Water in the HPA tank?

[evildead420]

yesterday i went to sherwood forest to play for the day. i brought my 48/3000 pmi hpa tank empty to fill it up at the field. i was the first person to fill there hpa tank. As i put the tank on my mag, cloudy water substance was leaking out the macrolines till the lines locked in place, and i went to dryfire to see what was going on, and i was spraying water out my valve and out the barrel,not alot, but noticeable for the first 100-150 shots.After, it wasnt spraying water or whatever it was, But it was messing with the shots.

I asked the dudes at the field there after the game and they were, uhhhhhhhhhh, water? well, there could of been oil or water in the hoses, is this right or what? they thought i was kinda crazy or something

Can anyone explain this phenomenon , 3rd time using this mag and kinda uhhhhhhhhh on it

[Cryer]

I think it shouldnt hurt really. Just fill your tank, point the marker down to get all the water/oil/whatever to the front of the tank, then shoot it empty.

If you get it all out, you whouldnt have a problem with rust/corrosion.

I'm not an airsmith, so I dont know for sure, I'm just saying what makes sense to me.

[bubbleman441]

Hey, you go to Sherwood Forest! I stop by there every once and awhile. Not a lot of mag owners there. I'll keep an eye out for your mag next time I go. :)

[punkncat]

That is due to the filling process.
Whoever is doing your HPA fills needs to get a water filter for their compressor.
As you pull air from the atmosphere and compress it then all the humidity in the air goes into your tank.Any reputable shop should be using filters to eliminate this.
Water in your HPA tank will cause corrosion.Water in the internals of some markers can also cause damage.
Make sure you bring this up the next time you have your tank filled.

[evildead420]

punkncat: Makes sence, will ask them next time. the tanks were in a huge truck and i couldnt see the fill station. but ill take my time for whoever to fill it up first to give it a shot. i thought i could be bad, but not yet anyway

bubbleman441: Maybe next weekend?

Cryer: basically thats what i did. thx

[kscullin]

While I wouldn't discount it completely, the water shouldn't hurt anything if you shoot it all out as the liner of your tank is likely aluminum, and most of the parts of your regulator are brass or aluminum.

Oil in your tank is another story. Oil under the pressures in HPA tanks becomes extremely combustible and dangerous. If they even SUSPECT that they have oil in their air lines for filling tanks, I would never get my tank filled there again, and they should clean out their system.

[RobAGD]

Actually water can cause quite a few problems in many gun and not to mention long term problems with the tanks.

Water will cause problem with electro pnumatic noids as well as corsion in teh tanks. Pointingthe gun down and shoot it empty will not get the water out unless the valve/reg is recessed in teh neck of teh tank, most regs will extent to some extent into the tank to give a little more of a safty if it starts to seperate from the tank.

Filter on the compressores are very important, the little 5k compressor we have at my shop gets about 20-30hrs of run time per filter and we have 2 differnt monitors for humitity levels in teh compressed air.

BTW - just a little note Pevs is a dealer for the bauer compressors. We current have 6 of thier units and over all they are damn reliable and easy to maintain. We use a little 5k 4cf deal in the shops with 2 4500psi bulk tanks and we use a push button fill pannel, runs about an hour a day to keep up with fill demands. We have a semi portable deal in a step side truck for events and the field uses an older Vertices. We have a 11 or 13cf 6k monster in our woodbridge shop.

-Robert

[Tunaman]

While I wouldn't discount it completely, the water shouldn't hurt anything if you shoot it all out as the liner of your tank is likely aluminum, and most of the parts of your regulator are brass or aluminum.

Oil in your tank is another story. Oil under the pressures in HPA tanks becomes extremely combustible and dangerous. If they even SUSPECT that they have oil in their air lines for filling tanks, I would never get my tank filled there again, and they should clean out their system.

Well water does not compress so there can be big safety issues when adding water to your tank. Stay away from this place...

[SeeK]

Well water does not compress so there can be big safety issues when adding water to your tank. Stay away from this place...

Water doesn't compress but corrosion issues aside the only safety issue would be it squirting out at high pressure. It's like those toy rockets that use water and pumped up air to launch. There would be some air in solution so it would bubble when released. The bottle pressure should remain the same. The big problem would be if the burst disk or the valve shot out the water. The stream would cut through clothing and flesh.

[cphilip]

If there is water in their compressed air they royaly screwed up maintaining thier compressor. You should go back and complain to the manager immediately and have him document the date and time it happened. There should not be any water and it will corrode the inside of the tank and eventually that can cause tank failure from within. And that cannot easily be seen. They should pay for a full removal of the valve and tank cleaning/drying and rehydro on your tank and cleaning of your regulator on that tank by its manufacturer. Immediately. It's their responsiblity to see that they have clean dry air. It can cause problems. And water NOR OIL should not be in there. No way they can just dismiss either of those. It must be clean and dry and free of either of those materials. Air only.


Water readily condenses out of air when its compressed. But it should be trapped before it get to the fill hose. They failed to keep that from happening.

[gc82000]

thanks you guys and cphilip for addressing this problem. I live on the island of guam and the humidity can be anywhere between 90% to 110%, and this problem could easily happen here. i know that the feild that i play at uses a filter but can water be transferred when using a scuba tank or aomething similar?

[cphilip]

thanks you guys and cphilip for addressing this problem. I live on the island of guam and the humidity can be anywhere between 90% to 110%, and this problem could easily happen here. i know that the feild that i play at uses a filter but can water be transferred when using a scuba tank or aomething similar?

Only if the SCUBA was filled by water in air mixture. It would condense out when compressed. And then be trapped.

BUT.... no matter if they have a filter or not. If they do not maintain it then it will fill up and then it will be pushed into the hose and down to the fill connect. It has to be emptied. Ether manualy or automatically. Before the water trap is overflowing. And even auto systems can fail and the fluid overflow into the lines. It has to be visualy checked each day and water in the water trap emptied or verified empty. Or its not being properly maintained. And it will then push down the line and into any tank you try to fill.

[xXHavokXx]

I generally avoid sherwood. Last time i was there it turned into a blood bath when the refs stopped calling people out and they just let kids go nuts.

[Resist148]

sherwood is dangerous and and unfun I wouldn't play there if you paid me.

[devildog]

im not sure how much this applies to paintball tanks cause they are much smaller, but a general rule for scuba tanks is dont ever let them drain all the way, always leave a couple hundred psi in it so you dont get water condensation in it. just a thought.......