Tank Regulators

[Roger7pball]

A local friend asked me to run all his tank regulators across my reg tester. I used to do recharge compares for a manufacturer and had all the wiring just sitting in a box.

I could put together a spreadsheet of pressure drops, slope of recharge, time back to target pressure, etc but I don’t think it’s really needed. If anyone does want a different plot let me know.

All the regulators were run the same day on the same AKA Viking at 10.5 balls per second. The focus is on the pressure at the point each shot is fired and how close it is to the set pressure (we targeted 500 psi but applied a gain to those regulators not set exactly to 500).

Long story short - the regulators perform pretty closely to each other (~20 psi variance initially) and any difference will likely get mopped up by the marker’s HPR. His 2 Ninja regs do seem to creep from target and one has a large pressure drop at each shot but maybe they need more breaking in.

[Tracker]

i always love these charts... perhaps change one of those first 2 to red? those colors are too close to one another to tell apart easily

[Roger7pball]

Yep, can do.

[nerdcore]

Which Ninja reg is the orange line? Their standard reg? That V2 looks significantly better, it seems (within the graphed relationship). And the CP has the best drop-to-recharge ratio?

[Roger7pball]

Which Ninja reg is the orange line? Their standard reg? That V2 looks significantly better, it seems (within the graphed relationship). And the CP has the best drop-to-recharge ratio?

It’s the regulator all the way on the left, HK Aerolite2. Says powered by Ninja on the reg so I just referred to it as NinjaHK. It was nearly new so my guess is it needs to be broken in.

The CP performed great, their HPRs I have tested do great as well.

[Jonnydread]

This is great, thanks for doing that and sharing. I've always thought CP stuff seemed to perform outside of their lower price range and it's nice to see that backed up with SCIENCE.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Agreed CP makes great stuff! There tank regs are no exception. I purchased one of there bottles years ago and the thing gave me many years of service. The only thing I didn’t like was the nipple filter it was to slow when playing Xball. I removed mine and just maintained it more. But CP stood by there products 100%. Had amazing CS use to see them all the time at National events. I used that tank reg for many years and it performed flawlessly. Even their HPR are great I just don’t particularly like the look of them with the bottom fitting location.

[Roger7pball]

My friend picked up one of those $35 HK tank regs. 450-550 psi output model. Being so cheap I had no idea what to expect. The pressure drop each shot is the worst but it does the best to get back to target pressure. Interesting, maybe their piston moves more quickly.

[Super Nova]

I was wanting to get one of those HK MP5 tank regs to use with my G6R, sounds like a nice cheap reg.

[Roger7pball]

From what I have seen you should have no issue going with one. I can’t believe how cheap they can sell them for once you take into account a gauge, fill nipple, a couple burst discs, etc on top of machining & anodizing the regulator itself.

[mueller]

To those wondering how the HK regulator can be viable at 40 bucks --- you can get basic regs from china at $17-18 all day, retail.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805402147966.html

I've used a few of these, they're consistent with your base PE-style reg designs and do the job --- though I always disassembled & inspected first. I expect the HK reg is similar if not the exact same base, with a different bonnet and the small gauge.

I'd love to see one of these tested.
Great data by the way, thanks for your service

[Roger7pball]

The Powerhouse Counterpunch added to the mix. Seems to be the best so far for keeping pressure up, but big picture any tank reg will work just fine.

[Johnson]

Would you be willing to share information about the setup and measurement equipment therein? I work in measurement so I get jazzed on that stuff.

[Roger7pball]

Would you be willing to share information about the setup and measurement equipment therein? I work in measurement so I get jazzed on that stuff.

Yeah no problem.

• DI1100 DataQ Logger
• 200 psi transducer for LPRs
• 500 psi transducer for HPRs
• 1000 psi transducer for Tank Output Pressure
• 5000 psi transducer for In Tank Pressure

I’ve tested regulator recharges rates for some manufacturers and marker efficiencies using the tank pressure drop for each shot.

[docfire]

Nice to see someone else doing this testing. Keep in mind on tank regs testing the size of the tank matters. When i first did the testing i used a scuba tank with a yoke and bottle adapter. This yielded the CP have the the best resonance time of 13ms. but when i changed to a 68cu that all changed. Although, the CP preformed the best over all the Ninja was the its the win for price to performance. But all worked well enough to not notice a difference in shot FPS as the second reg was the buffer.

[Roger7pball]

All the testing I’ve done is on 68 ci tanks. Wish I had a scuba tank.

[Trbo323]

Have you ever tested two separate identical regulators? I'm curious what kind of a statistical variance we should expect just from two different but supposedly identical regs

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[Grendel]

While testing two identical regulators would be interesting, it would not be a statistically significant sample. For 95% confidence with a 5% margin of error and 100 regulators, you would have to sample 80 of them. A sample of 2 may be interesting, but it would not yield useful information.

[Roger7pball]

Have you ever tested two separate identical regulators? I'm curious what kind of a statistical variance we should expect just from two different but supposedly identical regs

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That’s a good shout, I may have data from 2 identical regs but would have to look. Maybe I’ll do a test to confirm consistency of reg design and the test bed.

[RPP]

I love this stuff. Keep the charts coming!

[uv_halo]

Awesome work!!