CARRETE EARLY BIRDS HAVE YOU RECEIVED

If any of you have been following the Carette saga I want to let you know it was a great upgrade for me no more 2 hour trips to the paint ball store to get a short fill (I was never able to get more than 4000 psi fills). Today I was able to fill my Tiger Shark tank 72CF from 3300 to 4500 in approximately 40 minutes. Joe B and his staff must have worked like hell getting all the units out.
Mine arrived in great shape. It was screwed down in a wood crate and arrived in showroom condition. I set it up based on what I read on the numerous post of guykuo to any one considering a Carette it’s a must read. I called Joe’s staff when I wasn’t sure on one step.
What you need to have handy to get started is a roll of pipe tape, some antifreeze (it comes with can of oil) and an assortment of open end wrenches.
First thing I did was remove it from crate and I set it up in my garage. Put in the oil and antifreeze and turned it on but with the petcock open and I let it run for 45 minutes under no pressure just to break it in and to check for leaks. I then closed the petcock and the pressure went up to 2200 with the Alpha air filter not yet attached(later i used radiator clamps to attach it upright to the frame).I made sure the timer was working on the oil water separator. Then I attached the Alpha filter that I ordered with the compressor. Then I connected the tiger shark tank and turned on the compressor and as soon as the pressure in the compressor came up to what I had in the tank I opened the tank valve and the wait began.in 40 minutes the tank was full. I then let the compressor run for 5 minutes to dry out internally with no load and peacock open. That’s it, there were a couple of fittings that needed to be retaped to take care of air leaks and that was it. If you plan on filling guns directly remember if you use the Alpha filter get a bleed valve on the out end also and you should use a filter when the auto oil water separator goes off the water it dumps has a slight smell of oil the filter will help in eliminating that.
This is what I did and it worked for me I’ve always been comfortable around tools so doing this was no big deal . If your weak in the workshop get someone to help you out.
One thing I must say it is quite even under load. I was able to use the phone in the same room no problem makes about as much noise as drilling with a drill press and wood.
That’s it if I left anything out I’ll add it in next time.

My earlybird shipment arrived on Monday. U.S. customs is opening up many of the shipping crates for inspection . Mine had the latches pried open but there was no damage to contents or parts missing. It is an understatement to report that this is a quality compressor. After getting the Carette I sold a Bauer full sized compressor which served me well for 3 years. A local paintball business bought it because they require a continuous duty compressor. Super fast fills are nice but I didn’t need a 170 lb. 220V compressor that was only being run once a month for 10 minutes. There were no compressors like the Carette available when I decided to get the Bauer. I had always been leery of Chinese compressors. Sincere’s willingness to allow Guykuo to vet their compressor and have it pass Guy’s thorough testing convinced me to buy one. This compressor has a quality feel to it with many desirable convenience features built in. It has a digital hourmeter, adjustable pressure shutoff gauge, PMV, belt drive, adjustable timed bleed valve, a closed circuit water cooling system. The compressor is extemely quiet running during a fill. It actually measured 70 decibels at full load on my sound meter app . The build quality of every component exceeds expectations. The Carette is a ringless piston design that doesn’t require costly shipping for piston ring replacement. It won’t require time consuming tear downs for do it yourselfers needing to replace pressure sealing rubber o rings that some competitor compressors use.

Anyone considering an Air Venturi, Altaros, Shoebox, Alpha or Omega should think again. The Carette is the new sheriff in town. At $1395 nothing else comes close to giving a compressor owner all of this value. Air boosters may be less expensive initially but require secondary first stage compressors, intake filters, plumbing and output air filters which will bring their costs up to or more than the Carette. They cannot compete with the Carette’s convenience, plug and play capability, and faster fill time. It can fill a 9 liter tank from empty to 4500 psi in 186 minutes. This is the compressor our sport has been waiting for and the best bang for the buck option available for tank owners.

Here is how I recommend doing a fill with the Carette compressor…..

Proper filling is to start with the tank main valve and tank fill whip bleed valve closed.

Close the bleed at the top of the PMV, but open the manual drain at the water/oil separator.

Set the auto shutoff pressure to 4500.

Start the compressor. Because the drain valve is open, it will see no load. Let it warm up for about 10-15 seconds to distribute its oil before it gets loaded.

Close the drain valve. The pressure will steadily rise in the compressor. You should see the Carette gauge gradually rise. At the point the PMV opens, you will notice the rate of pressure rise drop for a moment. That’s probably around 2200 PSI.

Let the pressure continue to build to approximately equal to your tank pressure. Gradually open the tank valve to full opening. This lets compressed air enter the tank. The timing of opening the tank when the compressor reaches tank pressure is to avoid suddenly loading the compressor with full tank pressure.

Don’t keep the compressor running too long without a path for air to exit. You don’t want to over pressure the compressor. The auto shut off should kick in before something goes awry, but it is best to keep an eye on things until you know all is functioning well. On my first run, I intentionally set the auto shutoff low so I could verify its function.

During tank filling, the Carette pressure gauge should read pretty close to what your tank gauge reads. If they are grossly mismatched, something is impeding flow and/or you have a leak at the fill whip bleed. If the gauges are way off match, stop the compressor and troubleshoot before continuing.

You will see the pressure in the compressor rise as the tank fills.

Let the Carette auto drain fire every 10 minutes for about 2-3 seconds. You can also manually drain the separator, but the auto drain should do the work for you.

Once the tank reaches fill target pressure (4500 PSI), turn off the compressor.

Close the tank main valve.

Open the manual drain valve and bleed valve at the top of the PMV.
Turn on the Carette and let it run for 3-4 minutes without a load to clear out its cylinders of any residual moisture.

Turn off Carette and close the drain and PMV drain.

Open your tank bleed valve to ensure the hose is depressurized.

Disconnect tank

Hmmmmm…wonder what this could be? :biggrinn:

DJ

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