Scuba Diving Compressor guide - Air is the single most important thing to a diver when scuba diving. Most recreational divers aren’t concerned with how or even when their scuba tanks get filled, just as long as the have them before a dive. While that’s all well and good for the holiday scuba diver that rents, for dive professionals and dive shops, scuba compressors are a crucial piece of scuba equipment they can’t do without. But, now a days a lot of serious scuba diving individuals are opting to own their own small and portable scuba air compressor for their diving needs.
Imagine being able to fill up your scuba tank whenever you want, not having to wait in line at dive shops and being able to dive whenever and wherever you want? Sounds nice doesn’t it? However, other than just the sheer convenience of owning one, scuba air compressors are expensive and not just a one time investment, as the running costs just to keep your system maintained and working properly an run high. But if you’re in the market for one- here’s a guide on how to start.
The Difference Between Scuba Air Compressors and Other Compressors
Scuba compressors are high pressure compressors, designed to fill tanks for breathing underwater. They’re the same type of compressors used to fill the air supply for fire fighters and oxygen tanks for hospital use. The difference between these types of compressors and standard compressors used for other purposes in mainly the pressure and air quality which needs to be filtered and clean, as it is used for breathing.
Scuba tanks need to be filled at very high pressure (about 3,000 psi) which can’t be done with a regular compressor as you would only manage to fill a fraction of the air in the same size tank. Secondly, the scuba compressors have filters and are designed to purify the air that goes through them before it’s filled in the tank. Scuba Compressors remove moisture, oil and other contaminates from the air by passing it through a series of moisture separators and filters. After the moisture has been removed, the air passes through Activated Carbon filters where the Carbon Monoxide is rendered harmless and other Hydrocarbons are removed. This is extremely important, because unlike other purposes that standard compressors are used for, these compressors are used to fill tanks of clean breathable air and quite literally lives depend on it. Unfiltered or contaminated air could have serious health consequences and even cause death, which is why maintenance of these compressors too is important.
How Scuba Air Compressors Work
While I won’t go into the nitty, gritty details on the working of an air compressor, cause frankly I’m not very technical and don’t get all of it myself, but here’s a brief description of how the compressor works.
The first stage of the compressor pulls in air through an intake filter and compresses it to around 100 to 140 psi as it pushes it out. During this process though it heats up quite a bit, so an inter cooler or coil helps dissipate the heat before passing the air to the second stage. Air compressed in the first staged to around 140 psi and cooled then goes into the second stage where the air is further compressed again to around 800 to 1,000 psi. After the second stage too, there’s an inter cooler to cool the air again, before it goes to a moisture separator which separates moisture from the air and then to the third stage. The third stage further compresses the air to as much as 5,000 psi. From the third stage, we go through another inter cooler coil and another moisture separator, after which there may be more filters or the filters may be mounted separately from the pump. Lastly, there is a back pressure valve which is normally set between 2,700 and 3,300 psi. The back valve forces the compressor to run balanced and also affects how the filtration works.
