Diving Compressors

[maverick4440]

Being new to underwater detecting this is probably a dumb question but why cant You use a regular compressor such as a devilbiss nail gun compressor that is used on job sites to power nail guns as Your air source to the regulator? I see the "Hookah" compressors advertized for diving and can run a small devilbiss compressor from my 110 volt inverter and get plenty of air.
I am just curious if there is some reason (maybe health related) why this air would not be useable for diving. It seems to me air is air and as long as it is able to reach Your regulator mouthpiece it should be the same. Can anyone clue Me in as to why this would not work? The Devilbiss is a simple diaphram type compressor and doesn't have any contaminants in it as far as I know.
Thanks

 

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[Colorado Bob]

4440,
Maybe I can help a little. The compressors that you use for diving need to put out some really clean air. A lot of the compressors you see in the shops put out contaminated air, dust, dirt and the air from some are contaminated with an oil residue as well as particles from wear. We used the T-80 on our small dredge [5"] and a 263 on the 8" dredge. The T-80 works from a filtered diaphragm, and the 263 even has a Teflon piston in it, so its super clean. The other thing you have to watch out for is the volume of air. We dont care how much pressure you have, it wont help if you don't have volume. Most of these things work at 40 to 45 PSI. Example: T-80 at1800 RPM gave me about 1.8 CFM or cubic feet per minute, this is good for one diver, two if neither of you breath very hard, on the other hand the 263 at 1450 RPM gives me about 6CFM and I have had three divers on it and it never failed on air supply for all three. Don't know what it takes to turn the 263. We didn't really care how much power it took because we had it mounted on a 1600 VW engine. The T-80 was on the five inch dredge which was powered be a 9 hp Honda w/P350 pump rated at around 450 gal.. per minute. The pump on my big dredge was a P1500V and would pump around 1400 gal. per min.. Had lots of power. Hope this helps some. BOB