Haskel Mini Booster Set Up - Article

Standard Disclaimer: This has been my experience with my booster and I am writing this as such. It is not an instructional manual on how to do it.

There are a few Imperial to Metric references... They should be close.


This article is coming from someone who had zero knowledge of Boosters, other than the fact that they took in low pressure gas and magically turned that into high pressure gas.

Soon after I started diving my Rebreather I realized that adding a Booster would make my life a lot easier. After a lifetime of Open Circuit diving and having my own complete mixed gas fill station, the thought of having to seek out a shop that was capable of pumping high pressure O2 & Dil mixes was too much to bear.

I did a bit of research, checked out a few of the units at 2007 Beneath The Sea and decided on the Haskel Mini Booster, which I ordered from Coltri Americas in Florida, the US distributor for the product at the time.

They promptly shipped it and a few days later I was the proud owner of a Mini Booster. My next thought…. Now what?

Figuring it would be fairly easy to find out how to get this thing up and running I started to look for set up information. I ran into a brick wall. There wasn’t any place that contained all the information needed to set this thing up and answer all my questions.

I ended up doing a lot of footwork and research to get the Booster to where it is now. Special thanks to Ted Green, Mark Nix, and a few others on Rebreather World for their valued input and patience in dealing with my many questions.

The parts I use are all to US standards, but there should be no problems finding the metric counterparts or adapters as far as threading and sizing go.

The quick connects are for the most part are Swegelok, simply because I’ve used them on my fill station and were easily available. Parker or any other brand will work just as well.

I used Quick Connects to make it easier to transport the system. If you don’t intend to move it around permanent connections will work just fine.


Things to know:

You'll find that, depending on the pressure of your supply (O2, He, or Banked Dil Mix) tanks, the amount of drive gas you use will vary greatly.

For example it doesn't take a lot of drive gas if your supply tank is full and you are only topping off your rebreather bottles. If your supply tanks are half full and your breather tanks are half full it will take more gas. If your supply gas is 1/3 full and your breather tanks are 1/3 full it will take a lot of drive gas. Once your supply tanks are between 800 – 1,000 psi ( 55 – 69 Bar) it pretty much isn’t worth boosting with any small single stage Booster.

In other words….the drive gas not a constant.

If your supply tank is at 798 psi (55 Bar) and you breather tanks are 3000 (207 Bar) when full, but have 1,000 psi (69 Bar) after diving it will take a ton of gas to boost the 55 Bar to 206 bar.... From a practical standpoint, it will almost be impossible to do. It will take forever & use a ton of drive gas. If on the other hand you have 2250 psi (155 Bar) in your supply tank it will take a lot less time & drive gas to fill the breather bottle. First you equalize the tanks, as long as the supply tank pressure is higher than the breather tank you are filling to. The booster does this as you slowly open the valves. It won't go the other way if you have a higher pressure in your breather tanks. Once it equalizes you can start to boost, or if the breather tank pressure is higher you can boost as soon as you open the valves.

Once you start to boost you will get an idea of how much gas you will need and will probably buy a shop compressor, unless you have large supplies of HP air available to you. Be aware that it's not only pressure, but volume output that makes one compressor better than another. psi vs scfm. A high psi rating and a low scfm rating won't drive the booster. FYI, my shop compressor is rated at 200 psi and 5.2 SCFM @ 90 psi.

This booster is capable of cycling at well over 60 cycles per minute if there is enough supply gas going through it. This is WAY TOO FAST for boosting Oxygen! If you feel supply & fill block at the bottom of the pump getting very warm or hot, you are filling too fast. Slow it down by reducing the supply pressure.


FYI....

I use a 20/50 Dil for 90% of my dives as they fall into the 50 Meter or less category. When I go deeper I drop to 16/50. That lets me bank 20/50 in a few sets of my old doubles and makes it a lot easier to top off my Dil tanks, trans-filling until they drop down then boost them after that. I’ll do the same thing with O2, as far as keeping a few 120’s boosted to 3500 psi (241 Bar). I try to keep it simple. It’s a lot easier transfilling in between consecutive dive days than bringing out the booster & mixing & boosting gas. Great for local traveling too. This booster will fill the larger tanks, it just takes a little longer & you'll want high supply pressures to get them pumped up to the maximum, which I've found to close to 3500 psi, with high supply pressures & high drive gas pressures & volume. In other words, it won't happen with a shop compressor. I usually max out at 3200 psi with the shop compressor, and it would take a looong time to fill the big tanks.

Now for the Pump & Fill Whips. You can buy the whips already set up from many different sources like Golem Gear, Northeast Scuba Supply, and I believe the Rebreather World Store in Europe. I chose to make everything myself. It’s a lot cheaper. How you go about it depends on how easily you can get the supplies, and how much time you want to spend making it happen.

