Compact battery for 3M AirStream or BreatheEasy respirators

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wow! The Darth Vader of AirStreams... looks cool but now you have something else to dust!!

Nice work!

[Joe Vincent 63]

Alan,

The black helmets look sharp. Like the color much better than the white.

Joe

[Grant Wilkinson]

I love the black, Alan. Mine is a beat up red colour. You've given me ideas. In a previous post, you mentioned using a BreathEasy as a tethered unit. I have an older BreathEasy, using the belt mounted filters and a home-made battery/holder. When you went with a longer hose to make the tethered unit, did you need to increase the blower size? I'm thinking that pushing air through a much longer hose would require more oomph.

[Alan Zenreich]

Grant,

I don't have a closeup photo handy of the HEPA filter mounted on my wall, but this photo of one of my sons might give you an idea of the setup

There is a length of clear 2.5" hose going from the beige HEPA room filter, to a sliding curtain track on the shop ceiling (this take the weight off of the hose), so the hose can slide the length of the room. That hose ends in a swivel connector (so no tangled hose), and attaches via a reducer (seen taped in green) to a lightweight six foot 1.25" shopvac hose that in turn inserts conveniently into the ribbed BreatheEasy hose.

The nice thing about this setup is that it's very lightweight and quiet. With the powerful blower being a few feet away, the airflow is very adjustable.

I do tend to tweak equipment, eh?

[Grant Wilkinson]

Tks much, Alan. In another forum, you mentioned Eugen Schlaak, and I found and wrote to him. He was kind enough to provide great pics on how he did his. The nice part about your mod and his is that I don't need to hack away any bits from the helmet. So, if I don't like it, I'm only out the cost of a room hepa unit. I have lots of hose pieces kicking around.

[Alan Zenreich]

Grant,

One thing I added, that I had not seen or may have missed in Eugen's setup is a swivel adaptor. This keeps the hose from getting twisted as you move around.
I also found that using 2.5" hose for the first part of the run was helpful... and facilitated getting a swivel adapter. I don't recall where I purchased the adapter, I'll have to dig up the details... but it made all the difference in my setup.

You are right though... it's trivial to move the BreatheEasy helmet from the room HEPA filter to its normal belt mounted filter/blower.

[Alan Zenreich]

I found the swivel adaptor information... it's a Rockler item

[Grant Wilkinson]

Tks much, Alan. I'm scoping out Hepa room air cleaners now.

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Late to the game here, found this on a search. This is great info, thanks for posting. I have the older style airstream when it was owned by Racal. It has the back pack blower and battery rather than all built into the helmet like yours, Alan. It's about 20 years old and the helmet is showing it's age. The straps, foam inserts, of course, tyvek are literally falling apart. Does anyone know where I can source out some parts for it? I've tried Googling to no avail.

PS Testing the waters: On Ebay I happened on a 3 backpack assemblies/ belts with motor excluding the battery and filter. If anyones interested in those I can sell 2 as I only need 1. They are like new.
Airmate.jpg

[Chris Cartier]

Sorry for bringing back an old thread, but I've been trying to find a USB battery pack that will power my AirStream. I've tried 3 different brands so far, and none seem to work.

http://www.amazon.ca/Anker-13000mAh-...=anker+battery

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00T...ilpage_o04_s00

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00M...ilpage_o04_s00

The battery mentioned in the video is no longer available. I can get the fan to power on when I hook it up to an AC USB wall charger, so I'm not sure what is stopping the battery packs from starting the fan.

I'm currently using a 4AA battery pack with 3.5mm audio connectors to hook it up to the helmet.

Please let me know if you have found a current pack that will work.

[Doug Bartos]

Hi Chris,

I have an Anker 16000 that I have to press the On button a bunch of times to get it to turn on. The one that I like the best is the RavPower 10400 that I bought around Christmas for $19. It's $15 now. Thanks again to Alan, this has worked great for me.

Doug

[Grant Wilkinson]

chris: I have 2 Jockery units that work very well. I got them on sale some time ago on Amazon. I see now that Amazon Canada has an Aukey 12000 mAh unit on sale for $20 Canadian, down from $80. I may well get one at that price, but I need to do a bit of research first.

Two things I've found you need to look for. The unit needs to have an off and on switch. Many of the units have electronics that turn them on when they sense that a battery is trying to draw from them. This happens if you are using them to charge a cell phone, for example. However, these units will not turn on when they are connected to our motors. The second thing is that the unit must accept a draw of 2 amps at least. The first couple of Tekkeon units I bought had to go back as they would only take a draw of a little over an amp. The Jockery units that I have now will take 2.1 amps and that works well.

[Chris Cartier]

Thanks Grant and Doug for your replies.

I am going to go ahead and order the RavPower 10400. I still have the Anker 12000 packs I ordered, I kept them just to charge my phone on the go, I will try to get it to work by pushing the on button a bunch.

I couldn't find any Jockery packs, but I did find Jackery packs is that what you meant? I think I'll order one too and the Aukey packs looks very nice, I'll probably get one of them also. One thing I love about Amazon is how easy it is to return something if it doesn't work as intended.

I will return with results from these 3 new batteries, and yes thanks again to Alan for starting this thread in the first place. I have never had to buy or use the stock battery thanks to him!

EDIT: Just purchased a RavPower 10400, and an Aukey 12000mAh pack. They were $25Cnd each, the Jackery pack was $35 for only 6000mAh so I decided to pass on it. Crossing my fingers.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Chris: Yes, I did mean Jackery. They are back up to regular price now, though. I received the Aukey while I was away last week. It is quite large, so I'm still deciding if it is a keeper.

[Chris Cartier]

Grant, I would love to know if the Aukey pack works well or not, the weight listed on Amazon for the Aukey is less than the Anker packs I have, so if the Aukey packs work I'll be a happy camper.