Why does everyone consider this taboo? It's like $2 bucks to fill a 100ft^3, which gives you maybe 50 fills of a 20 oz. tank. All my friends say that it will only last for a few shots, but I obviously proved them wrong. I have a 9oz. tank, and it lasted for 3 games before the balls started to fall noticably short. Also, it's not like I fired a half dozen rounds a match; I used just short of two hoppers. I really don't see how CO2 would function dramatically better. Yes, CO2 is a slightly denser than air, which I guess gives it more of a "spring", and allow  some of your first shots to be a bit faster, but with that logic, CO2 would disperse faster than air.

ALSO, the idiots at my local shop are quite simply put, idiots. The man who owns it knows little-to-nothing (more of the latter) about the general pyshics of gas, simple pnumatics, and physical mechanics.

He learned that I was using "heathen" compressed air and freaked. He started almost-yelling (not loud enough but the tone was right) about how he'd never sell me anything again, and that I'm going to kill my self. No matter how many times I explain it to him, and how simple I make it, he just can not grasp the thought that the gas has NOTHING to do with the tank bursting; it's the PSI inside it. I told him something like this "look, I could fill it with 500PSI air and nothing would happen, but if I took 100,000 PSI of liquified **edited**, it would definately burst" and he still didn't get it. On my rig, I have a gauge, too, so I can check what PSI the paintball gas tank has. As long as you don't rip open that ball valve and hold it open like an idiot, you'll be fine. And even if you were to hold it open like that, you have to remember the burst disc. Worst case that would blow, and you'll have sore ears, but that's it.

"Why does everyone consider this taboo?"

As in what's your thoughts and opinions?

And I don't understand why you're such an asshole.

"...what if you don't look at the reg for one moment and you over fill?" You'd probably get a Darwin award for that.

You morons must not hear me; BURST DISCS. But I'm not that much of an idiot to open it entirely.

First of all, I don't know any methods of filling Compressed Air through a pin valve, only CO2. So I find it hard to believe you.

CO2 is gas. Air is gas. And while CO2 is somewhat denser than air, its not a big enough difference to effect the fill.Unless you think that air is so thin it'd leak out. Which isn't the case, because I doesn't.

Second, it's impossible to fill a CO2 tank to 100,000 psi because there's not a tank in the world that would hold that pressure just for the purpose of filling paintball tanks.

Did you actually read all that I wrote? Or do you just like to make accusations with half-knowledge? I said that no matter what you filled it with at that PSI (a la "liquified crap"), it'd blow. And actually, the tank would not blow. The burst disc would. And even if you had a steel burst-less disc, it wouldn't "blow up", at worst, the neck would crack and the valve would blow out and itd spew gas. I know of someone who did an experiement; he took aluminum SCUBA tanks and steel SCUBA tanks, both filled up, and shot them. He took a video of it, and guess what happened? The just leaked out. No big booms or anything. I knew the steel would do fine, but I must admit that the slight cracking in the aluminum tank did surprise me.

Save yourself some trouble and some pain and fill your CO2 tank with CO2. If you really want to use compressed air, buy an HPA tank. They run as low as $65 at Action Village.

I'm not going to waste my money. I have a brain, and I use it. When you think, you actually save a bunch of time and money. You should try it sometime.

I've filled and used tanks with compressed air hundreds of times, and I'm still here, with no problems at all.

Has anyone here heard of an "advanced mix card"? It's a little yellow card that you can show the shop keeper to prove you know what youre talking about. Of course my all-knowledgable shop keeper, who's the best in the land at pnumatics and all the like, never even HEARD of this kind of thing.

Also, I have found the answer to my initial question:

Q: "Why is compressed air considered taboo (by the paintball world)?"

A: Because you're all idiots.

And on another note, SCUBA guys know a hell of alot more about mixing gases and the properties and effects they have then paintballers do. Why is this? Because at 300 feet down and inside a mile long cave, if they were to have miscalculated, mis-mixed, mis-anything-ed, they could and would be very dead.

Also, FYI, I'm not a super-hardcore, super-skilled wreck and cave diver like my father. I do have my advanced open water, but that's not anything to grand.

"I have never heard of the "Advanced Mix Card" and I have worked a paintball field/store for 2 and a half years, and have played for alot longer than that."

That's because to play paintball as an average or even above average person (knowledge-wise not "skill-wise" mind you), you don't need to know these things. There's a kid who works at my local shop who dropped out of my highschool last year. I'm glad that idiot doesn't work at a SCUBA shop.

