Invacare Oxygen Concentrators and Homefills

[T-Rex]

It's true, we all benefit huge from all that has been done and recorded here. But there's still tons to add, all the time.

I really appreciate you putting those numbers up, it's very clear to see the benefit. Thanks man!

[drew1492]

Oh and for the people that care about the #'s

1 bottle (300CUF) @ 55h (WTF!)
Average Life of Homefill: 6000h
Homefill Full @: 2000psi
Average bottles per Homefill: 100
Amortized cost of Homfill: $6/btl
Cost of electricity @ $0.11 Kw/h: $3/btl
Total Cost Per Bottle: $9/btl

This math isn't exactly perfect... I gave averages to make it easier to read, but you get the idea. I was spending $20/btl plus tax and fees. Then abut a 40mi round trip to go trade the suckers out. I am easily saving half of my oxygen monies! Let's just see how long this thing lasts. I have seen some of the other oxygen compressors out there and they are a bit more expensive, however could be worth the investment. Looking into the one from Hong Kong that I saw in another thread. Pricey thou. The homefills are defiantly an affordable way to get into the OxyCon game!

Running Constantly, the Homefill will reach 6000h in just a little under a year!
This is why I want to get 2 and switch off the usage... Keeping the pressure down around 1000 to 1500 will hopefully prolong their life a little bit as well.

There are many options out there for oxygen... you just got to find the one that fits your glass schedule and usage.

Has anyone got 6000 hours out of one of these things? I think that is a little far fetched. I think they are well worth the money though regardless just in time you save in transporting tanks or waiting on oxy if they close on the weekends.

[cade]

curious if anyone can give me some help. I have an ex2000 compressor, same as the homefill from what I am reading. It is given to me as a loner while I ship mine off, but i need to make it work..everything is great it comes on...3 minutes into it the pump turns on ...I can feel a small amount of air pressure coming from the the hose that connects to the tank..it does build slightly, but doesn't fill or build pressure that the regulator shows...

I am suspicious of a sound coming from the area of the closest large white cylinder...maybe an air leak...I am not sure though...if it is only this cylinder..anyone know where I may find a replacement?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[hngntuf]

Without trying to hijack the thread, I ran across this link for service manuals on several oxy cons. Not usually provided to consumers. Hope it helps someone.

http://www.frankshospitalworkshop.co...e_manuals.html

Stephen

[OxygenTech]

Hey Guys, sorry for the hiatus, been crazy at work. The good news is I did get to run a number of experiments with different homefill units and concentrator combinations, and we have a winner.

The two obstacles I was trying to overcome, as relayed to me by Corey and a few other people who have purchased homefills to fill their own large tanks was

1) reduce overall run time of the unit. The idea being shortened run times will last to equipment longevity.
2) increase the speed of fill.

To tackles these problems we started with a single concentrator and single homefill option, looking to see if we could get better performance from the most basic set up.

1) Knowing we get a max of 5 LPM out of a 5LX and 2 LPM of the 5 LPM are directed to the back homefill filling port, we looked to add some of the remaining 3 LPM coming out of the front of the unit. Well, we cannot. Firstly, the front unit is set to a pressure of 5.5 PSI typically, and though we can adjust the pressure of the unit up, we are going to hit a road block. Even if we managed to get the pressure above 15 PSI we could not successfully add to the homefill ports oxygen for a couple reasons, the main reason being the unit's auto shut off. If the front port is occluded, as in the hose to a patient was kinked or pinched, the back-pressure building up inside the tubing will auto shut off the concentrator. So even with a 15 PSI one way valve, the unit would shut off.

2) How about running the one concentrator with 2 homefills? Nope. That was a quick experiment. The pressure coming out of the back of the 5 LX has to be between 15 and 21 PSI in order for the homefill to operate. both homefills would start to pump, but would quickly alarm to oxygen below normal. Neither homefill unit could keep enough oxygen to operate correctly.

3) How about 2 homefills and 2 concentrators. Well sure, that worked great, as you would expect we improved on the time to fill our dummy H tank significantly from a single homefill and concentrator. Both the concentrators homefill ports were linked together in a effort to equalize the pressures between the needs of the 2 homefills and the output of the 2 concentrators.

4) For our last experiment to date, and the best outcome by far so far, we used a combination of 3 concentrators and 2 homefills. The thought was that as the homefill is filling in it's acceptable PSI range of 15-21, there must be a greater performance reached at a fill of 21 PSI than a fill of 15 PSI. But what is that the difference. By adding a 3rd concentrator to the mix, we are not increasing the pressure, we are still only at 15-21 PSI attained as the sieve beds cross over, but now, we have added more volume, more mass, with the introduction of the 3rd concentrator. So, in theory, we can be closer to the maximum pressure of 21 PSI inside the homefill intake more often and for longer periods, which will give us better performance. Well, it did. as of the first 7 hours we put in 800 lbs. With the smaller type of tanks like this unit is designed to fill, the first part of the fill always seems to go slowest. That is, the from 0-500 seems to take forever. Once you past that point, the unit typically seems to gain speed in the fill. We noticed the same result for our filling experiment of 3 and 2. As of 12:00 noon we were at 800 PSI, now less than 30 minutes later we are pushing 900 PSI.

