Tag Archives: CS3

Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

The GX CS4 Compressor Isn’t Replacing the CS3 Models – The CS4 Is For People Who Need to Fill 6.8L Tanks Or Need More Air In General

A fellow asked me that if the GX CS4 high pressure air compressor is an upgrade then why are both the CS3 models (the one with the external 12 volt power supply and the one with an internal integrated supply) still being sold on Amazon. I explained in my email back to him that the CS4 does have a longer run time and a faster fill rate but it’s not a replacement. I figured I better expand on the email because if one person is wondering then others are as well – the models are for people with different needs and budgets.

The CS3 series will work great for anyone filling either a small airtank like my 18 cu ft Omega, or an airgun directly. It’s light and portable so you can do that no problem. The limiting factor is that it is air cooled and has a 20 minute duty cycle after which it needs to cool down. I bought mine in November of 2020 and used it right up until I bought my CS4 in January 2023 and I am certain one reason it held up so well is that I would never run it for more than 20 minutes. If I was filling something that took more than that, I would run it for 20 minutes and then let it cool down. It could top off my Hatsan Gladius or FX Impact Compact Mk.II in far less time than that – it was filling/refilling the Omega bottle that took longer.

The CS4 notably has a water/fluid cooling, the ability to add grease every 4-6 hours of run time, a more powerful motor, a faster fill rate and the ability to compress air up to 400 bar (5,801 psi) and a detachable air line. Yes, it does reflect a lot of lessons learned by GX but it’s not a replacement of the CS3 – the CS3 is still there for folks who want a smaller and lighter unit that is more portable and aren’t filling bigger tanks.

I bought the CS4 because I am getting into some airguns that use a lot of air – a Gauntlet .30 and a Leshiy 2 in .22 so I bought a 6.8L Air Marksman carbon fiber tank. You may be wondering how is a .22 an air hog – well, it gets 28 semi-auto shots and then needs to be topped back off and it’s onboard reservoir is rated at 300 bar. I can fill it one time from the big bottle and then the bottle is close to 250 bar plus I plan on buying the bigger optional air cylinder for the Leshiy.

My point is that all of these were going to require the air pump routinely running longer than the recommended 20 minute duty cycle so I really needed to make the move.

In short, the CS3 is for folks who need a compressor to fill and airgun directly or small bottles plus save a little money. The CS4 does have newer technology and is for users who want to fill airguns directly plus have a long enough duty cycle to fill up to a 6.8 liter tank. I bet it could do bigger as long as you honored the remarkably long 5 hour duty cycle of the CS4 but I’ve not used it enough to say that. The CS4 is more expensive than the CS3.

Here are posts I have written about the CS3:

Here are posts I have written about the CS4:

Here are photos of the units side by side:

The CS4 is the larger compressor
You can see how the CS3 on the left has an attached air line vs. the CS4 that has a Foster quick connect for r aremovable air line.
CS3 is air cooled. You can see the large fluid filled finned cooling jacket on the CS4 through the vent holes.
CS4 weighs 29 pounds
CS3 weighs 19.4 pounds
When I bought the CS3 they did not have the integrated power supply model. I would have gone with the external supply regardless as you can hook your compressor up to a vehicle if you need to refill something in the field or at the range. On the other hand, the integrated model is even more portable as you don’t have to move the 12 volt adapter around.

Summary

I had to buy these compressors with my own money and these posts were not paid for – I want to be clear about that. My experiences with both the CS3 and the CS4 have been very positive and I have no reservations recommending either to you.

Oh – also – a guy emailed me the other day asking me about the GX CS2 and I had to tell him that I do not have any experience with that model. Folks, I only have these two. Before the CS3 I had a Hill Mk. IV hand pump – the Hill was excellent but that’s the limit of my high pressure air compressor experience. I am a licensed SCUBA diver but always bought my air at a dive shop so I had a little knowledge from that plus many, many years of industrial and shop pneumatic work but that was only up to 175 PSI.

