How to properly fill CO2 and Hpa

[paintball_junkie]

Today I was working the register and filling tanks for a private group. One guy came up to get his 12oz tank filled. I emptied the tank completely ,and then put some air back in and dumped it agian (to make it cold) then filled it completely. The guy starts ranting on how i fillied it wrong. Then later I was filling a kids hpa tank. I was filling it slowly, like 1000psi a minute (I get scared filling hpa tnaks). THen the kid starts complaining IM filling it to slow and doin that doesnt fill it all the way. What i want to know is am i doing this right?

[classicmagplayer]

were you weighing the co2 tank...you got to fill, then dump and fill a couple times to get liquid in. At least thats how I used to do it will my fill station.

With HPA its just fill, you cant really do it wrong other than filling real fast. But the slower you fill the more time the tank has to cool off....with a cooler tank you can hold more volume at the same pressure. SO by filling it slow you were giving him more of a fill than filling fast. I'm bored so heres some equations

PV=NRT
P=pressure
V=volume
N=number of moles(how many air molecules)
R=a constant that i cant remember
T=temp

since P, V, and R stay the same you are left with some constant=NT
if the temp goes up then the number of moles must go down to keep the constant the same. You are giving the tank time to dissipate heat in essence lowering T...and thereby raising the number of molecules in his tank.

raise the temp and number of molecules goes down simple as that. The kid may have thought that if you fill it fast the air doesnt get hot till after the fill is done, but thats not true. THe air gets hot no matter how fast you fill the tank, it just takes a few seconds for the outside of the tank to heat up.


wow am I bored to type all that just to say the way you filled the air tank is right. You CO2 method is right as long as your using a scale to measure out a 12oz difference between totally empty to full.

[FalconGuy016]

Filling an HPA tank slow gives you more air, because it cools, as explained above :)

My field fills my 4500 tank in less than 3 seconds :eek:

[Can_Opener]

Filling CO2, all you gotta do is empty the tank completely, then you put the tank on a scale, tare the scale, and fill the tank with liquid until it reaches near its fill size.

[ratmonkey]

like said previously, empty co2, fill slightly and dump to chill it. and then put 'er on the scale and fill to capacity. and filling the air slow is the best way to do it for the above stated reasons. too bad people are impatient.

[BlackVCG]

Show a kid a picture of a fiber wrap tank that has exploded into shards and tell him that's what happens to tanks after they get "flash filled" enough times to the point that they fail. It doesn't happen often, obviously, but it has happened and flash filling does drastically reduce the service life of tanks.

You could always do what he says to do and then tell him "tough luck" when he comes back for more air after his tank went down 300psi from cooling down.