Gas, gas, gas

[Paul]

Well i'm not a newbie in paintball, but i'm far far from an expert, and my understanding on Air Vs. Co2 is that air is far superiour and this is aided by it not being liquid or something along thoses lines.

Air is the better of the two, well yes ..... but why exactly?

Cheers,

-Paul-

[landmindscap]

I'm not an expert and someone will come on and give you the technical bit and how i'm wrong but basically Co2 is very cold liquid which when evaporated turns to gas at low temperatures. Therefore the bottle temperature makes a difference to the presure of the Co2. In the winter the bottle is very cold and so the gas is at a low pressure but when it warms up in the summer sun it's then at a higher pressure which is when i works best. Air isn't affected as much by temperature and as a result is more consistent and therefore accurate.

I hope that helped because it confused me.:confused:

[Tom]

Spot on :D

A couple of extra points - CO2 is cheap and easy to get : because it can be stored in liquid form (at room temperature, it liquifies at about 800psi) then it's good for sites because a little liquid will evaporate to a lot of gas. Air doesn't liquify until you get to stupidly high pressures and thus a 4500psi air tank the same size as a full CO2 tank will get less shots out of it than the CO2. However, as said, air is more consistant as it is less affected by temerature fluctuations. Also, when the liquid CO2 in the bottle evaporates into gas, it uses energy to do this. This energy is taken from the surroundings, resulting in your bottle getting very very cold, and in winter it can ice up quite heavily. As the bottle ices up, it chills the liquid CO2 down further, affecting the pressure that it evaporates at. Basically, the output pressure of a CO2 bottle can vary quite drastically throughout the day and even during games. A decent regulator goes a long way to combat this, but there are still other problems with CO2, such as the possibility of 'drawing liquid', i.e. where liquid CO2 is allowed to enter the marker rather than gaseous CO2. This can cause all sorts of problems in high end electros, such as blowing seals, freezing up moving parts etc. Lower end blowback semis see a massive increase in velocity due to the liqid CO2 evaporating behind the ball, giving a much greater volume of gas per shot and generally playing merry hell with your velocity.

Virtually all sites use Co2 because it is cheap, easy and does the job just fine. Some sites also provide air in the form of BOC 3000psi bulk fill tanks. The problem with these tanks is that because the air is not liquified, the pressure in the bottle drops a little after every fill. Hence every fill from the bottle will be to a slightly lower pressure than the last. At tournaments, it is common for there to be an air supplier there (eg HPAC) who have their own compressors etc and can thus guarantee 4500psi fills all day long.

Finally, the physical process of filling a CO2 bottle properly is more long winded then filling air. Air: connect the fill nipple, turn the valve on the fill rig, then dump the excess pressure and disconnect the marker. CO2: Screw the bottle onto the fill rig, fill the bottle, weigh the bottle, if it's not full enough then you need to 'vent' the bottle, thus chilling it down and allowing more liquid CO2 to be put into it. finally it is vented and unscrewed from the fill rig.

Not the best expalanation, but it serves to illustrate my point. If you have any more specific questions, let us know!

[paintballer]

how do you vent a co2 bottle do you just screw it onto your marker an blow a few shots through it? and how long can you leve a bottle on a fill rig without it going


BANG!


(just got my self a fill rig of a friend for £7 and have always gone to the sight for 6 years to get my bottle filed)

e-mail me at joewalker820@hotmail.com

[Tom]

You can leave the bottle on the fill rig until the cows come home and it wont go bang. To completely empty a pin valve CO2 bottle, screw it into your fill rig and vent it that way. Obviously an on/off bottle can just be turned on and left to vent (do it outside so you don't suffocate!)

[petolsen1]

compressed air system is more expensive to buy, but cheaper to use.

Pete

[paintballer]

i know that the co2 tanks by pure are not to be filled in the uk but what about the air tanks by pure are they like the co2 tanks? are the co2 tanks not filled in the the uk as the metal is to thin and they may explode on the fill rig? :D :confused: :rolleyes: :mad: :p

[Tom]

This thread has some info on DOT and HSE bottles:

http://www.fatbobsdirect.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=335&highlight=bottle+test