rules for expired tanks are dumb...PSYCHE!

[rawbutter]

EDIT: This thread is satire. Please read the whole thing before responding.

Well, looks like I should retire another tank. I've retired two already at the end of their 15 year lifespan, which I wasn't happy about, since they still looked/worked fine, but I bought those ones used, and I really didn't know what had happened to them before I bought them, so I was comfortable letting them go.

My last tank, though? My beautiful MacDev 68/4500? I bought it new in 2006. No one has ever used it except me. I've never dropped it. It's always been in a cover. A nice, thick cover. It's been my primary tank for as long as I've been playing seriously.

And yeah, I know. 15 year rule and all that. But I don't really think those rules were written for people like me. When those bozos (whoever they were) first came up with rules about paintball tanks, they probably had to err on the side of caution. A really zealot might play paintball for six hours a day on half the Saturdays out of the year. They might ask their tanks to make hundreds of thousands of shots during it's lifespan.

But me? I play 4-6 times a year, and on those days I only play for 2 hours. I usually shoot less than 500 shots. My MacDev tank has probably only done about 50,000 shots in its whole life. That's like 100 times less than the "worst case" scenario.

I just really don't want to spend another $150 right now. Seems dumb to me.

[Pyrate Jim]

Those rules are for protecting the field doing the filling.
What you do with your own property is up to you, as is any liability.
That's why I have my own fill stations (Co2 & HPA).
How I drain the tanks is not the fields responsibility. One shot at a time releases them from liability.

[rawbutter]

Those rules are for protecting the field doing the filling.
What you do with your own property is up to you, as is any liability.
That's why I have my own fill stations (Co2 & HPA).
How I drain the tanks is not the fields responsibility. One shot at a time releases them from liability.

Protection? From what? It's not like paintball tanks explode all the time. And besides, everyone knows about the risks. That's just part of the game.

[Tunaman]

Protection? From what? It's not like paintball tanks explode all the time. And besides, everyone knows about the risks. That's just part of the game.

But they DO explode...I've seen it happen and you dont want to be there when it does.

[rawbutter]

But they DO explode...I've seen it happen and you dont want to be there when it does.

It's never happened to me. It's never happened to anyone I know. It sucks that you had to see it, but I don't see why it happening to you means that I have to buy a new tank.

I mean, really. How many people play paintball every year? A million? Three million? And how many tanks explode every year? One? Ten? Even if a thousand tanks explode every year, that's like....less than 1/10 of a percent. Why make such an expensive rule over something so rare?

[Krautla]

[rawbutter]

It's not just time. It's a lot of money and effort too. I've gotta remove the tanks from the regulators. I've gotta mail them off to someone. And I've got to research and decide who to send my tanks to, what kind to buy when they expire...

The more I think about it, actually, the more I think there's a better way around this problem. Just print my own stickers with a different date on there. Carbon fiber tanks aren't stamped, after all. They just have a sticker under a gel coating. And no one at the field looks too hard at that. Half the time they don't even check.

Yeah...the more I think about it, this is way easier. Printing a fake sticker shouldn't be a problem. I can even make the date kinda old so the worn nature of the tank isn't suspect. And the gel coating..... That's just epoxy resin, right? I've got some of that stuff in my garage. I can just slap my "new" sticker over the old one and then seal it with clear epoxy.

[maniacmechanic]

The way I read the law ,, and I've read it a number of times over the years ,,, It's about transportation ,, DOT laws , if the bottle doesn't " travel " ( it stays on a rental marker all its life ) it TECHNICALLY never has to be rehydroed IMO , of course we Always have to look at the safety aspect of it

[Tunaman]

It's not just time. It's a lot of money and effort too. I've gotta remove the tanks from the regulators. I've gotta mail them off to someone. And I've got to research and decide who to send my tanks to, what kind to buy when they expire...

The more I think about it, actually, the more I think there's a better way around this problem. Just print my own stickers with a different date on there. Carbon fiber tanks aren't stamped, after all. They just have a sticker under a gel coating. And no one at the field looks too hard at that. Half the time they don't even check.

