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: