have recently purchased a Bauer K14 compressor with an Eagle control panel, a 4 x 4500 psi bottle bank system and a Nitrox Stick set-up.
The control panel is set up to control 4 banks and is currently configured with 1 4500 bottle per control lever.
- 4 additional 4500 psi bottles are included but not currently plumbed into the system
- system currently has 2 x fill whips installed, I have 2 additional fill whips on hand to add
- control panel best utilization for banks

Any thoughts or suggestions on bank configuration with all 4500s or adding in several lower pressure or higher pressure bank bottles, etc with minimal replumbing requirements, and with the goal to be able to fill the max 18 x 120s completely from banked nitrox. While also minimizing as much as possible the bank refill time since it has to be continuously monitored while running the Nitrox Stick. I attached a few pics of the system for reference. Thanks in advance!!!

don't have time to look up the "need a bigger boat" meme from Jaws, but you're going to need a bigger bank....

Answers in no particular order.

Your refill time is what it is, there is only so fast a K14 can go, which is faster than it should go. 18x120*.8=~1800cf and the K14 is probably 8-10cfm so you're looking at 3.5hrs to refill those banks no matter how you skin it. Want to shorten that time then you need a bigger pump. Thankfully the K14 couldn't be bothered with running for 4 hours so long as it is in an adequately ventilated area but you do need to budget that time. The pump will need to be running while you are filling, and with that few banks to that many tanks, you will be doing a lot of valve turning to cascade and that will probably take you 2 hours minimum of active filling. This applies whether you have 4 bank bottles or 40. You are still consuming a fixed quantity of gas that needs to be filled, the good thing is the pump can get turned on as soon as you get the second set of tanks on the whips so all of that time filling is being done while charging.

Bank EAN32, it is a standard gas both with NOAA and the technical community and the NDL benefits of EAN34 vs EAN32 are irrelevant.

You do not want to fill more tanks at once, it defeats the benefits of cascade filling and will only slow your process down.

If there are 8x 4500psi bottles then your current 4s1p to a 4s2p is going to be the easiest way to skin that, though you will be direct filling from the compressor once the top bank gets below 3600psi. ALWAYS close the last bank and fill the scuba tanks directly from the pump once the last bank gets below fill pressure. As soon as the tanks are done, close the fill valve and open the top bank and pump in reverse order of fill. I.e. tanks are bank 1-2-3-4, and when running the compressor its 4-3-2-1.

When filling the banks after the tanks are done you can either equalize all 4 banks and just let it go *not preferred by your compressor though it is easier* and fill 4, then 3, 2, 1 so it gives your compressor some LP time which lets it relax a bit. Requires someone to pay attention when the banks get close to full but it's worth it. When bank 1 gets close to done you can open all of the banks and let them finish together until the pump hits the pressure cutoff.

 

[DiverDiverRUOK]

Well it wouldn't let ne send a DM. My cell is 334-380-1770. Steve

Sent you a DM - looking forward to chatting!

 

[PrffsrE]

In the shop that I managed I built a system of: a 24 CFM compressor, a 3000psi bank, a 4500 psi bank and a nitrox bank. We also had a Haskel booster plumbed in so that we could boost any of the 3 banks. We used a separate shop air compressor to drive the booster. The shop owned approximately 90 cylinders the instructors another 50 cylinders and customer tanks. We never had a year that we said, "This system is just toooo big! If the compressor was down for maintenance we were glad we had the banks.

If you have the cylinders. Hook them up! If you have fill whips. Hook them up. If you can afford MORE cylinders and a booster? Buy them. I did a short stint (3 weeks) last February in Puerto Rico. They had me come and teach try scuba to the cruise ship guests on spring break. After the day of teaching we got to fill tanks. It was a beautiful brand new Bauer 8 CFM compressor and I was up until 11 or 12 filling tanks. No banked air!

For Nitrox. I banked at 40% so I could fill customer cylinders to what ever they requested. Use a simple spreadsheet. Bring up to what ever pressure the spreadsheet tells you then top off with air! What a sales point! Any percentage up to 40%.

I agree with @tbone1004 you are going to be doing a lot of pumping!!! 3.5 Hours per day minimum. With larger storage banks and a booster the filling goes a lot faster! I had it down so I could run the 24 CFM compressor twice a week for about 3/4 of the day to fill up the banks! Your second best bet would be to have those 8 cylinder bank valves close by the fill station so you can cascade fill!

Please let us know what you decide and send some photos. I live vicariously!