Karlīs Rebreather Page

Oxygen / Nitrox-Booster

 

An oxygen booster is a device that allows you to fill your rebreather bottle to 200bar from a storage bottle that for example is down to 100bar. This is useful when you are on a weekend trip, but the pumps are quite expensive if you don't have the luck to get a used one.

 Manual booster pump

 A picture of Ewan & Steve using the pump. It really is a very small item. The frame around it is 3 times larger than needed. It doesn't really need two people to operate...but it was easier + two people standing on the base kept it still.

Ewan's pump is an "Oxyboost", and it was made by Submarine Products, who are now a part of the Pressure Products group of Aberdeen, Scotland. New ones have been unavailable for over 10 years.
Ewan boosted his 3 litre cylinder from 120 bar up to 220 bar in less than 10 minutes by himself. By the time Steve came along, the 12 litre cylinder pressure was down below 100 bar & the two took about another 10 mins to get his 3 litre cylinder up to 160 bar. Steve gave up as he was getting bored, hot & a little tired. Ewan says that once the supply drops below 70 bar then it's more trouble than it's worth to boost it manually.

 

An other manual booster pump: the Haskel (price~$7000):

Thanks to Steve for pictures and informations.

 

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