When scuba diving, air is the single most significant thing to a diver and having a successful dive as well as surviving. Recreational drivers are often not concerned with how or when their scuba tanks are filled, which is fine for a holiday scuba diver that simply rents their equipment or for a diver who does not go often. However, for professional divers and dive shops, scuba compressors are an incredibly crucial piece of equipment that they need for scuba diving. With your own scuba tank compressor, you would be able to dive on the go and fill your own tank with the air compressor. Due to the fact that air compressors are expensive as well as a long time investment, it is important to know which one is right for one. Here is how to find the best scuba diving compressor.
Scuba Air Compressors VS. Other Compressors
Scuba compressors are compressors with high pressure, meant to fill tanks with air to allow for divers to breathe underwater. They are similar to the form of compressors used to fill the air supply for oxygen tanks for hospitals and doctors offices. Standard compressors are quite different from these types of compressors in the way that they pressurize and clean the air. Tanks for scuba diving need to be filled at a high pressure, which can not be done with any regular compressor as only scuba air compressors manage to fill the entire tank with air. As well, the scuba compressors have filters that are designed to purify that the air that goes through them and into the tank. Moisture, oil, and any other contaminants are removed from the air as it goes through these filters in the scuba air compressors. These sort of compressors also have activated carbon filters where carbon monoxide becomes inoffensive and other hydrocarbons that may exist in the air are removed. Unlike regular compressors and their purposes, scuba air compressors are used to fill tanks with clean breathable air and is incredibly important to the life of the diver. If the diver was to inhale contaminated air, it could cause severe health consequences and quite possibly, death. This is why maintaining the compressor is extremely important as well. Poor maintenance of the scuba air compressor can cause a filter to malfunction and stop performing its job, allowing any of the contaminants to remain in the air.
How A Scuba Air Compressor Works
Before deciding on the scuba diving compressor that is best for you and your dives, you must understand how, exactly, they work so that you can understand the differences between various air compressors. The first thing that the compressor does is pull in air through the intake filter and compress it to about 100 – 140 pounds per square inch, or psi. While going through this process, it begins to heat up so an intercooler helps disperse the heat before passing the air to the second step. In the first stage, where the air is compressed to about 140 psi and then cooled is further compressed to around 800 – 1,000 psi in the second stage of the process. Once it is compacted further, it goes into the intercooler yet again to cool the air before moisture is separated from the air in a moisture separator. After the moisture is removed from the air, the third stage begins where the air is compressed to as much as 5,000 psi. Yet again, the air must be passed through another intercooler coil and moisture separator. Depending on the specific scuba air compressor, the air may go through more filters. Following these stages, the air must go through a back pressure valve that is generally set between 2,700 psi and 3,300 psi. The back pressure valve pushes the compressor to run stable and also has an effect on how the filtration works.
Types Of Compressors
Scuba air compressors are, essentially, only either electric or gas. Electric air compressors are more commonly used than gas compressors and are also preferred, however, you must make sure that where you store it will allow it to be wired properly. The electrical motors of the electric compressors can come in single or dual phase electrical systems, which are the networks of electrical parts used to supply, use, and transfer electric power. Air compressors on the smaller side require 220 to 240 volt electrical systems. Aside from the type of scuba air compressors, you can also get either a low-pressure or high-pressure compressor. The benefit of choosing a low-pressure compressor is that they are lightweight and accessible in the case of surface applied diving. In surface applied diving, these compressors are fitted into a flotation ring on the surface in order to provide divers with air through a hose. However, with high-pressure compressors, they are best used by dive shops and commercial diving to fill scuba tanks since they are heavier and bulkier than low-pressure ones. While these compressors are better for filling tanks, you should purchase the compressor that is in proportion for the tank size. A small compressor would be unable to compress air into a large tank and a small tank would be unable to handle the high-pressure compressor. Depending on the compressor and motor used, the filter systems bought, as a result of coming separately from the compressor itself, must be able to adequately filter that specific compressor. For example, a gas compressor will require more filtration in order to discard of the carbon monoxide that exists due to the motor exhaust.
For many, the difficulty of working with scuba diving compressors is why they work with companies such as Lawrence Factor in order to receive purified air. They produce parts for air compressors as to ensure that the compressor operates smoothly and better than ever. As well, the services they offer are a way to guarantee that the air run through the compressor comes out completely purified. Contact Lawrence Factor and find out what they can do for you today.
