SCUBA Tank Questions

[Lone Gunman]

I am thinking about buying a SCUBA tank from eBay. What should I look for when buying a tank? Is there anything that I should look out for? Thanks a lot!

Edit: The tank I'll looking at has a hydro date of 4/99 and a 9/02 vip date. How would I have until I have to get it rehydroed and visually inspected? How much does hydro testing and vip testing cost? Thanks again

[Reo5th]

They may look cheap on ebay, but often after getting it hydrotested, a visual inspection, and paying for shipping, it can get pretty expensive. I had a friend who was visiting the Cape pick mine up for me new for 110 bucks. I must say, scuba's are a great thing to have around.

http://www.tektonic.com/paintball/scuba.jpg

[paintball8869]

just keep in mind it is roughly $40 to ship one of these via normal mail. That's how much it was for mine, thank god i got mine for $140 shipped with a fill adapter (tank was brand new too).

[Severe]

I've been looking in to getting a scuba tank also. Great thing about being Scuba certified is it will be dual purpose.

I currently use a Crossfire 68/4500. How many fills could I expect to get out of an Alum80 or 120?

Thanks for any info!

Steve

[boggerman]

VIP has to be done yearly, hydro is every three on most tanks. Try to find a seller who won't bend you over on shipping, I bought my tank on ebay and only paid about $15 for shipping. Hydro, visual inspection and a new o-ring on the valve came to $26. I am into my tank for about $80 total. Of course you still have to get a fill adapter.

[acecl22]

i have a few scuba tanks but i dont have the fill adapter, i was wondering how hard or dangerous it is to fill your own hpa tank

[TheTramp]

Originally posted by acecl22
i have a few scuba tanks but i dont have the fill adapter, i was wondering how hard or dangerous it is to fill your own hpa tank

It's very easy and if you make sure to pay attention to what you are doing and not mess around, it's totaly safe.

Get youself a fill adaptor for $40-$50 and you'll be in business.

A 80ci 3000psi SCUBA tank should give fills over 2000psi for two people all day. At around $6 per SCUBA tank fill, this is a pretty good deal.

[blembiggity]

just to let u know that your tank will only fill to 3000. i used to run a 2 tank set up, one for fill and the other for top off. if u use one tank the whole time your fill level will decrease alot. it is good to have two tank but one will do for a day. if two of u are filling i would recomend two but thats just me

[Evil Bob]

Filling from a scuba tank is much safer then filling from CO2 due to the differences in the gases themselves.

With HPA you're working with a gas that doesn't change its state, it's always a gas that is measured in PSI, something that can be easily read from a gage.

With CO2, you're working with a gas that can be in one of three states that can change quickly from one to another. You fill when it is in a liquid state, but even with the best of scales, you're not sure precisely how much you put in as the states change quickly. You could have some solid CO2 in there that will throw off your measurements and leave you with an over pressured fill.

Scuba is definitely the way to go.

-Evil Bob

[Mapanggulo]

Originally posted by blembiggity
just to let u know that your tank will only fill to 3000. i used to run a 2 tank set up, one for fill and the other for top off. if u use one tank the whole time your fill level will decrease alot. it is good to have two tank but one will do for a day. if two of u are filling i would recomend two but thats just me

Everyone at our field that has a HPA setu usually sits there tanks in one spot...and we do the same thing...fill from one, top off from the other...until we don't have any more tanks to use...the field doesnt have HPA fills, but what do you expect from a Military run field. Buy new tanks is what I'd do...unless you get a screamin deal like me. Two 6month old tanks for $200 with two fill stations, sold the other station to someone else for $ 50...

[thecavemankevin]

ok, i dug way back to find this one:

It was originally posted by Yipe in May of 2001

---------------------
1. Size = 63cf, 80cf or 100cf. I recommend 80cf. Anything under 63cf is considered a pony bottle (spare), will not hold much air and will cost you nearly the same as a larger tank.

2. Material = aluminum or steel. I recommend aluminum. It’s lighter, cheaper and ever since the cylinder manufacturers stopped making poor quality chromoly tanks that were known to explode during the pressurization process, aluminum is just as safe as steel (relatively speaking). If you are buying used, be wary of Luxfer tanks made in the mid-80s. Catalina cylinders from that time are just fine.

