Omega Compressor Review
I received my Omega on Thursday July 17th from PAG, my CF air tank was really low on air and I couldn’t be happier to finally get to fill my own tank. It came with all the hookups except one thing, the male to male adapter for the quick disconnects. Some people already have a male adapter on their tank, I don’t so I called up PAG and bought one from them. I wish they had sent it to me by USPS Priority mail. Would have gotten it on Saturday, instead they charged $12 to ship a little piece of metal supposedly including insurance through UPS whom do not deliver on Saturday unless they pay extra fee.
Finally got the adapter today and got the compressor working. Sorry for the long intro, now for the good stuff.
The manual that came with the unit is GARBAGE!!! It was confusing as hell. These are the steps you need to take.
1. Open the box of course and remove the unit. (78 lbs)
2. Remove the sticker that covers the Air Output
3, Locate the air hose and locate a metal washer with blue rubber inside.
3. Insert the washer then screw it into the Air Output port (clockwise)
4. Open the Water tank Cap and pour in the Antifreeze and ICE fluid that comes with the unit
5. Use “Purified Water” to fill the rest of the reservoir until it is about an inch from the top.
6. To set the desired PSI, there are two needles. You press the red button in so that it pushes the needle left or right. The first needle goes to the desired PSI. I have mine set at 4200, then the instruction says to move the second needle about 100 psi to the right of that. I am guessing this is a safety backup. The black needle represents the current pressure.
7. Set the the self draining adjust device. Basically how often you want it to bleed the moisture. The left needle is to set how long you want it open. I have it set at 5 seconds. The right needle is how often it should open. Since my compressor is sitting in an A/C room (laundry) I have it set to go off every 45 mins.
8. Connect the power cord to the unit and to the wall
8. Connect the the compressor hose to your tank. As mentioned before, I needed the male to male adapter.
9. Make sure the bleed valve is tightened.
10. Turn the power on, this will get the fan going and the water flowing into the system.
11. Push in the green button to start the compressor. Alvaro from Mexico adviced SEcoda to let the compressor reach up to the desired PSI before opening the tank. I opened it right away and the pressure quickly equalized (compressor and tank).
12. Once the Compressor reaches the desired PSI it will automatically shut off the compression, however, the unit is still on and fan/water still circulating. Manual said to let it be like this for about 10 mins before completely shutting down the unit.
13. I closed the valve on my CF tank and bled the air from there. The air pressure in the Omega goes down as well. When the needle on my CF goes down to 0, so does the needle in the Omega. After that is done, I also bleed the air from the Omega just to make sure and there usually isn’t anything left.
14. Left side of the unit is the Hour meter, OverCurrent protector and the power input
Short video of what my unit sounds like in my office before I moved it into the laundry room: http://vid1105.photobucket.com/albums/h350/donnydu/Omega/IMG_7035.mp4
My observations
This unit is loud in my opinion. I never had the shoebox or any other compressors so I can’t compare. Suppose to be quieter than the shoebox. SEcoda describe it as an old washing machine and he is correct. Old because even when I shut my laundry door I can still hear it. Whereas the newer washers are fairly quiet and when I close the door I can barely hear it.
It emits a smell and it reminds me of the smell of soldering lead. My wife made the mistake of going into the laundry room to put stuff in the dryer and she was gagging lol. No jokes about my wife!
The unit shutoff at exactly 4200 PSI according to the pressure gauge on it but my CF tank showed 3900. My tank doesn’t have the extra gauge that tells you exactly what’s in the tank so I am guessing that’s why it is not accurate. Also the Omega’s hose is about 3 ft and my CF tank hose is another 3 ft. Lots of air left in there.
Con of this whole unit again is the instructions in the Manual. It comes with a bunch of extra parts and tools but doesn’t tell you anything about them. I was able to find videos on Youtube that shows you what to do with them.
Overall, I am very happy with the Omega. The feeling of not having to travel to the dive shop to fill my tank is priceless. If I need to drain my gun’s air tube for any reason, I don’t have to worry about running out of air.
Youtube videos
Alvaro’s review, his has glycerin fluid in the gauge area. Mine and Secoda’s doesn’t:
All Replies
Thanks SECoda for the helpful info !
I’m still wondering about the smell Donny mentioned and if it dissipated over time used ?
The same experience when I got a new truck has had the same affect on my friends in the same way as getting this new compressor.
When I got the truck everyone needed to move something.
I didn’t even get it yet and now they’re lining up at my front door to get dibs on when they can get a free top off. :rofl:
~ GKU, p.s. ya right, I’ll be making them pay …. .. . 
I turned mine on not 5 minutes ago to top off my tank from using some extra air on fixing the Baby Cricket leak. The “old wash machine” is running in the utility room now. 😛 I have been running it over a year now flawlessly. I really like the simplicity of operation. It takes about 25 minutes to top off my 44 cu ft SCBA tank. (Also AOA sent me free grease and antifreeze when I called them although I don’t yet need it). I have it set to auto shut off at 4400 and it fills slowly enough that is stays at that when it is finished.
With Donny’s review I’m sold, mine will be arriving this coming Wednesdays (6/3/15) according to UPS.