****BINGO*****

The next logical experiment would be to use 2 concentrators and one homefill. I expect to get similar results at a minimum. The question becomes one of economics at some point. How many homefill / concentrator combo's do you want to run, how much oxygen do you use? With 2 concentrators and on homefill, you are putting all that extra mass into one unit, where with 3 concentrators and 2 homefills, you are splitting the mass between 2 filling systems.

To connect the concentrators together we used brass airline t valves from PetCo and connected them with black airline tubing. The tubing is not the most durable, and I used it out of necessity. If I were making some more permanent set up, I think I would find similarly durable hose as the Invacare supplied tubing.

There are 2 types of Invacare homefill tubing, straight, and a thinner curled tubing. For our experiment we used the thinner curled tubing as I simply could not find enough brass T-Vales in the diameter of the Invacare straight tubing.

Make sure you clean your brass T, and wash your tubing in simple green or something similar to remove any oil. ...Best practices you know!

I'll include some picture of our rig as we have it.
If currently have a homefill set up, you may look to soup it up a bit by adding another concentrator.

Cheers!

[OxygenTech]

So, H tank filled in 15 hours.

[quix]

Right on, digging the experimentation. I dunno if the info helps but I am running 2 homefills of of a single 20psi 8lpm airsep newlife intensity. To run the system I disconnect the oxycon from the compressors and power them all on for about 10 minutes to let them all warm up. Once they are warm I connect the hose from the oxycon to the compressors and both compressors kick on and start filling 2 K tanks. I am not sure how long it takes to fill as I just turn the system on when I start working and turn it off or leave it over night depending on how much oxy was used. There is a CC and a Phantom utilizing the oxy in my shop.

[OxygenTech]

That's great information, thanks for sharing. I'm going to be experimenting with all the concentrators I have now. I like that the Newlife is not causing you a problem when your attached to the oxygen port. The Invacare 5lx's don't like when pressure builds up too much, they beep and shut down. I just got off the phone with another glass blower and I'm going to try an inline 20 psi relief valve to see what else I may be able to get working. It would be great to run a single 10 LPM concentrator at only 10 amps and quickly fill a tank. Results to be posted later.

[OxygenTech]

Anyone with experience using an AirSep 8 LPM machine @ 20 psi to fill a homefill? That is where we are headed now as far as experiment. If someone already has it finished, and can share your design, that would be great.

[CripSkillz]

Yo Oxy Tech I neeed bearings bad ASAP can you help??// all 3 center bearings main crank shaft fo shooo,, the r6 groved top bearing also ,, and bottom if ya have it ,, ,, im outa commish for bit,,, locked up on friday,,,now im just sittn round smokin.. prob link up 3 or 4 of these oxy cons till i get parts..

thx CriP

oh ya I been T'ed off 2 5lpm invis runnin 3.5 lpm ea,, was workin great doooooh

[OxygenTech]

OK, where are you located?
I can probably get you parts from a junk unit.
PM me.

[CripSkillz]

Awesome thx u and I'm in Slo county like 4 he's north of you... pm now...

[PhantomCoral]

How much do you sell individual whips for?

[dukerussell]

Do you still have any homefill stations left? I am really interested in buying one if you still have some or know where to get a decently priced one

[istandalone24/7]

Instead of resurrecting a 1.5 year old thread, i'd start here if i were you:

http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showt...fills-for-sale

[Cheyetalkglass]

Do you still have these available?

[OxygenTech]

Do you still have these available?

I do, they are just more expensive, now.

IN demand for healthcare.

[perrlywites]

How much is a complete set including the whip cost shipped? very interested.

[PyroChixRock]

I'm not sure if we started the vendor badge thing before this thread or after, but looks like you'll need one if you want to offer these to people here. It's easy, just pm me info customers would need to contact you outside the forum. Name, phone number, address, email, websites if you have them. thanks

[OxygenTech]

I'm not sure if we started the vendor badge thing before this thread or after, but looks like you'll need one if you want to offer these to people here. It's easy, just pm me info customers would need to contact you outside the forum. Name, phone number, address, email, websites if you have them. thanks

depends on how many total you would want.
A 2 concentrator to one homefill is good.
a 3 concentrator to 2 homefills is best.

Low hour and or refurbished concentrators (new sieve beds, new compressor valves, and new 4 way valve)

are $500 each

Homefill units are $850.

Whip is $100

shipping is my cost, which is for the most part cheap, as i ship a lot.