3. PSI = 3,000 or 3,300. I recommend 3,300psi as it’s nearly the same cost and gives you a better fill. Most dive stores don’t know about 3,300psi tanks though, as 99% are rated at 3,000. You have to prod them to look in their catalogs for the Luxfer 80NB

4. Miscellaneous = color, boot, valve cover and free fills. These are areas where you can haggle with your local dive store to get the best deal.

A) color – I chose shot-blasted aluminum because it wears well over time. Black looks nicer, but scratches easier. Whatever you choose, don’t get the clear-coat as that costs $10 more for basically nothing. Simple scratches won’t hamper your yearly visual inspection or 5 year hydro test.

B) boot – The dive store should include the boot at no charge. Normally they are around $10. This is a nice add-on as most paintball field parking lots are gravel, which can scratch up the base of your tank.

C) valve cover – The dive store should also include this, as well as a lanyard, for free. Purchased separately, a valve cover is around $5. The valve cover helps keep dirt out of the valve.

D) free fills – This is where you should really wheel-n’-deal I found most stores are willing to give you between 10 and 15 free air fills standard. If not, take your business somewhere else. You are getting a good deal if they offer 20 free fills and up, with 25 being the most I was able to sweet-talk.

5. Price = $145 - $200. A bare-bones aluminum 80cf 3,000psi tank should run you $145 or less. The average price I found for this tank with boot, valve cover and a substantial amount of free fills hovered in the $160-$165 range. An 80NB should run you between $180-$200 depending on the extra goodies.


That’s about it! And remember, the dive industry is rapidly changing its attitude toward paintballers. If the dive store owner hassles you about not being dive certified, go somewhere else. I know this is not a full recap, so if you have any further questions I’d be more than happy to answer them.

Now I’ll move on to the second chapter of our story – final purchase and first field use.

I give my full recommendation to the Luxfer Aluminum 80NB 3,300psi cylinder. Early on, I found the website that Arand posted and this is the cheapest price available anywhere. Your local dive stores won’t even sell you a new 3,000psi tank at that cost. Personally, I didn’t order online because I was wary of purchasing a scuba tank over the internet. Plus, I wanted to work free air fills into the deal as this is a good haggling point so I opted to buy my cylinder locally.

I ended up purchasing a Luxfer 80NB (3,300psi shot-blasted aluminum). The tank was $200, and that included the boot, valve cover and 25 free air fills (roughly a $125 value). My teammate and I split the cost down the middle to ease the crunch on our wallets. We plan on purchasing another in July so we can cascade the two tanks and prolong our free fills. If you have a trustworthy friend, I have found this is a great way to go.

Unfortunately, the dive shop owner received our order two and a half weeks late. He was nice about the delay, lending us an 80cf 3,000psi tank free of charge on four separate occasions. I’m glad I got the chance to use a 3,000psi cylinder vs. a 3,300psi cylinder because there is a noticeable difference.

As cphillip stated, the 80NB delivers an honest 3,000psi air fill (after cool-down), whereas the best I could get the standard 80cf cylinder to do was 2,700. On the downside, the 80NB is slightly heavier than it’s 3,000psi counterpart, but this should only be a concern if you plan on walking long distances carrying a scuba tank. Most of the time the cylinder goes from house-to-trunk-to-field-to-trunk-to-house

After six fills, we were still hitting 2,500psi and could easily play another day before topping off the cylinder again. Not bad. Note that I have used the 80NB for just one day of play, so please keep in mind I can’t give you exact numbers over a long period of time.

If you were curious about operation, working the yoke-style fill station has proved to be ultra easy. I can fill my tank “on-gun” with no problems at all. Opening the valve slowly is key though, especially on the 80NB as it pressurizes quite a bit faster than any of the 3,000psi cylinders I used previously.

The last area that I am working on is transportation / storage. I have ordered a set of tank blocks so the cylinder doesn’t roll around in the back of my trunk or my teammate’s truck. Even with the blocks, I am picking up a thick sheet of egg-shell foam to save the tank from scratches as part of it will still rub against the truck bed. I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Matt

-----------------------


Ok, here is the original thread if you want to look at it
http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2100&highlight=Can+the+person+that+posted+all+the+info+ about+scuba+post+again