Good morning all.
A short story....purchased a Tuxing 4500 psi compressor the top of the line model with water cooling and auto shutoff. It lasted all of about 4 hours run time and quit. I wondered why they put a complete rebuild kit in with it. And I was going to take it apart and replace the bad parts, but when I contacted them they requested i send them a video....of what? ....they didn't say. less than three months old and kaput.
I'm pretty sure I'm not going to spend the time to take it apart and work on it as when I turned it back on to "take the video" a loud bang issued out of it, so I'm pretty sure a rod or piston just broke. SO much for that thousand dollars.
Does anyone know of a decent 4500 psi compressor that has the capacity to fill 6.8 and 9L carbon fiber tanks without breaking the bank?
Marty
Silver Streak Sports Mfg.
Thanks a bunch. I pop that into my search and take a look at it. Funny part is I had the old FX compressor for around 20 years before it quit, but it only did 3000 psi.
Thanks for the heads up! Didn't even know Crosman made PCP compressors. This business sure has changed in the last 30 years!
Marty, I think they are Chinese...everything is now made in China! I have 2 of them...bought from an auction. Each has 2 cooling fans along with 2 radiators. You must use only distilled water as your coolant. Like everything, you must do your own due diligence. New, they go from $1000 to $1400
Oh yeah, everything almost is made in China now. Or some other country, Turkey is coming on strong, Korea, Vietnam, all over.
I decided to go with the big GX-E5K2, as I already have a small portable unit that can be hooked up to a vehicle @12v. I wanted a larger home unit that is reliable, the Tuxing is a piece of junk. 4 hours on a $900 compressor is pathetic.
I also spent $200 on a 4 year warranty with full replacement or repair, not gonna get caught with my pants down again lol.
Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions !
Amazon had a $150 off coupon on it, and tomorrow delivery.
Marty
@sssportsmfg you'll really like that GX-E5K2
It's quite and runs really well.
When you set it up, just be sure the water is flowing freely through all the hoses and no air pockets, and you will be good to go.
The one I still have here and use I did add an external filter since I use it to fill a large bottle... the internal filter does a good job, but with huge volumes in larger tanks I bought a centrifugal filter and have found no trace of moisture at the end of the hose.
Take a look at the Benjamin Recharge....distributed by Crosman.
Today was air gun day. I've been shooting rimfire almost exclusively for the last few years but I needed some trigger time today and didn't want to bother with the range, so I dusted off some of my air gun gear and had at it. Low hassle trigger time is the reason I got into this hobby to begin with so...
I wanted to run my Recharge just to make sure it hadn't seized or developed algae in the water supply and noticed that my water reservoir was cracked. What a hassle! It barely gets used and hasn't been moved out of the house, ever, so it either became brittle with time or it is a temperature issue.
Yes it sure seems to. I haven't really given it a workout per say....just my guns one at a time, but I do have some decent sized bottles on them, my M3 and my Evanix Cloud both have .7 L CF bottles on them. Thanks for the recommendation !
Just got an email from Amazon that the warranty company hadn't shipped the warranty product so they refunded the money, so I don't have a four year warranty on it. That ticked me off.
Marty
@sssportsmfg I have 2 Yong Heng 's. 1st one manual shut off, died after a year. Luckily, I got the extended warranty, got credit at Amazon. That's when I got my auto shut-off. Bought the extended warranty also. It runs great filling a 9.0 l from 4200 to 4500psi for a year.
I took the first YH apart after figuring I have nothing to lose, just to learn the insides of the compressor and try to fix it as a backup, which I did. Good thing , the auto shut-off YH blew its second stage piston. Got credit from Amazon and bought a GTX 12 volt as a carry along compressor for hunting trips. Tried the GTX, it ran for 3 minutes while filling my 480cc bottle on my Crown mk2, it blew. No extended warranty offered.
I replaced the 2cd stage piston in my ASO YH , runs like a champ, 2 years later still running strong.
Both YH are functional, occasionally popping a burst disc. Distilled water with ice bottles doing the cooling keeps it cool, 65 c max and doing a chill fill with my air vessels ( filling to 4400psi letting ambient temp do the heavy lifting) , I'm contemplating opening up the Gtx, seeing what's going on.
Ahh, remember springer days?
