A day on CO2

[punkncat]

I've been to many fields that hung 100lb tanks upside to fill co2. Dangerous, just to save a penny, but not that uncommon.
The most "well known" field that did it was "Boston Paintball" in the early/mid 90s. They actually had a cradle to secure the tanks upside down. Not a bad as hanging with chains, but it still made me nervous.

In our own case we built a cradle that utilized a door, straps, and chain to secure the tank. Once it was actually IN there it wasn't going anywhere but had we slipped a bit during install....

[SignOfZeta]

The thing you have to consider is that those places that don’t fill CO2 anymore...well the places they used to get their CO2 from still exist. Bottled CO2 is used in almost every industry on some level. It isn’t going anywhere in our lifetime, you just need to invest in a 20lb siphon tank and take it to Airgas or some place similar. That will last me a year, personally, but if you play every weekend you’ll need more.

[Meleager7]

Some folks love a nicely chilled bottle of wine.....this forum prefers a nicely pre-chilled 12 oz bottle of the finest CO2 !!

[CrowsFeast]

This thread reminds me that someone owes me a CO2 bottle or 2... I've still only run 12g on my phantom.

[Brokeass_baller]

Since we're all taking CO2 here, would somebody refresh my memory of the 2" rule, please? I have a 9oz tank from about 2002-2005, and if I can, I wouldn't mind using it again.

[ChoSanJuan]

Since we're all taking CO2 here, would somebody refresh my memory of the 2" rule, please? I have a 9oz tank from about 2002-2005, and if I can, I wouldn't mind using it again.

Generally speaking, if it's under 2 feet long and 2 inches around and under, it should be good to fill regardless of age... So long as it's still in good working condition. There are other nuances and will still be the discretion of the facility to fill it.

[Menso]

I still have a 3.5 oz. tank for my Phantom. Since it's a small bottle, filling it from home isn't difficult if you have access to dry ice (if you don't have a bulk tank that is). I'll just remove the valve, zero out the bottle on a scale, and start funneling crushed dry ice into it until the scale reads 3.5 oz. Reinstall the valve and let the dry ice sublimate overnight. You now have a perfect CO2 fill.

I appreciate the resourcefulness of this, but I haven’t seen dry ice in over 10 years. I don’t know why I didn’t even think of buying a small CO2 tank until I read this so thank you! Definitely going to look into this, because my GF and I have been wanting to start brewing beer. Two birds, one stone.

Since we're all taking CO2 here, would somebody refresh my memory of the 2" rule, please? I have a 9oz tank from about 2002-2005, and if I can, I wouldn't mind using it again.

I don’t know what your tank would be stamped, but according to this if it has a particular stamp it needs a test. Also, if someone can find a page or a pdf explaining the 2x2 rule, I’d appreciate it because I can’t find it.

[SignOfZeta]

They have dry ice in even more places than bottled CO2, party stores, grocery stores, Gordon Foods, etc.

I’m not super excited about removing the valve every time I fill a tank, but yeah that method works. You could theoretically do it with liquid nitrogen to fill an HPA tank but that would probably get you killed.

With the 2” rule...I’ve had it explained to me in conflicting ways by different people who always seem to sound like they know what they are talking about but nobody has ever pointed out this rule to me in writing on the website of any sort of major industry standards group or anything like that so I ignore it. My 4oz bottles say right on them that they need testing, written by the manufacturer, so it would be very hard to convince someone otherwise.

[JonM]

Another thing to consider when using dry ice is that it must be ground up well to make it through a funnel. As a result, there's a fair amount of waste since it's actively changing to a gas as you're working with it. You also need to use a chopstick or something to get it to go down the funnel as it likes to clog up. Be sure to take appropriate safety precautions as well (thick gloves, eye protection, etc.). In the end, it's not an optimal solution. It's more a matter of making use of a resource I already had on hand that I didn't want to go to waste.

[OpusX]

Wouldn't utilizing this dry ice method introduce a significant amount of moisture into the tank?

[SignOfZeta]

Probably not since the ice is constantly boiling and therefore there is a steady flow of gas out of the tank even as you’re screwing in down. It’s purging itself, mildly.

[Menso]

With the 2” rule...I’ve had it explained to me in conflicting ways by different people who always seem to sound like they know what they are talking about but nobody has ever pointed out this rule to me in writing on the website of any sort of major industry standards group or anything like that so I ignore it. My 4oz bottles say right on them that they need testing, written by the manufacturer, so it would be very hard to convince someone otherwise.

I found these two links that are as definitive as I’m probably going to be able to find in regards to the 2x2 rule:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/180.209#fn1_tbl1

http://www.tymsinc.com/hydrostatic-faq.html

”Any cylinder not exceeding 2 inches outside diameter and less than 2 feet in length is excepted from volumetric expansion test.”

Verbatim on both sites. It’s over. Years later, I finally have closure. My life can move on.

[SignOfZeta]

Can anyone find 49 CFR 180.209 in its entirety somewhere on a DOT site? If it’s the law then it has to be on a government site but for some reason I can only find references of people citing it.

[Meleager7]

Anyone have any cool CO2 spewing marker action shots?