Yeah...the more I think about it, this is way easier. Printing a fake sticker shouldn't be a problem. I can even make the date kinda old so the worn nature of the tank isn't suspect. And the gel coating..... That's just epoxy resin, right? I've got some of that stuff in my garage. I can just slap my "new" sticker over the old one and then seal it with clear epoxy.

That is some real smart stuff there. Besides violating Federal law, you would be endangering other people too. I suppose you run Macro line with a SHP also? Safe right? I don't know how old you are, but I can tell you are too young to know and not old enough to know better.

[rawbutter]

The way I read the law ,, and I've read it a number of times over the years ,,, It's about transportation ,, DOT laws , if the bottle doesn't " travel " ( it stays on a rental marker all its life ) it TECHNICALLY never has to be rehydroed IMO , of course we Always have to look at the safety aspect of it

That's really a regulation more than a law, isn't it? Or is it a mandate? Whatever. But it's not a law. It wasn't written by a senator or congressman. It was just written by some guy that was appointed to the position. I certainly didn't vote for him.

Besides violating Federal law, you would be endangering other people too.

Last time I checked, this is a free country. I'm not responsible for keeping other people safe. The tank is mine. I can do whatever I want with it. The government can't make me give up my own personal property. The 4th Amendment protects me from that.

[Tunaman]

That's really a regulation more than a law, isn't it? Or is it a mandate? Whatever. But it's not a law. It wasn't written by a senator or congressman. It was just written by some guy that was appointed to the position. I certainly didn't vote for him.



Last time I checked, this is a free country. I'm not responsible for keeping other people safe. The tank is mine. I can do whatever I want with it. The government can't make me give up my own personal property. The 4th Amendment protects me from that.

There you have it. Another double standard. According to the Biden administration you ARE required to wear your mask to keep other people safe. Like you said...not a law, it's a mandate which should be unenforceable, made by some guy that I didn't vote for or Congress didn't approve. Only some things suit you right?

[rawbutter]

There you have it. Another double standard. According to the Biden administration you ARE required to wear your mask to keep other people safe. Like you said...not a law, it's a mandate which should be unenforceable, made by some guy that I didn't vote for or Congress didn't approve. Only some things suit you right?

There it is. Just what I was waiting for. Phew. I was actually getting worried that you weren't going to get it.

thank you for your cooperation.jpg


Okay. Time to fess up. No, I don't actually think that tank rules are dumb. Sorry I lied to you all. But I did it because I was trying to point out the hypocrisy of following hydro rules (which were made to keep people safe) but NOT wearing a mask or taking the covid vaccine (which were also made to keep people safe).

As I've pointed out, tank explosions are exceedingly rare. They're so rare that I can't even find statistics on how often they happen. I can only find news articles about specific explosions, and most of those are about industrial air tanks, not paintball tanks. But just so we have a number, let's say that 30 tanks explode each year for the 3+ million paintball players in the US. That at least makes the math easy, even if that number is stupidly high. That gives us a likelihood of 0.001%, or 1/100,000.

Compare that number, then, to the number of covid deaths, which is just over 700,000 for the 330 million US citizens. That means you have a 0.2% chance of getting covid, or about 1/500, which is about 20 times more likely than being killed by a tank explosion.

And if you're worried about side effects, well, about 8,100 people have died shortly after taking the covid vaccine, and about 390 million doses have been given so far, so that's a death rate of 0.0021%, or about 1/48,000.

There you have it. Your chances of being killed from covid vaccine side effects are definitely higher than your chances of being killed by a tank explosion, but it's still a ludicrously small number. And it's about 100 times more likely that you will catch covid and die (and pass it on to someone else you care about, who might also die). So please, wear your mask when you're out of the house, and get the vaccine. It's the best way to keep us all safe right now.

[Loguzzzzzz]

...So please, wear your mask when you're out of the house, and get the vaccine. It's the best way to keep us all safe right now.

... OH and don't forget to drink YOUR Kool Aid...

[rawbutter]

... OH and don't forget to drink YOUR Kool Aid...

Seriously, though, if the Kool Aid in this case is the vaccine, well, I've already done the math, haven't I? Seems like the much safer bet.

[Loguzzzzzz]

Seriously, though, if the Kool Aid in this case is the vaccine, well, I've already done the math, haven't I? Seems like the much safer bet.

you mean math like this?

Math.jpg