Air Venturi Compressor

[bnowlin]

Well I got my Air Venturi compressor today so far great.  Came in less than 24 hours from PA and looks great well built.  Works great so far will follow up with review very soon.
Bob

[oldpro]

Right on Bob!!! I'm glad someone I trusts opinion has one. Please let us know.

[guykuo]

Great that someone is going to have an actual unit. Once you have your compressor, it would be great if you could post some pictures of it without the cover panels and a closeup of the filter cartridge material. Most pictures thus far have hidden the actual build. Also, it would be nice to have some idea of the filter material composition. It does not look like a drying element, but rather a physical filter. Is it something that will be oil absorbent when damp? Is the filter chamber directly open between the filter and inlet? How much space is there below the filter and the base of the filter chamber?

If you have a digital thermocouple, temperature of the high pressure cylinder's air outlet tube right at it connection would also help us understand what the high side is actually seeing. The built-in temp probe is some thermal distance away and will read lower than what the air is doing inside the high side. A thermal probe right at the high side air outlet would get us the closest temperature sampling.

[bnowlin]

I finally got to test the Air Venturi Compressor.  My first impression was hey this is not China material.  It was well packed in a very strong box.  Double sided honeycombed box with nice foam rubber foam around the machine.  When I got it out of the box I was totally shocked by the way it was built and put together.  Very professional and well built.  Get this, it even has a radiator and large fan to help cool the water it comes with the accessories mentioned in the PA ad.  the control panel is really nice and easy to use.  The only thing about that is no hour meter and the glycerin pressure was over filled and when you push down to adjust it some comes out of the gauge stem (easy fix).  With all the sides off you can see a great piece of build and engineering.  Not junky like some other overseas product.  Oil and water was easy to add.  I used a 50-50- mix of anti-freeze and 10 ounces of Purple Ice in the water.  The water tank has a submersible pump and the temp gauge is attached to the high side cylinder out put after the cooling.  I need to test that more.  It comes with a pretty good book for installing but no schematic for rebuild.  OK my first tank was a 30 minute 45 cu. ft. empty and took 31 minutes to fill. 5 min. for the first 1000,8 min to 1500, 12 to 2000, 15 to 2500, 20 to 3000, 23 to 3500, 27 to 4000, and 31 or a little less for 4500.  That's 11 minutes from 3000 to 4500.  as soon as I get a chance I will go to the next size.  gonna storm here today.  At 65 deg ambient the pump went from 32 Celsius to 80 book say should only go to 77 C..  Got to check into that.  I used purple compressor oil and may actually have to use the 5w40 oil.  A little thicker.  The machine took 7 minutes to cool to 37 C after I shut it off.  Might be a little early to say we might have a winner.  But I think we do.  Now let me figure out how to load pictures.  Somebody help me here and I will send pictures

[bnowlin]

pictures of compressor I hope
http://s1336.photobucket.com/user/bcnowlin/library/Air%20Venturi?sort=2&page=1

[Tpatner412]

Bob

80* C should not be an issue.  The compressors are set up to shut off automatically if you were to get to 95*C+.  The 75* C mark is what we have seen as the standard operating temp for the vast majority of units.  We've seen a few go above, but not by more than 5-7*C. 

I am going to see about getting manual amended now.

Thx and keep us updated on your progress with it.

[bnowlin]

Thanks Tyler for jumping in.  See if you can get a schematic on the rebuild and also I don't think the purple synthetic compressor oil is thick enough.  Should I try the Castrol synthetic 5w40 that I have.  I will pm you about it in a minute.  Hope I don't lose my Satellite connection.
Bob

[Tpatner412]

Bob

Can't hurt to try, but we have used both compressor oil and 5w40 (non-synthetic, but no reason synthetic wouldn't be ok as far as we know) and seen similar results.  Yours may just run a few degrees hotter than most.

[Sfttailrdr46]

Bob that is a nice looking set up if it is a durable as it is pretty you may just have found my next HPA compressor for me

[guykuo]

Thanks for posting the picts!

[aceflier]

Looks nice. By the time I have the money saved to buy a compressor these should be fully stress tested lol.

[WiseGuy]

Saving up for this as well....will keep an eye on this thread, thanks for the link to the pics.

[bnowlin]

Saving up for this as well....will keep an eye on this thread, thanks for the link to the pics.

They will probably go up but with my luck they will go down in price. LOL
Bob

[bnowlin]

Tyler has amended page 7 of the manual to read 95*C maximum as the machine is designed to shut down at 95*C.  I was a little worried about that.  I hope to test a 60 min tank tomorrow if the rain stops.  So far the filter on the output does a great job.  Also I noticed that the machine is fast enough to make the tank a little warm not hot.  Which to me is a good sign.  More coming.
Bob

[sirira]

Thanks for posting this.  Haven't been shooting my PCP's since Sports Chalet closed down a while back.  This will probably be my next big purchase since my springers been  having all the fun.

Eric

[MJP]

So it's another shopcomp hpa retrofit model as suspected. I really hope the internals have been brought up to spec. The idea is good if done right, the forces acting on the crank and rods are similar than on shop comp use due to the smaller surface area.
I strongly recommend using ISO VG 195 synthetic hpa compressor oil on any hpa compressors. It's not much expensive and it's designed with a higher viscosity and flashpoint.
So as the vendor is reading these would be nice and probably profitable to torture test one unit and open it up for public view for everyone's piece of mind.
The competitors disaster unit is shadowing the similar appearance units no doubt.
Just my 2C

Marko

[betapotato]

Saving up for this, too. Pumping up my at-44 after 20 rounds is just a huge PITB

[Booger]

I am happy with my Shoebox Max, but this may be the ticket! I might have to sell my Max. Only problem would be rebuilding this unit with my mechanical skills.

[bnowlin]

Ok folks:  Just tested a 45 minute tank which I think is 65 cf.  I believe.  The compressor ran pretty quiet, sounds like a regular small garage comp., with very little vibration and filled the tank at a very surprising 47 minutes and from 3000 to 4500 in 16 minutes.  Ambient Temp was 68*F and the comp reached 82.2*C and that was near the end.  First 1000 was 8 min, 2000 was 18 min, 3000 was 30min, 4000 was 41 min, and 4500 was 47 min.  I have no idea why it took less time to fill this one and the 30 min tank last week.  I guess breaking in has speeded it up.  I will test a 60 min tank tomorrow I hope.  So far I like it a lot and the Warden doesn't complain about noise.  Had a little water as I bled it a couple of times but it was  60 + Humidity today.  And the water was white I am assuming the white is part of the filer material, molecular sieve perhaps.  So far I think we have a decent Compressor at a decent price.  It's speed beats the Omega and Shoebox hand down.  May Tyler will tell me why it faster today than the last time.  Happy so far.
Bob

[Buldawg76]

While I have not had any issue from my Shoebox max in 2 1/2 years of use it is slow compared to this compressor so if the reviews pan out to be good results from the Air venturi compressor I may just have to sell the Shoebox to purchase the Air venturi .

Mike