HPA/COMPRESSED AIR/N2/Nitro Sticky/FAQ Thing

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**HPA? N2? NITRO?** The same thing
N2, Nitro, High Pressure Air (HPA), Compressed Air are all the same thing when it comes to usage in paintball. Is there a difference between the first two and the rest? Yes, but we are not in chemistry so don't worry about it.

**THE NUMBERS** How much pressure it holds
Compressed Air is that it is just that, air that is compressed under high pressure which is stored in tanks at pressures ranging from 3,000psi (pounds per square inch), 4,500psi and 5,000psi. All Compressed Air tanks have a label on them to tell you how much pressure they can hold. Also compressed air tanks come in many different sizes, some as small as 45ci (cubic inches) up to 114ci.

**TANK SIZES** Physical size
The Cubic Size of the tank refers to how large the tank itself is. But which size is best for you? It literally comes down to personal preference. You may be a small person and think a small tank would be best or you might be a larger person and think a large tank will be best but the truth is, I have seen many smaller players using 88ci tanks and larger players with smaller 45ci tanks. We all have our own personal preference as to which size tank feels most comfortable to hold. The best recommendation that I could give to any player whether they've only played once or are a seasoned player is to go down to their local field and get the feel of each size tank yourself and choose because only you, knows what is most comfortable for yourself.

**TANK PRESSURES** Pressure INSIDE the tank
So now you know all about the size of the tank and what it means. How about the pressures? Simple, the higher pressure of air you can cram into the bottle the more air you're going to be able to pull out when you're on the field which equals more shots and less trips to the fill station. At this
point I'm sure you're thinking "I'm gonna get me one of them 5,000psi tanks!", hold your horses, there are some other things that determine if you can get your tank filled to 5,000psi or not. The first problem is the material your tank is made out of, I will be getting to that later in this article. The problem I will explain in this part has to do with the fill station setup itself. Fields use bulk tanks (those large scuba like tanks) as a source of air. The tanks hold roughly 3,000psi of air when full. After being used a couple of times the pressure slowly drops lower and lower the more it is used to fill tanks. If your field only has those bulk tanks, you should not look into tanks that hold 4,500psi or 5,000psi unless they are planning on upgrading or you are going to play tournaments and most tournaments use high powered air compressors (no, the garage air compressor will not work because the majority can only fill to roughly 300psi) to fill tanks up to 4,500psi or 5,000psi. If your field has a booster (roughly the size of a car amplifier) then it's a good chance they can fill to 4,500psi and possibly to 5,000psi but call to make sure. A booster takes the 3,000psi that is going into it and compresses the air even more and sends that higher amount of pressurized air to your tank.

**TANK MATERIALS** Steel / Fiberwrapped
As I promised earlier I'm going to explain the difference in material that tanks come in. They come in either Steel or Fiber wrapped. Steel tanks are generally cheaper because of the technology they use is fairly simple, it is a steel canister with a reg on it. Steel tanks are heavier then Fiber wrapped as well. When it comes to the amount of pressure a steel tank can hold, they are limited to 3,000psi. Fiber wrapped tanks are more expensive because there is more technology used in creating them. The entire tank itself is not Fiber wrapped, the fiber is glued to a metal canister that is normally made of aluminum. These tanks can hold; 3,000psi, 4,500psi and some of the tanks can hold 5,000psi. If you decided from the previous section that a 3,000psi tank is the way to go but you're unsure of whether a steel tank or Fiber wrapped will be better... Go with your budget on this. There is no difference in tank performance between Steel and fiberwrapped. If you decided that you want a 4,500psi or 5,000psi tank then the choice is clear as to which type of tank you will need.

**SHOTS PER TANK** Different for EVERY marker
Now that I have explained that higher PSI pressures mean more shots and the larger the tank the more air that can fit. Which tank will hold more air? Will a 68/3000 hold a less amount of air as a 48/4500? The answer is YES! The 68ci is larger then the 48ci yet the pressure in the 48ci is 150% more
then in the 68ci. So how do you determine which tanks will hold more air? Take the Ci(A) of the tank and times that by the pressure it can hold(p). X times P = Amount of air inside tank. So for the example above, you would do: (68 x 3,000 = 204,000) < (48 x 4,500 = 216,000). More Air = More amount of shots. There is not an accurate formula that will tell you how many shots you will get out of your marker. To be honest, the two exact same markers will vary on the amount of shots. To find out the estimate of how many shots you will receive ask someone that seems knowledgeable in your marker specific thread.

**TANK OUTPUT** Low, High, Adjustable; How much pressure it puts OUT
So we now know all about CI, PSI, Materials, how many shots you will get and all of that other confusing stuff. Lets get into some of the different types of Compressed Air tanks! (and I bet you thought we were finished ) The three kinds of tanks I am going to cover are High Pressure Presets, Low Pressure Presets and Adjustable because those are the three most common tanks out there on the fields. With these three tanks, everything you learned above applies to all of them, the difference is in the regulator attachted to the tank.
*A High Pressure Preset tank has a regulator that has a fixed pressure which it will allow to come out and go into your marker.

* A High Pressure Preset reg will put out anywhere from 800psi to 850psi.

* A Low Pressure Preset has a fixed output of anywhere from 400psi to 450psi.

* An Adjustable reg has an adjustable pressure output (depending on brand, so what I have listed does not hold true to every adjustable on the market) of 0psi to 1,000psi.

