How much $$$ for own nitro fill station

[JEDI]

Has any one set up there own nitro fill station. I can get nitro fairly local, but my own fill station would be much cooler. Does any one know how much it would cost. I'm filling two flatlines; 3k & 4500

[Cha0tic]

fill stations go for about 50 dollars. you need hoses too, which will cost maybe 20 dollars. the scuba tanks will be more expensive. i would try to get them used, bt in good condition in order to save some money. good luck on getting a 4500psi scuba tank for a cheap price...

[Smoken]

You don't need no stinkin hoses.
FILL STATION(ACI)--$50
SCUBA TANK(3000PSI USED)--$50
SECOND SCUBA TANK(RECOMENDED)-- $50

The chances of finding a reasonable large 4500psi SCUBA tank are not good, not good at all. I have a 3500 psi tank(more expensive, but very nice) and a 3000 psi tank. Pay attention to what size you get too. Bigger is better.

[Cha0tic]

sorry, i stand corrected.

[JEDI]

Well now I'm really confused. How does the size/psi of the fill station relate to the smaller tank your filling. Can you fill any tank?

[ciaran.mooney]

Well the bigger the tank the more good fills that you will get out of it. Also 4500psi large tanks may be more (will be) than 3000psi, so it wouldnt be worth you getting one. Unless you really really wanted one.

[soilent green]

There is a problem with scuba fill stations its only a transfer fill so your looking at only getting 2 good 3000psi fills out of a 80 cuft 3000psi scuba tank wich is about $150 new so your still going to be going to the dive shop frequently if you want real fills your looking at a booster with nitro at least a $1000 for the booster or a compressor at least $2500

[dorksquad]

i think he means filling them with nitro tanks like the big co2 ones, i would also be instertised tin this

[Bwaites]

I have a home fill station using a 4500 PSI welding tank.(Thats the one that is the same size as the big CO2 tanks)

To do it properly, you have to purchase a regulator and gauges (pretty expensive if you buy new!). Filling from this tank, I have played for the last six months without having to get a new tank and have just finally got the 4500 down to 3000 PSI. I play twice monthly, shooting 1/2 to 1 case each time.

I found the appropriate valves and disconnects and built my own with some help from some friends who understood high pressures better than I did at the time. Works great, but is not for someone who doesn't pay very good attention to the fill gauges.

Whatever you do, if you have a high pressure system, (either 3000 or 4500 PSI) be very, very careful. If you drop a tank at these pressures and break the neck/valve, you have just created a rocket/bomb. A large 4500 PSI tank with a broken neck will literally go right through a brick wall!

Scuba tanks are safer and easier!

Good Luck in your search!

Bill

[cphilip]

Guys he is talking about filling from a big 6000 psi Nitrogen tank if I am not mistaken. Those fill stations are $200 last I saw. The tanks are horribly expensive if you try and buy one of these 6K ones unless you can find a going out of business paintball store to sell you one. Most people rent them. We (the Club) have one. And a fill station as well. Yes they are made just for paintball fill but they are special. They have a regulator youc an set for 3000 or 4500 psi on the fill side and a guage showing the tank pressure. I think if you want to rent a tank and buy the reg youa re looking at almost $350 to get set up. And refills are like $60. But a refill on one of these 6000 tanks last a long time before it drops below 3K. We get by with two fills a year. We all prefill at the big tank before we go to the field and use 4 SCUBA's out at the field. We got ours cheap from a guy going out of business that wanted to help out the club.

