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Last thing I knew, the Poseidon P100 and the little Bauer were pretty much the same machine, though the Po can often be found for a bit less. MaxAir35 is actually an Italian Coltri MCH6 (which was formerly sold here by Nautica and possibly others, just in case you are shopping used). MaxAir is supposedly exclusive US distributor for Coltri but several other (gray market?) vendors are selling it here now, for considerably less (like $800 less) than Maxair. The Coltri has a reputation as "disposable compressors" but parts are cheap and supposedly quality has improved a lot in the last few years. The Bauer/Pos have a much better reputation than the Coltri and cost only a couple hundred more, and worth every cent of the difference. However now that Coltris can be had for at considerably less than Maxair charges they get more interesting. Keep in mind that all three are basically light-duty, splash lubed compressors, good for maybe 1500-2000 hours rather than the 5-10,000 you'd expect from a commercial compressor, and aren't really happy doing extended runs like filling a cascade. If you look around you may be able to find used small commercial version like the Utilis (I may have the name wrong) or SA3 Rix for not much more. Owning a small compressor is a major responsiblity, if you want to have acceptable air. Both compressors have tiny filters, but the Coltri one is absurdly small and just keeping it in filters will cost you about $2 a tankful. I would be very nervous trying to run one on the stock filter -they are just too small. Separators must be drained every 15 minutes or so, and failing to do so just once can wipe out a $35 filter cartridge and lead to the compressor pumping dangerously contaminated air. Having said that, we really like owning one. We've got a Coltri (not to be taken as a recommendation, we found a used one very cheap) with a continuous mixer so we can mix nitrox or trimix with the turn of a valve, top off partially used tanks effortlessly and math-free, and suck the supply tanks down to 40 psi. > >I would appreciate any experience or information anyone has >that would help in choosing between the Bauer Jr. II, >Poseidon P100, and Max Air 35 compressors. Are there any >remarkable plusses or minuses for any of these in terms of >durability, reliability, availability of parts and service, >ease of use and maintenance of the unit, or other features >that make one of these preferable to the others? Does >anyone have a good used compressor to sell? > -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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