CO2 tanks for filling bottles

[Cyberpyr8]

I was fortunate enough to get about 20 CO2 tanks and some Tippmann rentals from an old field that had closed. I want to use these for a game we are doing in a month on kind of an outlaw field. I have the 98's and Cronuses to use and thought it would be easier than trying to run scuba tanks for HPA. So a couple of questions about CO2. First, can I just rent a large tank to fill these and second, what do I need to use to fill bottles? Is there a resource somewhere that lays it all out?

I used CO2 but it's been years ago and way before I ran a field and had any idea how it all worked. This is a one time event (maybe more but for now, I'm planning one time). So renting a tank would be better. I also picked up some fill equipment but I don't know what I need or even if what I have will work. But I just want to start with the basics of what is needed and I can then see if I already have anything else I might need. But I vaguely remember a church event I went to years ago where they had a big CO2 tank and we all used that to refill tanks. That's what I'm hoping to get.

Also, any idea how much a CO2 bottle would cost? Just trying to see if this is going to be feasible for this non-profit event. I might be able to get a few scuba tanks for free (less the fills) to do what I need but I don't have enough HPA tanks for that.

[WALZ]

You can rent a 50lb siphon tank from your local welding supply shop for around 60.00 - 100.00 bucks a year...
i think new ones cost around 500.00 now...

[Cyberpyr8]

That's great! Thanks

[Drcemento]

renting a big C02 tank is the right way to go. you need one with a "dip tube" to draw the liquid Co2 from the bottom of the big tank to fill your tanks. any good gas supplier will know what you need
you need a fill station with a fish scale for weight
assuming they are all currently hydro'd or 7-9 oz tanks .......

it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. that said do not take it for granted and be aware you can end up with bottle rocket if you are not careful. with old tanks you really want to check out the valves and make sure the pin moves in and out freely, and remove and check the burst disk on the side of the valve and make sure the thin copper disc is intact. make sure none of the valves are loose on the tanks (look for an aligment paint stripe or mark between the valve and the tank body) if you can's find one paint one on - that way you can visibly see if the valve is coming loose. check for any damage to the tank itself and discard them if there is!!!

cooling the tanks in the freezer makes them mush easier to fill. if the tank is room temp or warm you have to put about 4oz of co2 into the tank and then empty it - you will see the tank get cold, then you can fill it - this can all be done with it connected to the fill station

there are plenty of good videos on youtube showing the proper procedure for filling.

[Cyberpyr8]

Thanks for the details. The good news is we will only play a few games so the tanks need just enough to shoot a hopper through. I will look it up on Youtube to see what I need to do. We'll go this route. That will be a great way to accomplish what we're trying to do.

[Tracker]

like everyone has said, siphon tube bulk tank

or you gotta figure out how to safely invert the tank.. and thats a lot harder

[Cyberpyr8]

I found a local supplier (NexAir) of CO2 siphon tanks and it's $25 a month or $137 for the year. I'll probably do the year rental since it's much cheaper, but now I need to find the fill station. I found this one on Amazon. Is this what I want or is there a better solution?

https://www.amazon.com/MAddog-MD-2050-CO2DUALFILL-Paintball-Fill-Station/dp/B06VWGG51F

[SignOfZeta]

What everyone else said…AND, you need a QUALITY scale and some training. CO2 tables filled carelessly explode or at least blow burst discs. It’s not just a fill up and go situation like HPA.

[DocsMachine]

Y'know, I'm sure it kind of dates me, but I recall reading, on boards just like this one, and it seems not all that long ago, about how to fill HPA.

I remember watching players, in the early days of screw-in HPA tanks, still unscrewing them to hand to the tech to fill.

Doc.

[Mr. Hick]

I'm very guilty of unscrewing my tank when I first got HPA. very guilty.

[Seajay]

What everyone else said…AND, you need a QUALITY scale and some training. CO2 tables filled carelessly explode or at least blow burst discs. It’s not just a fill up and go situation like HPA.

I've been happily impressed with most players picking the correct fill station... and stations either being 3k or up to 4500. I've had burst discs fail, but have yet to see some unfortunate soul hit a 4500 fill on a 3k tank.

Slam fills still scare me a little.

[DocsMachine]

Slam fills still scare me a little.

-I was given to understand that most of the 'tourney grade' pushbutton type fill stations had restrictors to slow down the flow somewhat.

Doc.

[punkncat]

It's pretty easy to fill and such. Make sure you store the tank in the shade or under a cover of some type. I have used a fish scale from wally world to measure fill.

I HIGHLY suggest that you get some leather work gloves to use as you learn to do this. A small mistake can cause serious cold burn.

[Cyberpyr8]

Thank you all for your help and input. I was able to fill the bottles and it allowed us to play several games. The CO2 saved the day and allowed each group of boys to play best of 3 games, a championship for the 2 winning teams and a grand finale against some of the adult leaders(around 10 games were played with everyone). In total we had 17 young men that played paintball for the first time (plus a few adults). When you asked them all about their favorite part of the weekend (and we did a lot) the first one on the list was paintball.

For future reference, the youtube instructions worked pretty well. I figured out how much a full bottle should weigh and was able to tell which ones needed to be filled. I definitely see why fields went to compressed air for fills. It's just a process to get them all filled.

This has been a dream for me to let this happen for over 3 years now. The guy that runs the property and is big into foster care support through many avenues, came to me and asked if they could do paintball out there. Since then, we have had a compressor (works but we don't have all the components to use it), a speedball field and enough money to buy 8 full setups plus about 30+ masks. Now with the CO2 option for fills, we can really run paintball out there like a real field. I was given 8 rental Tippmann 98's but they are all in really rough shape. But if I can get 3-4 of them working we can do decent sized games out there and allow kids that have never been exposed to the sport play.

[grendal50]

There's little reason you shouldn't be able to get all 8 ex-rentals running again. Aside from physical damage inside the clamshells 98's are very robust and most, if not all parts are still available from sites such as tippmannparts.com and ansgear.com.

[Cyberpyr8]

Yeah I hope to get them all working at some point. But they are a pain to fix, very time consuming. Time is the one thing I don't have a lot of.

[grendal50]

That's the only thing I don't like about the Tippmann platform, the clamshell design is time consuming. If I was closer I could donate time lol, that's one thing I have.