[masterblaster]

I am confused
What is the benefit of a scuba tank?
I will only get 2 fills out of it?
I get the scuba tank filled then fill my tank with it
now I only have 1 fill left?
Is this correct?
I just started using hpa 2 months ago so I am kinda new to it

Thanks

[virus]

the amount of usale fill from a scuba tank will vary....

i have a 100cubic fott 3300psi scuba tank....(my on gun systems are rated upto 4500psi so i can just dump from the scuba to them with out worry)

off that tank i can get about 5 fills over 2800psi and another 5-6 over 2400psi....

think of it this way take one of those really big ballons people get for birthdays... and a bag of smaller ones (like the type used for water ballons)

get the big one filled... now take the smaller ballons and fill them from the large ballon... as you fill the smaller ballons from the larger one the pressure in the larger ballon goes down a little bit with each fill....
keep doing this in till you get to a point where all it is doing is equaling the pressure between the 2 ballons

now think of the scuba tank as the big ballon and the tank runnin your marker as the water ballon.... as your fill the small tank of the scuba the pressure between the 2 eqauelizes.. so each time you fill it will be a little less each time...

say off a 3000psi tank your first fill might only be 2900psi the next one after that might be around 2700psi and it keeps going down from there

also the current psi of the tank you are fill has a direct effect on how much your next fill will be... if after each game its down to under 1000psi and you go fill it up of a full scuba you first fill could drop it down to 2700 right off the bat...

a way to combat this rapid pressure drop in the scuba is to run 2 or more sucba's in cascade series....

this works like this..... fill off the first tank to it current max pressure.... goto the next tank in the line and fill the tank up again to that tanks current pressure etc....

each tank in series after the first gets to transfer less air but at a high pressure to the smaller tank..... if the first tank is at a full 3000psi and you fill your empty tank.. we'll say the pressure drop will be to 2500psi.... goto the next tank at a full 3000psi and fill again.... you should get to over 2900psi.... if you had a 3rd tank you could fill again to get pretty close to 300psi but most would wait untill the pressure in the 2nd tank gets down to the 2600-2700psi mark before hiting up the 3tank....

hope that helps your understanding

EDIT... also that ballon analogy work really well for the use of the 6000psi tank (ie them really big heavy suckers... that fields use)

[cphilip]

Ya Virus is right. His numbers are good. Let me ask you this what is the benefit to no tank? :rolleyes:

No seriously Like Virus said it's even better if you can get about three buddies to get one too (even better if they ALL get the 3300's)and you cascade fill off of them down the line. You can squeeze out even more fills close to 3000 psi that way.

One thing that is probably throwing you off is that the SCUBA's we are talking about are 80 cubic feet of 3300 psi air. You are filling say a 68 cubic inch tank with them. Get it?

[alany]

cphilip,
I'm looking into renting a 6000 PSI tank. Can you estimate how many fills you're getting? I know you said it lasts you 6 months, but I have no idea what size tanks you're filling, how many, how often etc. And if you're coming back from the field with 2000 psi and refilling to 3000 the tank will last much longer than if you bring back an empty tank and fill to 4500.

[cphilip]

Oh gee that is gonna be hard....well lets see if I can guess...we have about 12 guys that use air. Some prefill some don't. Some go over on their own and I don't see them. I sometimes go by and get some to check out a marker or new tank. I assumke some of them do as well. Hmmmm....Well most of us use 3000psi tanks. A couple have 45K's but I do not know if they fill at the main station. All I can say is its like maybe 100 fills to 3K average until it drops below 3K? So amybe 75 if 45K's. Pure guess realy. I wish I knew. A well run Field's owner can tell you more acurately as we do not keep records like they would as we don't charge for it. We take it out of club dues.

One thing to warn you about is to take your 6K tank fill station with you to pick up the tank. We have been shorted a lot of psi in the past. We picked up the last tank and it only had 2800 in it when we got it home. We paid for 6K! We had to return it. They exchanged it no problem but still. This next time we took the fill station with us to the rental place and hooked it up and read the tank output side and verified we had close to 6K before we loaded it. Those tanks are too heavy to be moved around a lot.

[ciaran.mooney]

Out of intrest could you fill a tank to 4500psi, but regulate it down to 3000psi? Therefore having the small size of a 4500psi system with more fills?

