Recommended portable oxygen systems

[RobertGary1]

15 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

As long as they use oxygen instead of “air”.  Typical scuba tanks are not 100% oxygen, they are air.  Specialty shops likely have all the more “exotic” scuba gasses.

I fill at a scuba shop. Oxygen is more common that you'd think. Its used for technical dives but also to drive nitrogen out of "air". So they they're enriching the air. In any case to put air in an O2 tank would take a very special adaptor that hopefully is kept under lock and key. I fill for $30 at the scuba shop vs $180 at the airport.

[Aerodon]

I have multiple systems accumulated over the years.  My go to system is the Mountain High O2D2, either plugged into the airplanes bottle or a portable system.  I really like the slight noise of the pulse system telling me it is working.  

I would recommend a second 2 place system for the times when you might have back seat passengers.  Younger people can manage fine up to 12,000 without O2, I think you will be shocked at how low the O2 saturation is for older people at 10 or 12k.  For that reason I would get a portable oximeter and educate you passengers on unit it and the O2 system as required.

You and your copilot use the O2D2 system, and in a pinch you take the bottle from the rear system.

Aerodon

 

 

 

 

[RobertGary1]

4 minutes ago, Aerodon said:

I have multiple systems accumulated over the years.  My go to system is the Mountain High O2D2, either plugged into the airplanes bottle or a portable system.  I really like the slight noise of the pulse system telling me it is working.  

I would recommend a second 2 place system for the times when you might have back seat passengers.  Younger people can manage fine up to 12,000 without O2, I think you will be shocked at how low the O2 saturation is for older people at 10 or 12k.  For that reason I would get a portable oximeter and educate you passengers on unit it and the O2 system as required.

You and your copilot use the O2D2 system, and in a pinch you take the bottle from the rear system.

Aerodon

 

 

 

 

Why not just a 4 place? My Aerox system has 4 ports but I don't always use them all. But it doesn't take any more room.

[ArtVandelay]

I fill at a scuba shop. Oxygen is more common that you'd think. Its used for technical dives but also to drive nitrogen out of "air". So they they're enriching the air. In any case to put air in an O2 tank would take a very special adaptor that hopefully is kept under lock and key. I fill for $30 at the scuba shop vs $180 at the airport.

This, although they may say they can’t do it because of the connection needed, it’s not a scuba standard I guess. Maybe someone here with experience can expand on that. Anyhow the shop I go to was able to do it by directly connecting or bypassing scuba connection.

[Aerodon]

It's no fun having oxygen tubes and headset cables all over the cabin.   

If you have 1 bottle, you are forever filling a half or 3/4 full bottle.  With two bottles you have a backup system as well as been able to use one bottle to empty (500psi) every time.

For me, it's a safety issue.

 

Aerrodon

[Aerodon]

24 minutes ago, RobertGary1 said:

I fill at a scuba shop. Oxygen is more common that you'd think. Its used for technical dives but also to drive nitrogen out of "air". So they they're enriching the air. In any case to put air in an O2 tank would take a very special adaptor that hopefully is kept under lock and key. I fill for $30 at the scuba shop vs $180 at the airport.

For sure I would want to witness the filling at a scuba shop to make sure its O2.

[jaylw314]

39 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

This, although they may say they can’t do it because of the connection needed, it’s not a scuba standard I guess. Maybe someone here with experience can expand on that. Anyhow the shop I go to was able to do it by directly connecting or bypassing scuba connection.

If you buy a new O2 cylinder, get one with a CGA540 valve, not the medical post valve.  Welding shops are more likely to have that fitting, the regulators are more compact than the medical ones, and I think the connection is more robust than the post-type valves.

40 minutes ago, Aerodon said:

It's no fun having oxygen tubes and headset cables all over the cabin.   

If you have 1 bottle, you are forever filling a half or 3/4 full bottle.  With two bottles you have a backup system as well as been able to use one bottle to empty (500psi) every time.

For me, it's a safety issue.

 

Aerrodon

I just keep two full bottles all the time.  The welding shop fills each D cylinder for about $12.50, so I don't feel bad about wasting half a bottle of O2.  I don't go into the flight levels, so I figure there's plenty of time to disconnect the empty bottle and connect the full one if needed, but I haven't used anywhere near a full bottle with two people in one flight.

If I were in the flight levels, I'd want two regulators feeding into one system, but in all honesty, if I were in the flight levels I probably wouldn't depend on a DYI O2 system.

[RobertGary1]

1 hour ago, Aerodon said:

For sure I would want to witness the filling at a scuba shop to make sure its O2.

Pretty simple to test for O2

[RobertGary1]

1 hour ago, Aerodon said:

It's no fun having oxygen tubes and headset cables all over the cabin.   

If you have 1 bottle, you are forever filling a half or 3/4 full bottle.  With two bottles you have a backup system as well as been able to use one bottle to empty (500psi) every time.

For me, it's a safety issue.

 

Aerrodon

I'm not following. If I'm by myself I just bring one O2 cannula and my regulator just has 3 empty ports. 

Having to lug around 2 bottles seems like much less fun than just having some unused ports on my regulator.