Here are the GX compressors from the CS4 down to the CS1

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

Finally, An Affordable And Reliable 4500 PSI Air Compressor For PCP Airguns! The GX CS3

Folks, I think Pre-Charged Pneumatic (PCP) airguns are awesome. They have an onboard high-pressure cylinder that holds enough air to shoot a certain number of rounds before needing to be recharged. After years of having your basic pneumatic and spring-piston air rifles, I bought my first PCP, a Hatsan Gladius Long in .22, back in May of 2017 and a Hill Mk IV hand pump. In this post I want to recap what your options are and then talk about move into the world of having my own compressor.

You Have Three Options To Fill PCP Airguns

To fill a PCP airgun, you have three options: own a hand pump, have an air cylinder or own a compressor. For almost three and a half years, I’ve used a Hill Mk IV hand pump to top off the Gladius and it has worked well. These pumps are like an old fashioned bike tire pump on serious steroids as they can enable you to fill a cylinder with thousands of pounds of air pressure. By the way, the secret to longevity with a hand pump is to keep the shaft lubricated to protect the O-rings with silicone grease and to not overheat parts if you are doing a lot of pumping.

The second option is to have an air tank that you would take to your local dive shop and have them fill it to 3,000 to 4,500 pounds. You would then use this to top off your airgun until it too was low and you’d go back to the dive shop to get the tank refilled. We do have a dive shop in the area but this never appealed to me because I didn’t shoot enough to need a tank vs. the hand pump. I also figured that I could use the hand pump any time day or night as needed. You can only refill an air tank if the dive shop is open or you own your own compressor.

Now, this brings us to the third option and that is to own a high pressure air (HPA) compressor. These are not what you get for a garage and air tools – those only go to 175-200 pounds. With PCP airguns, you are talking 3,000-4,500 PSI depending on the rating of the tank or airgun you are filling. What stopped many people for years was that these HPA compressors were a fortune and then crossed below $1,000 a few years ago and now you can see inexpensive units from China that are below $400 but they require water cooling, lubrication, and don’t always get good reviews (some do though).

In many cases, you get what you pay for. The decent HPA compressors start at $800 and go up from there. In 2019, I ran across an HPA compressor on Amazon that I had not heard about before – the manufacturer was Ankul and the model was the GX CS3 compressor. The price was around $500 and it was getting good reviews. At the time, I didn’t really need it so I added it to be “Save For Later” list in Amazon just in case.

Maybe 3-4 times since then, I would open up the listing and read the reviews. You know what? The reviews stayed solid over time. Ankul released an updated model that was air cooled – no more water to deal with – and it was self-lubricated and didn’t need the user to add oil or grease. What’s more, the reviews stayed positive – it scores a 4.6 out of 5 with 196 reviews. That’s pretty good. So guess what? I bought one.

Please note that I paid full price for the compressor. This was not a paid review and I’ve never been contacted by the seller. This is my honest opinion based on my experience with the compressor – I will get a small commission if you actually order one of Amazon but that’s it.

Introducing the GX GS3 PCP Air Compressor

Okay, there are a bunch of reasons why I bought this compressor in addition to the reviews and $499.99 price on Amazon:

  • It can pressurize a cylinder to 4500 PSI
  • It can run off house current with the supplied inverter or it can clamp to a 12 volt vehicle battery
  • There is an automatic-off switch where you can set the pressure via a dial and when it reaches it, the unit shuts off. This gauge is labeled both with PSI and BAR increments.
  • It has an integral filter for oil and water
  • There are three over pressure safeties – the user sets the pressure on the dial plus there is both a safety valve and a burst disc to help prevent a catastrophe.
  • They claimed the unit ran fairly quietly at 75 decibels (this puts it somewhere between average street noise or being in a shower at 70 db and city traffic or a vacuum cleaner being at 80)
  • The unit is maintenance free – no water/antifreeze to deal with or oil or grease to add.
  • The design was elegant with a spool on the side to hold the power cable, the high pressure hose could rotate and there was a carry handle
  • The pump unit measures 10-3/4″ tall, 5-1/8″ wide and just under 9-1/2″ deep — it’s remarkably small – most of my laptop computer bags are bigger and these measures are based on my unit.
  • The duty cycle is 30 minutes run-time and then 20 minutes to cool
  • The unit only weighs 19 pounds 6 oz (I weighed my pump unit)
  • The AC adapter is separate and measures about 8.85″ long x 4.52″ wide x 2.36″ tall and weighs 1 pound 14 oz with the cord.