Thanks a bunch Donny for the great write up and tips !
~ GKU
Missed this while I could not get on to the forum. I have been filling a buddies tank with my Omega regularly as well as my two tanks and using it even more than in the past. I also put it in the laundry room and run it like you would a washing machine. 😆 It is only just past the 20 hour mark in about 7 months. All you do is turn it on and add a little grease to a port about every 20 hours but it will probably take an individual user a long time to get there. It would be fabulous if you have several big bore guns that really suck down the air. I am only filling two 44 cu ft tanks and a buddies 88 cu ft tank regularly. It isn’t getting much of a workout doing those. Other than a few shipping issues and one freezing without the antifreeze-coolant loaded I have not heard of very many problems given the numbers out there now. Anyone else? Alvaro in Mexico fills customer tanks and must have well over 100 hours on his by now and he has had no operating problems. I need to sell my original Shoebox at this point collecting dust.
Thanks for the update Donny. I had been wondering if all was still OK with the compressor.
So there’s still a bit of oil smell, eh? Guess I could put it in the basement with an open door to vent it. I don’t think I could take the smell of both Kim Chee and oil in my office; the fermenting cabbage is bad enough. It was worse when I was using Thai fish sauce; now, it’s Red Boat-quality Vietnamese stuff!
The Dyotat slug-shooter is taking a lot of air. I’m worried about the Hill pump surviving the use it’s getting.
Thanks for the update Donny! :8: I guess its time to stop thinking about it, close my eyes and just spend the $$$$$$$$ 😳
Hey Clif! I have no complaints with this compressor. It is basically plug and play. I turn it on and let it do its thing. No rush to turn it off when it’s done so after a few hrs I’ll come back and turn it off. I usually fill it up my tank to around 4200 psi then use it until it goes down around 2800 psi then plug it in again. It takes about 45 mins to fill that up. Once it reaches the level of PSI that you had set it, it shuts off but the fan continues to run until you actually turn off the power.
If I had to do it again would I? Yes, with the amount of air that I go through testing my shrouds, I definitely need something like this that is low maintenance.
I would not place this somewhere you would normally occupy. For example, don’t put it in your office and let it run while you’re working. It is loud as an old washing machine as Secoda puts it. Other than that, you can smell the oil or whatever it is because of the cooling fan blowing.
I have it in my laundry room. Turn it on and shut the door. Don’t hear much.
Hi Donny, thinking about getting one of these compressors. Haven’t heard you or anyone else making any comments lately. Any new findings? Our more specifically, Is she still holding up? Also, if you had to do it all over again would you go the same way? 💡
Morning Bogman, I’ve ran it 3x within my laundry room and by no means is my laundry room big. If I had to guess, it is probably 8×6. Closed door and the fan within the unit circulates the smell. However, once you turn it off, the smell is gone. So maybe it’ll take a little more time to burn the oil like you said.
You can adjust the condensate bleed to stay open as long as you want or how often. But if you leave it open for too long, you of course lose pressure.
I’m also wondering if it’s possible to put an additional, high pressure water filter on the outgoing pressure side, or if it’s even a good idea. Seems a simple condensate bleed might not be enough; any thoughts?
Thanks for the great review Donny. Is the smell of the unit, during operation, starting to diminish? If it keeps emitting a bad smell, that would influence where I could keep one. I’m hoping you were just burning off machining oils and such and it’ll stop reeking.
I’m also wondering if it’s possible to put an additional, high pressure water filter on the outgoing pressure side, or if it’s even a good idea. Seems a simple condensate bleed might not be enough; any thoughts?
I’ve filled my tank up a few times and love it even more each time. Now that I am used to the sound, it doesn’t bother me anymore or anyone else in the house. Automatic shutoff is cool and in the instructions it said to leave the unit on even after it stops to let it cool down. So when it says automatic shutoff, you would think that the whole thing shuts down but it doesn’t. Still have to go click the power button off after the cool down phase.
It does go over the maintenance schedule. Every 20 hrs add some of the supply grease to the unit. There’s a screw that you unscrew to add. Very simple. Then the next one is at 3200 hours. Thats when they want you to replace the gear oil and radiator fluid.
Regards
Larryw 🙄
Thanks Donny, great review. Nice to know I need the double male adapter. Does the manual explain the maintenance schedule? Please keep us informed as time goes by on how your Omega preforms.
Regards
Larryw 🙄
I us USPS Priority from CA to Florida all the time…..takes usually 2 days to get there. It actually takes longer to get to Northen California then to Florida 🙄
texas takes an extra day because independent union
I agree WOK, I’ve been sending my shrouds to CA and even HI for about $6.50 (1 lb) 2 day shipping. Texas for some reason takes 3 days
I us USPS Priority from CA to Florida all the time…..takes usually 2 days to get there. It actually takes longer to get to Northen California then to Florida 🙄
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
The smell is the Royal Purple gear lube in the gear box. The white grease you put in for the pump has no smell. They also put some anti-corrosion lube on the exterior of some the parts for shipping and that has a bit of a stink.
I would consider an additional dryer for the compressed air before entering the tank – especially if you live in a humid area or don’t run it from air-conditioned air.