The Pump:




Top of the pump is all low pressure standard fittings from Lowes or Home Depot (Home Centers here is the US). Everything I use is 1/4" NPT (Not sure if they use that size in Europe) so I had to get screw in adapters for the three ports on the pump as they are not 1/4" NPT. The adapters reduce the existing fittings to 1/4" NPT. The adapters and High Pressure parts can be found at most Hydraulics Supply Shops. Just take the pump with you & they will know which adapters to give you. The HP adapters have o-rings, the LP does not. They all reduce to 1/4" NPT.

The Low Pressure Plumbing consists of an intermediate pressure gauge (0-160), going into a brass T. The ball valve for reducing the flow of air is below that followed by a standard female quick connect for shop compressors. Teflon tape goes on all male threaded ends. Leave one or two rows of threading bare so you don't get any tape into the cylinders. The pressure gauge isn't necessary, but it's cheap & I like to see what the inlet pressure is as a point of reference. The ball valve is necessary. If you use HP air as a drive gas it will pump too fast if it runs wide open when you are boosting O2.

On the bottom of the pump (All High Pressure Fittings) Again, I use Swagelok Quick Connects, mainly because the rest of my system is all done with Swagelok QC's & I've been using them for years without any problems.

Teflon Tape the Male fittings... Leave the bottom two threads clean. I use Simple Green & hot water to clean all the HP stuff before attaching to the pump.


Swagelok Parts:

SS-QF4-S-4PM (SS =Stainless, QF=Quick Flow, 4=1/4", S=Stem, 4PM NPT Male)

SS-QF4-S-4PM - SS Full Flow Quick-Connect Stem w/o Valve, 1.7 Cv, 1/4 in. Male NPT

SS-QF4-B-4PM (Same as above except the B = Body) The M is Male or threaded ...They use F for female.

SS-QF4-B-4PM - SS Full Flow Quick-Connect Body, 1.7 Cv, 1/4 in. Male NPT



The Fill Hoses:




The Hoses are SS braided Teflon hoses rated at 3,000 psi Service Pressure. They can handle double that for short periods, so filling to 3500 isn't a problem. The hose is sold by the foot ( less than $4.00 a foot) and you specify what kind of ends you want. I got all male 1/4" npt ends put on. The hose came from the same Hydraulics Supply Shop. They are all six footers. The gauges can be purchased from any gas supply house for about $15.00 each. They are for O2 use. Again 1/4" male npt.

YOU MUST O2 CLEAN THE HOSES & QC FITTINGS INSIDE & OUT!

They use light oils on these things to attach the fittings. I use Simple Green & Hot Water.... I have an Ultrasonic Cleaner I use for my Regs & I fill it with Simple Green and run the hoses through there to clean the outside & the fittings, but you can do it by hand too. Just make sure you do it a few times to make sure they are clean.

Same HP fittings as on the Pump... A HP T for the gauge, One Male Stem & One Female Body on one hose and one Female Stem and one Male Body on the other hose. I had some existing Stems & Bodies so I had to use some connectors to make them fit on my hoses.

I’ve added a one way check valve to the first hose to prevent any possibility of target gas coming back into a supply tank.

Connects to QC body on Supply Gas ( See O2 & He Tank Photo's) Other end to Stem on Input Side of Pump.

Gauges measure Supply Gas Pressure on one hose and Fill Tank Pressure on the other.




Drive Gas & Regulator Close Up





Hose is a 25' standard Shop Compressor Hose with QC 1/4" NPT Stems on either end. One goes into the regulator and the other into the booster. I'd like to find a shorter hose, but they seem to only come in 25' or 50' lengths.

The first stage is an OMS tuned to about 130 PSI Intermediate pressure... Any first stage will do. (I'm told that piston first stages work better than diaphragm first stages for this purpose as they handle lower pressures better.) Just set the IP to about 135 to 150 psi. Attached to the reg is a HP gauge, a short BC Hose as a convenience for bleeding down, attaching a Intermediate Pressure gauge to, hooking up an analyzer, or whatever.... A button Over Pressure Relief Valve..a must have, and a QC 1/4 NPT body. To hook that up you need an adapter that goes standard LP port thread to 1/4" NPT. (They aren't that easy to find.... Ted Green hooked me up with one)

If you run off a shop compressor it's a direct hook up with the QC's.

Adapter for supply gas from large storage bottles:

Helium....



Oxygen.....



Here is a shot of everything all hooked up.....




Red tanks are the drive gas, 20 CF AL O2 tank is the target tank, and large O2 tank is the supply tank. It's a simple loop.... Drive gas is regulated down to 135 or so psi. I slowly open the ball valve and stop when the desired cycle's per minute is reached. That takes the O2 (or other gas) from the supply tank into the booster (side over the black hose), boosts it up and sends it out the other side to the target tank. You always equalize the the tanks if the supply tank is at a higher pressure than the target tank before boosting. It will flow through the booster before you start it up so if it's O2..... do it slowly.

Drive Gas Shot using double 100's as the drive gas.





Adapters used for boosting to and from Scuba Cylinders.





I probably missed something along the way here, so if you have any questions please don't hesitate to PM me.

Richie

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