So far the GX E5 is doing fantastic....when I first got it, I pumped it up with the plug in as directed, did it several times actually just as I had with the Tuxing, to seat the seals on the pistons I would assume (haven't had the head apart to see how they seal and valve it). Then I ran it up to 3000 psi on a few of my older PCP's a few times to give it some light duty workouts. Then I charged my Huben K1. It got up to about 3500 psi and then it just sat there, gauge needle just bouncing up a little and then back to the same spot as though it didn't have the ummph to go any higher.
Of course, my heart sank, especially as I had received the email informing me that the extended warranty hadn't been issued. But turns out I just hadn't turned the bleeder screw in hard enough. Don't get me wrong, I tightened it down, just not enough. Apparently the seal face is poorly designed, it is flat, not sure what the mating part looks like. But once I started really tightening it down hard, it has been fine and goes to red line with no problem. That is the only flaw I have seen so far other than bubbles in the rotor in the sight glass impairing the spin of it . And as others have mentioned, it is tit mouse quiet.
Sure hope it continues to.
Marty
Well, I guess I spoke too soon. The compressor died at 1.8 hours of use. Was filling my Huben K1 at 3500 psi, a loud pop issued, and the needle stopped moving, and I felt air coming out from around the front most burst disc assembly. Took it out and the burst disc was burst. Now that wouldn't be a big deal if that is all that went wrong, but replacing the burst disc didn't do the trick, no more air out from around it, and it does compress up to 3500 psi, but no farther. Got in touch with the seller who recommended that I take out both burst discs, then run the compressor for 2 hours with no load, put new burst discs in and then try it. Of course right off the bat it was implied that I had turned the grease pot and put too much grease in it, which I did not do. And they didn't send any extra burst discs in with the tools, so that was impossible. I then purchased a set of 10 burst discs 7mm x 1mm off Amazon, put it back together and no go. Anyway, the back and forth went on and of course the inevitable take a video and send it. How absolutely stupid is that? Take a video of what? A compressor that doesn't work? Seriously? Anyway having had it just a couple of weeks, and having purchased it from Amazon I got on their chat and copied and pasted the entire dialog from the seller to Amazon CS, and they said no way you should have to do anything further, pack it up, and we will pick it up and bring you a new one zero charge.
I certainly hope the second one works more than 1.8 hours.
Marty
Yes they are, and they should be, I probably spend around $30K a year with them. 4k just in the last month. I know they don't get anywhere near all of it, as they just take their cut from the sellers, but it's the old adage, make a little from a lot and you will be rich before you know it.
Gonna have to pack the bad one up, that is going to be a chore for sure, this thing is near 100 lbs. It was a bitch getting it out of the box, so I know it will be harder getting it back in.
Marty
Nope, not the case, I got a flashlight and looked at all the coolant lines, they were all free and free of any bubbles, the little impeller was moving just slowly BECAUSE of the bubbles at the top. It is a design flaw of the sight glass with the impeller in it, as there is no other way to fill the compressor with coolant than from the top, and in doing so it has the bubbles from the get go.
I turned the compressor over on it's side with the cap on both ways until it was almost touching the floor, then rocked it up and down trying to get those bubbles out to no avail. The impeller was moving, just slowly, so I know that the compressor cylinders were getting coolant. And if they weren't getting coolant then it is a total design flaw, because there is no other way to fill it except from the cap on the top, the rectangular tank is directly below that cap, and if you take the cap off you can see the water being circulated because it runs back into the tank on the side of the tank at the top...
Plus there are some really conflicting directions with this compressor, one says put xxx ml into the tank, and the other says fill the tank to just below the input to the tank from the pump. I filled it with Asian blue antifreeze 50/50 mix to just below the return in the tank and could actually watch it being pumped back into the tank, so I know the pump was running and circulating. If the water jackets on the cylinders have air spaces at the top like the sight glass, they need to correct how they route the coolant.
I followed their instructions for the 600ml into the tank, and ran the pump only, saw that it was not nearly enough so then topped it off, I have a feeling that the air was introduced because of those faulty directions, I have seen others mention that they also noticed that there were two sets of conflicting instructions. When the new one comes, I am going to fill it to the top of the reservoir, then turn the pump only on and see if that eliminates the bubbles in the impeller sight glass. If the level goes down, (which it should as it fills the lines and water jacket) I will stop the pump and add more coolant before it gets any air in the feed hole of the tank on the bottom. Beyond that there isn't much the customer can do to keep the bubbles out of that sight glass.
