|
CO2 Bottle Fill Stations
Paintball Tank CO2 Fill Stations
Setting up your own CO2 fill station will let you fill paintball tanks for personal or commercial use.This can save you a trip to the store by filling your tank at home or a more robust sytem can fill all the tanks in a rental fleet or even customer bottles at a store. The small paintball CO2 tanks used on paintball guns range in size from 4oz up to 24oz. You'll be able to fill all of those with the stations you find here.
What do I need to fill paintball CO2 bottles at my home or field?
To properly fill a paintball CO2 tank you must have a Bulk CO2 Tank, a Fill Station, and a scale.
Bulk CO2 Tanks
Bulk tanks are your supply of CO2. These contain the liquid CO2 that you'll be putting in the small paintball bottle. These are typically acquired from your local welding supply shop and come in a varitey of sizes from 10lb to 125lb. We use 75lb tanks at our retail store and paintball park. This is a common size that most supply shops will have. This weight measurement refers to how much liquid CO2 they hold, not the weight of the bulk tank. A bulk tank full of liquid CO2 will weigh much more than this as it would be the weight of the CO2 and of the tank itself.
You'll need to make sure that your bulk CO2 tank has a 'dip / siphon tube' installed. This is a tube that connects to the valve on the top of the tank and extends down to the bottom. This permits liquid CO2 to be transferred in to the tank you are filling rather than just the CO2 gas. A typical CO2 tank from a welding supply shop will come with a basic on/off valve with a male CGA-320 fitting. This is where you would connect your CO2 fill station kit.
There is also disc seal / gasket between the bulk CO2 tank and your fill station. SOME bulk tank gas suppliers will include a new gasket with every bulk tank. SOME fill stations include 1 gasket to get you started. It's ALWAYS good to a have a few spares.
CO2 Fill Stations
The fill station is more than just a refill adapter. The fill station refers to the complete set of fitting and valves that let you do the actual transfer fill from the bulk tank to the small paintball canister. They come in a variety of styles. You'll want to choose what's appropriate based on how many tank fills you plan on doing.
What else do I need to buy besides the fill station? Is there anything else required before I can fill my CO2 tank?
If you've got a bulk tank lined up and you've picked out the fill station that suits your needs then you also need a scale. The scale isn't critical to doing a fill but it is critical to doing the fill properly. Scales are used to measure how much liquid CO2 is being pushed in to the small tank. CO2 fills aren't measured by time or pressure. You measure the CO2 fill by weight in ounces. Your standard 20oz Paintball CO2 tank will hold up to 20oz of liquid CO2 safely. We actually fill our tanks 10% under a tanks rated weight for an extra degree of safety. Without a scale and careful measurement you can overfill and damage a tank or underfill and not get as many shots as you should.
We offer 2 CO2 Fill Station accessory kits. Each kit includes a scale and some other supplies that will make your CO2 fill set up complete. We strongly recommend getting one of these accessoy kits along with any fill station purchase.
|