High Pressure Prest and Low Pressure Presets run at the same price but an Adjustable tank will run you higher do to the fact that it is adjustable. The adjustable will work on any tank because you can adjust the amount of pressure it gives off. The High Pressure presets will work on any marker on the market no matter what the pressure is because the secondary reg that is located on the marker (inline/vertical reg) will lower the pressure down to what is needed by the marker, the only exception to this rule is if the reg itself can not handle the amount of pressure that a High Pressure preset will be feeding it. If this is the case then a Low Pressure Preset might be what your looking at getting, but the Low Pressure Preset will only work on low pressure markers. As a general rule of thumb you want the pressure coming from the tank going into the marker (or inline/vertical reg) to be 200psi above what your marker is operating at )or if you have a reg, the amount your reg is putting into the marker) to prevent shootdown. In short terms, shootdown is when you starve the marker of air, generally when your shooting really fast. So to sum this section up, for the majority of people, it would be the best bang for the buck to get a High Pressure Preset because it can be used on nearly every setup that is out there currently.

**Hydro Testing** Safety tests
What they do when they hydro a tank is remove the reg, do a visual inspection of the tank and if that passes they go on to the next step. They first take a measurement of the tanks diameter before they begin putting it in a tank of water and filling it up to a certain percent above the tanks rating with water pressure. Obviously the tank IS going to expend. No idea how long they live it filled above that rating but when they remove the tank from the testing thing they remeasure the tanks diameter. The tank has to come back to near the original size. I'm not sure how close to it but if it doesn't return to the original size good enough then it doesn't pass. Like if your tank diameter was 30" b4 and 32" after, that wouldn't pass but if it was 30" before and like 30.2" after, i believe that would pass.

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Absolutely all credit goes to Reaper22 on PBNation.com (he is now banned)

Someone was saying we needed a sticky on HPA/Nitro so I brought this over from the other forum.

Banned from pbnation?  Is that even possible?

Wow.

It doesnt really explain the different brands of tanks. It has a lot of great stuff for a person whos wondering why they should go nitro....but their next question is what tank.

Heres the one I wrote for the Ariakon forum. BTW there a lot of stickies over there on common questions(even 98C vs A5 vs SIM-4)

eagle wrote:   TANKS CO2 12gram-small, 15-30 shots. Mainly for pistols and Stock players. 4oz-117-234 shots. AKA Spare Air. Prefilled. One time use. Cheaper then using 12grams...There is also a refillible 4oz brasseagle that many stock players use to save money. 9oz-450 shots, small. Dont Recomend. About the same size as a 12, and about the same price. 12oz-750 shots small, Recommended for beginners 14oz-800 shots, small, Dont recomend. More expensive then 12 but for just a few more shots. 16oz-900 shots, medium. Dont recomend. I suggest just getting a 20oz 20oz-1200 shots, bigger and heavier. Recommended for beginners who want more shots Nitro/HP CI/PSI 13/3000-150 shots, new and many stock players are starting to use them. Still the stock feel, but gives it the CA advantage that most non-stock players have been using for a few years now.  47/3000-450 shots, small, heavy (aluminum like CO2 tanks), cheap, I recommend for players who want the performance of HP but don’t have the wallet size. 68/3000-650 shots, medium size, lighter because its fiber-wrapped, Recommended for players with a tighter budget but not too small of one 114/3000-1450 shots, big, TOO big, don’t recommend to anyone 45/4500-800 shots, small, recommend too front men in speedball, or people to like to have compact markers 68/4500-1000 shots, medium size. Probably the most popular tank. Recommend to anyone in that price range 88/4500-1350 shots, bigger but not too big, recommend to anyone in that price range looking for a great amount of shots 70/4500-1200 shots, AKA peanuts, really small, and are made for speedball front players 91/4500-1400 shots, bigger for most, but some like it, seems to be more expensive, recommend it to people who like the size of it and can afford it (WARNING: # OF SHOTS VARY GUN TO GUN. THESE ARE ROUGH ESTAMITES) COMPANIES? PMI-Nice tanks. Need better regulators. Great Price. Java-No, just No Crossfire-Great tanks. Great regulators. Great Price. Performs as well as most high-end tanks. 3A-Paintball-Great Tanks. Great regulators. Much like Crossfire. You can get cool designs. Cheaper then most and they sell tanks through EBAY so you can get them even cheaper. NitroDuck-Great Tanks. Great Regulators. Little more expensive. Some have the Tuff Skin so it will help protect the tank. Dye-Great tanks. Great regulators. Expensive. System X-Same as NitroDuck WGP-Great tanks. Great regulators. Expensive. WDP-Great tanks. Amazing regulators and easily adjustable. Way too expensive. No need for that good of a regulator, especially if you have dual regulators. Evil- Great tanks. Great Regulators. 5000psi, which is useless because 99% of places don’t fill that high. Expensive. Smart Parts-Really nice tanks, really nice regulators. Really expensive. These make dual regulators useless. FILLING? Before buying a tank, call your fields that you play at and see how high they fill. Some don’t fill 4500PSI tanks therefore making 4500PSI tanks useless for you. Most places will fill HP for free, or you can get all-day air for pretty cheap. SETTING UP YOUR AIRSOURCE For woods All that is really necessary is a remote (preferably with a slide check) Maybe a bottom-line. For Speedball Most need to set it up with a gas-through grip, expansion chamber, or a regulator. They gun usually comes with one of those. Then you need to get yourself a braided line or micro-line kit. Then to set yourself up a drop w/ASA adapter or just an ASA adapter (your preference).

Ariakon_Eagle, you answered many questions for me. Your post needs to be stickied!

wow, i feel bad for bobeo, cause this won't get stickied, kinda a waste of time lol.  There is plenty of stuff like this in the FAQ sticky already, but if u added it as a reply, i'm sure that would be helpful to some people.  and eagle, u should add your thing too.

Edit:  just kinda read it, and now realized he didn't even write it lol, nvm not a waste of time .

Ariakon_Eagle, you post is perfect except for your last paragraph, you should change the microline to macroline. I hear microline starves the gun at high rates of fire.

Good job.