And it actually ran and compressed to full pressure for almost 2 hours. Something gave way, there was a loud pop when it stopped compressing, and I had just started it up and had just closed the bleed screw, so it wasn't from overheating. When that happened, it was running less than 30 seconds.
Marty
Would be interesting to find out what popped. There's really not a whole lot that can go wrong.
I see you replaced the burst disc. There are some seals at each hard line that could of burst, but at least it's getting replaced and you don't have to mess with it.
Sucks you got a bad one. They really are nice machines. Especially with how quiet they run. I have a Yong Heng and that thing is loud and obnoxious. I had to rebuild that compressor once. The GX-E5K2 that I run has over 40hrs on it.
I do agree though, the bleed screw should be longer.. it would make it far easier to properly close it.
Hopefully you have much better luck with the next one!
Yeah, they could make the bleed screw longer, as it's kinda in the way of the fill whip. That wasn't my problem with the bleeder, my bleeder you had to close it so hard as to almost have to get a pair of pliers to get it closed enough for the compressor to get up to full pressure. Not sure if it was machined wrong, as the face was flat at the end of the metal. Would you take a look and see if yours is flat or has a taper on it? They really should have a taper on them if it is metal to metal, which from the feel of mine it was. Every other compressor I have had, had a tapered bleed screw end. This one was flat on mine. I have had air gun compressors since FX made one the old glorified bicycle pump on an eccentric wheel, lol. BUT it lasted me for over 20 years, even through all the airguns I pumped up when I was a dealer. Literally hundreds and hundreds. I am surprised that FX hasn't come out with a new compressor since they quit making the first one.
Marty
- @sssportsmfg the screws are flat on the end. There is a rubber seal inside that brass fitting that gets pushed shut. The seal itself is hard, so it'll last but at the same time will take a bit of force to seal perfectly especially at the higher pressures. It will wear in after use and get easier over time. It's definitely not a metal to metal seal though.
If the screw was longer, it would make it easier.
They only really complaint I have with that bleed valve is the glue used to put that rubber cap on. It doesn't do well and I usually will peel the rubber off, get good epoxy and put it back on.
I hear that, it already happened to me in less than two hours. I had to turn it in so tight that the rubber came off. I put it back on with thick Superglue. They make different superglues, some are thick like molasses. I did mine with that, and it held up, but then I only closed it a couple of times after I ran it and put new discs in and found out it wasn't working right. It's in the box ready to go back tomorrow. And on that note, it retained almost 3/4 of a gallon of antifreeze, couldn't get it out, I used a little pump I made for draining my motorcycle tanks, just a fuel pump with a couple of hoses and a 12v battery. Sucked it all out of the tank and only got about a quart, tilted it down sideways several times and got a tiny bit more, but the rest is still in there. If I couldn't get it out it shouldn't leak lol.
@sssportsmfg I wonder if the impeller motor was faulted? Seems like it should be spinning faster than slowly.
No worries , your sending it back aren't you?
@_1900colt I had to rebuild my YH, runs better now than when new.
The impeller is just an indicator that the pump is running far as I know, I don't think it's attached to the actual pump shaft. It's just like a little fan blade rotating in the breeze, don't think it's hooked up to anything. I'm not sure, as I never took the case off and actually went through it to see where everything is and what's hooked up to what. But if it is hooked up to the actual pump motor and is the actual pump impeller, it was bad when it got here, because it was only spinning at about 10 rpm.
Marty
Well, I got the broken one sent off to Amazon, and the new one arrived. I'm pretty sure that the first one I got was a return that had already been beat up, the reason why is that there are things in the bags in this one that the first one didn't have. There were lock nuts for the two handles, and there were spare burst discs that the first one didn't have. And the packing was also different, there were pieces of foam that the first one didn't have.
I also noticed right off that when I did my first initial pressure check, it pumped the microbore line up at least 2 times faster than the first one. And it did it, pronto! The bleeder works very easy, I didn't have to super tighten it. Now that I have run this one through it's start up paces, it just feels totally different. I am just guessing because I didn't look before I packed the old one up, but now I think that the seal in the bottom of the bleeder on the first one wasn't even there. The first one felt like metal on metal and this one feels like a smooth plastic seal face when tightening it up.
Sure hope this keeps running as it is a very quiet machine.
Marty