[cphilip]

Uhhhhh....well... most "regulators" on the other end of the tank won't go above 1000 psi or so anyway. Wide open they are limited to that. A 45K tank is practically the same size as a 3K. Its just a bit thicker walled and rated to withstand it as well as the regulator able to handle it and bring it down to mamangable level below 1000 psi. I may not be following what you are asking here. A lot of folks opt for a 45K and never use it above 3000 psi for lack of fill capabilities. But they got it if they ever get a chance to use it is why.

Now maybe you are talking about the supply tank? Well the one we are discussing is a 6K tank that we regulate down to 3K with the fill station. Every once is awhile we turn it up to 4.5K on the output side for those with 4.5K tanks. But yes you regulate that at will with the right station. Msut handle the 6K on the other side though.

[soilent green]

to masterblaster to anwser your quetion of the benefits of scuba here they are relativly cheap, safer, and easy and cheap to get filled biggest draw back is fill capacity

[JEDI]

So the bigger 6000 psi tanks give you more fills and you can rent them? Now I'm getting somewhere. Do you just bring the tank back to fill it each time? OK, now, where do I rent one from? How much can you rent them for.:confused:

[mrhooie]

check with a welding supply store..
I bought my HPA reg at Nitro Duck - but you should be able to find it a little cheaper

[virus]

heh.. i just re read my post... i wrote that after gettin ot of bed maybe 15 min before that... and around noon i remember that i left a wordy post dealin with ballons and numbers...

and now seein someone say my numbers were about right... man i gotta try to repeat that and just be in that half awake daze at work now *8P

like they said you can rent them from a welding/metal fabrication shop or from a welding supply company.... as for prices i'm clueless... i just know i dont want to be moving one of them around myself... my scuba tank after a day of play is heavy enough as it is....

[Warmonger]

uhhh ok where can I get scuba tank rated at 4500psi online, or even a 3500psi tank. I live in the middle of nowhere and I dont want to have to travel several hundred miles just to look for a scuba tank.

Any rough estimates of how much a new 4500psi or 3500psi scuba tank would run me?

[mrhooie]

do a search on google for scuba tanks

places in Florida should sell lots. I've found you will have to email the stores directly as they don't seem to post prices. It took me about an hour of reading, searching and emailing here in Canada, and then about 4 days to finalize a deal for two used 80cf 3000psi aluminum scuba tanks (they were rental stock - up for hydro next year)

my cost was 150cdn each +shipping


hope that helps

[RTProUser]

where did you get a 4500psi flatline!!?? I want one but I thought they were not comming out until march! Please let me know JIm

[cphilip]

Diversdirect.com will sell you a 3300 psi Neutral Boyancy 80 Cubic Foot SCUBA tank delivered to your door for about $160 total cost. Good service. Good place to do business if you have to go internet.

National...now Paintball Inc has the big cylinder type tank fill stations but I do not recall the manufacturerer of them. I think they were $200 last I saw a price on them. Rental of the big tanks? Don't know...we own ours...call your local Welding supply about that. But I can tell you it cost us $60 to refill the thing last time. They are not portable unless you like lugging about 300 pounds around!

[Warmonger]

I went and looked at paintballinc.com and they sell a 4500 psi fill station but it is $400.

I need to know what type of fittings and regulators and such I would need for a 6000psi tank and where I can get them

Also I heard something about and adapter that hooks directly onto your scuba tank and fills it completely from a regular air compressor, it just takes a while. I haven't been able to find anything about them online, so I was wondering if there really was usch a thing and if it really works

[cphilip]

Well I didn't think they were that much. Call em about it.

The fill station is the proper way to go. YOuc an use a regualr two stage regualtor but they are also like $180 and hen you have to get the fill nipple and make up your connections on the fill side.

Regular air compressors rarely go over 140 psi. So you just cannot get a fill with these and the air is dirty and has moisture in it which is bad for the inside of the tanks. You can find three stage compressors (like the ones SCUBA Shops and Fire Departments use) for about $3000 and they have water separtators and filtration and will get up to 3500 (or some even more) psi.