And so you know, a lady was killed diving about 2 months ago because some idiot filled her tanks wrong. That idiot would compare to those of you who "just work there". They don't know how to do anything other then what they were specifically trained in. Thinking outside the box? Careful, they might get an aneurysm.

Once you've taken everyone of these classes, I'll acknowledge your thought on this matter as legitiment.

http://www.scubadiver.cc/tecdiver.htm - http://www.scubadiver.cc/tecdiver.htm

And lastly,

You've never heard of advanced gas-mix classes because you're into paintball. A paintball is much simpler than SCUBA equipment. Also, it need not be as precise.

Tec divers are the masters, bow down before their knowledge on these things, just as I do.

Dude, careful of what you say on the forums. Getting strikes is pretty easy when you have a potty mouth.

By the way, I have never noticed anyone making fun of other people for compressed air, and in fact, almost everyone at my field either uses their own comp. air, or rents it.

Destroy_Boy wrote: And on another note, SCUBA guys know a hell of alot more about mixing gases and the properties and effects they have then paintballers do. Why is this? Because at 300 feet down and inside a mile long cave, if they were to have miscalculated, mis-mixed, mis-anything-ed, they could and would be very dead.

no true at all, they do know about it, but that doesnt make them experts on the subject, while i do agree they do need to know about it....but there are some paintballers who know chemistry and physics ( i took chem and am taking physics in hs, but i dont claim myself an expert whatsoever) and do know alot about the mixture of gasses and how they work and what it takes to propel an object x distance with x number of force behind its initial velocity and angle of fire

Destroy_Boy wrote: CO2 is gas. Air is gas. I've filled and used tanks with compressed air hundreds of times, and I'm still here, with no problems at all.

A gas is not CO2's only form, it can also be present as a liquid, or a solid (dry-ice)  CO2 tanks are equipped to handle CO2 in it's liquid form....hence the entire point of anit-syphon kits...

Destroy_Boy wrote:  they could and would be very dead.

as opposed to only a little bit dead

You know what, strike me out, I can't stand to be around idiots. While some of you seemed somewhat knowledgeable, most of you are stupid.

I'm certified too, mixing gasses doesn't have anything to do with paintball.

I used that as a reference to my knowledge on the subject.

And tanks too have blown up before. I've seen a news video (I forget if it was on TV or online) about a kids tank blowing up in the middle of the night. Not a burst disk or anything, the entire tank. The walls and many other things in the room were shredded.

Maybe paintball tanks aren't as well engineered as SCUBA tanks...

About my comment regarding not knowing how to fill a CO2 tank with Compressed air through a pin valve. I've never seen an adaptor to go from scuba tank to pin valve. It always goes to the fill nipple on the sides of HPA regs. So unless you rigged something to attach a SCUBA tank to a CO2 tank, I'm clueless as to how you did it.

Yeah, I rigged up something. I'll take pictures tommorow. Sound good?

"Also, FYI, I'm not a super-hardcore, super-skilled wreck and cave diver like my father."

If your dad was so hardcore about diving, I'd imagine that he has a lot of expensive gear. - A big yes.

He obviously has more than one tank if he is obsessed enough - About half a dozen; 2 sets of steel doubles, a few aluminum that he lets me use (aluminum sucks for tec diving apparently), and a bunch of pony bottles. 

(not saying obsessions are a bad thing) - not at all!

(Am I right that he has a dive computer and not just some basic pressure guages?) I don't know of anyone to have not used dive computers in recent time.

You, having an Advanced Open-Water certification probably have your own gear too (or share with your dad. Either way you'd need the equipment for at least two people). Yeah I borrow his old "recreational diver" equip. I = to him what some kid with a pump gun may = to you.

So if you have thousands of dollars worth of equipment just to dive, why is $65 such an inconveniance for you? - Because that's $65 I don't have to waste. CO2, Nitrogen, and air are all very similar gases. While they are very similar in density, and their compressional properties are near identical, so that means they'd last the same time.

Now I've also used Argon. As a matter of fact, the first time I filled my own paintball tank I used Argon. Argon is a much less "springy" gas; it doesn't compress much in comparison to air, N2, or CO2. Now if you think that the air may leak out or something, this may be a legitimate argument if it were Helium. He is a very thin gas; if you've ever had a nylon balloon filled with it, you'll know that they leak a lot faster than their air-filled counterparts.

And I mean it, I filled a 9 oz tank to approx. 1800 PSI, and it lasted for about two and a half hoppers. So thats maybe 500 rounds, right? I don't know, whats the standard hopper hold? 200 rounds? 250 rounds?

usafpilot07 wrote: I think WGP took diving classes for the sole purpose of one day being able to argue with someone on this very subject.

lol, i agree