Click here to see the compressor on Amazon.

2/8/23 Update: GX is really taking the affordable PCP high pressure compressor market seriously. The CS3 model, that this blog post is about, is aimed at 1.5 Liter and smaller air cylinders. They now have a CS4 aimed at tanks up to 6.8 Liters (I now have a CS4 and really like it) and they even have smaller and larger capacity units. By doing this, they are giving you a bunch of selections that you can choose from given the air capacity you need and your budget. Click here for the GX lineup on Amazon.com.

Unboxing it

I ordered the unit on a Monday and it was delivered five days later on Saturday by UPS. The pump and power adapter were packed together in one amazingly well packed box. How often do you here somebody comment on a box? This thing was made from thick cardboard and was practically like opening a wood crate and inside was thick foam cushions protecting the air pump and power adapter from all angles.

I had removed the upper right corner reinforcement already when it dawned on me I better take a quick photo. Tip: Just remove the corner braces and the end cap will slide off. You do not need to disassemble the whole box.
I don’t know who the packaging engineer was but he needs some serious recognition, a beer or both. It was one of the best packed tools that I have seen in a long time. It’s no wonder that my unit arrived in great shape.
Here’s a quick photo of the unit out of the box. Everything was in great shape.
This is the 12 volt power adapter. It’s very straight forward – plug it in and it is running and the fan keeps it cool.

Video Of It Running

I’m going to put this video both here and in the set up blog post. Today, I recorded a quick video as I topped off my tank today – January 7, 2022. It ran for about 20 minutes as I took that tank from about 3,000 to 4,500 PSI.

When done, I let the unit’s fan run for about 10 minutes until the air coming out was cool again. Since the unit is air cooled, give it time for the fan to do just that. I also bled off the unit to replace air pressure and get rid of any condensation.

Note the odd double filter rig I am running in the video – that’s just because the double-male Foster fitting will not seat all the way in the big filter’s female fitting. I need to replace it with an Air Venturi brand fitting some day when I have time.

Safety comment: Never try to force fittings apart after a fill. Most likely there is high pressure air that needs to be bled out of the lines. With that big inline filter, the output side from it to the tank stays under pressure so I need to bleed down both the compressor and tank sides before I can safely disconnect the various fittings. Just remember to think things through carefully before you force a fitting off – high pressure air dangerous.

Conclusion

https://blog.roninsgrips.com/setting-up-and-testing-the-gx-cs3-pcp-air-compressor/The unit arrived in great shape and as described. In the next post, I’ll review how to set up, test and use the unit. Again, here’s the link on Amazon and I will jump ahead a bit and tell you that I recommend the unit based on my experience with it so far:

Here are the GX compressors from the CS4 down to the CS1

2/4/23 – GX has released the CS4. The CS3 is aimed at 1.5L and smaller cylinders. The CS4 can handle 6.8L cylinders as it is water cooled. You have two options now. Click here for a new blog post about the CS4.

9/15/2022 Update: They now also have a version of the compressor, the CS3-I, that includes the 120 volt AC power unit inside the compressor. It’s getting good reviews so far – the only thing that is different is there integrating the AC power into the unit.

01/07/2022 Update: Just topped off my tank. Still working just fine. Added a video above so folks can see and hear it run.

10/23/2021 Update: Still no problems. I’m very happy with this purchase. So you know, at this point I am using 1-2x per month to refill my Omega bottle. I’m not shooting as much as I was earlier this summer.

3/4/2021 Update: Still no problems at all. I use my Omega 18 cu ft air tank to top of the FX Compact Impact until it gets down and then I use the GX GS3 to top the bottle back off. I’m really pleased with how this has worked out.

2/2/2021 Update: The compressor is still working great. No problems at all!

2/4/2023 Update: Still working just fine!

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Here are some well rated hand pumps on Amazon. While I do not have personal experience with them, they do get good reviews: