Recertification of aged-out CF tanks beyond 15yrs

[lhamilton1807]

PCP gun users utilize SCBA tanks for their guns, and the tanks are essentially the same thing as our CF wrapped tanks, just bigger. I don’t own an “air gun” but I did find this when googling about refilling CF tanks at home with Yong Heng compressors.

https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/scba-cylinders-service-life-extension.178477/

Looks like in the US there’s a provisional license to a company to recertify CF tanks beyond the default 15 years by doing a more thorough test (i.e using sensitive microphones and specialized software to detect fiber delaminations when pressurizing the tanks). The article referenced describes a company (Digital Wave) that has since become Hexagon Digital Wave since it was written. I emailed them about recertifying aged-out CF paintball tanks, and Will from sales has engaged me about it. They’d have to reconfigure their testing facilities for paintball tanks, so not worth it for a handful of tanks.

BUT!

Since I mentioned this was a potentially untapped market for this service (thousands of tanks thrown out each year) he also asked for more information. I gave him the major manufacturers and resellers that I knew of. I’ll report back with anything I hear from him.

[OpusX]

I think we discussed this pre-hack. Cool to see the topic come back. I'd love to not have to just throw stuff away, and make it useful again.

[Trbo323]

I'm interested to see where this goes typically I don't own tanks that are close to the 15 years but maybe that could change I suppose a lot of this would depend on how much the testing would cost do you have any idea of what it costs to do it for the takes that they test now?

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[lhamilton1807]

From what I was reading in air gun forums, the cost was ~$40 ea for the SCBA tanks. That doesn’t include shipping. But that info was from 2017-2020, so prices have probably gone up since then. Bu then again, maybe their operation has also scaled and become more efficient, too.

I was given no prices in my email correspondence. He mentioned he will follow up with retailers and manufacturers to see if there’s a business opportunity and will try to keep me in the loop. I’ll let the forum know what I hear.

[rawbutter]

That would be cool. I've literally got a bucket of old tanks I could get recertified. $40 certainly isn't crazy. It's still better than spending $150 on a new tank.

[BrickHaus]

Ditto, and the old cr9ss fire, and dye throttle bottles were really nice. So Id send a few up.

[Trbo323]

Do you happen to know if that price would include a hydro or would we also need to do that separate? Or is it because it's recertified it doesn't need a hydro right away

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[DocsMachine]

Do you happen to know if that price would include a hydro or would we also need to do that separate? Or is it because it's recertified it doesn't need a hydro right away

-The process basically IS hydro. IE, recertifying the tank for another X number of years.

I have a short ton of 3K tanks I'd love to use, and that I know would have no trouble passing since they're so low-miles.

Doc.

[lhamilton1807]

Yes, what Doc said. This recertifies the tank for another 5 years. From what I gathered, after 15yrs, regular hydro testing is no longer an option and this is meant to replace hydro every 5 years. You won’t do this once and get another 15 years of life automatically added. Sounds like the USG isn’t ready to go that far with that much pressure in old tanks.

It is really encouraging how many tanks still pass, though. The majority of CF SCBA tanks passed this process, and they’re used for firefighting and likely go through tons of abuse.

[Falcon16]

TC I know would frown on this sadly. I'll have to replace all of my tanks in the next 4-5 years that said no big deal when I can grab a 50/45 and a 13/3K both for under $300 over 15 years lifespan that's cheap

[Cdn_Cuda]

Thankfully there are a lot of great options now for the under 62cu!

[Jordan]

Just use 12grams for everything! 🙂

Are you gonna play this season? Be nice to see some more Ontario MCB'ers out and about.

[Falcon16]

LOL Jordan! Yea I'll be playing more this season trying to see if I can get out to some of the walks on at DMZ or some bigger events this year. Last year as I told you was a mess so didn't play at all.. Cdn_Cuda agreed! I'm glad 45/45 and 50/45 are plentiful. I've been running a Ninja 50/45 as my primary tank for 11 years now

[scottieb]

Hexagon has a large facility where I live. Any mention as to where the testing takes place?

[lhamilton1807]

I don’t, no. I had assumed it would be at their HQ in Colorado. The address is listed at the bottom of their website. Feel free to knock on their door though!

[Grendel]

I could see this making sense with an SCBA tank as they are very expensive even when purchased used. Hell I just scrapped an old SCBA tank I had because it was beyond the 15 years and I did not realize re-certifying was possible (now I am a little pissed at myself for not doing more research).

[boarder2k7]

I'd love to be able to re cert my old 4500 tanks, hopefully this pans out

[Trbo323]

So I guess if this pans out the real question is, which one of you lunatics will be the first one out there with that 112cu 3000psi mounted on a slab side cocker

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[BLachance75]

Considering you can get a new tank without a reg for about $100 I don’t see the point in paying $40 to get 5 more years.

[lhamilton1807]

Even if you got a cf bottle without a reg for $100 it would still last you only 5 years before needing another hydro test. When comparing $40 for 5 years vs $100 for 5 years, (does quick back-of-the-napkin calculations) $40 still seems like the better deal.

But in case this doesn’t pan out… where can you get a 68/45 bottle for $100? I’m not very excited about trusting tanks from Alibaba 🤪

[Trbo323]

Considering you can get a new tank without a reg for about $100 I don’t see the point in paying $40 to get 5 more years.

I'm very confused by this. This is the case right now, you need to hydro every 5 years, the difference is you could keep running that same tank past 15 with one slightly more expensive hydro every 15 years

Not to mention, unless I'm wrong the re cert is giving the tank another 15 years. Yes you still need to hydro every 5 but, hydro, hydro, recert, hydro hydro and you have 30 years of life out of one tank.

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[lhamilton1807]

Exactly. Plus you’d get the at feel-good feeling from not throwing away a tank that still had good life in it.