Hi everyone

I have search around for a little while and the one topic I came upon was very helpful, but I didnt really understand the one section of it.

It talked about flipping the Main tank upside down for some reason. I did not understand how this would help, they said it was something about filling off of liquid Co2 instead of gas. Is it better to fill with liquid than gas?

The reason I ask all this is because me and a couple co-workers who are planning to start playing paintball together are going to fill our tanks at home. We all work at subway and I realized we could probably use the tanks from coke-a-cola to fill our tanks if we got a scale and a valve and adapter for it.

so my question is, would filling from a coke Co2 tank work? should I find a set up to flip the tank upside down? or do the coke canisters come with siphon tubes that will draw liquid from the bottom anyways?

thank you for any info you can provide

btw yes I know what I am doing when filling co2 tanks and actually am going to recieve official training on how to fill Co2 the weekend of the 11th.

When you put the tank on a scale, and zero it out with the tank empty you can then measure up to 20 oz. Just putting plain co2 gas will not give you a 20 oz. fill. Most of the 20 oz. comes from the liquid co2 that is put into the tank.

I guess your coke tank is just regular co2, correct? If it is, you should be able to use it. The easiest way to find out if it has a siphon is to see if it says it has one or filling a tank with it upwards and seeing how many shots you get with it or if it fills to the desired amount.

To answer your quesiton Snick,  yes,  if you wer using a Co2 bottle from a Coke dispensing system,  it would have to be upside down,  as they do not normally have a Siphon,  or "Dip" tube as they call them in the gas industry.

It is difficult to deal with a 20 lb. tank in the upside down position.

A standard Co2 fill station will work, but, you have to screw it in so that everything is facing UP,  when the Tank is upside down.

  If you tried to fill with the Coke tank "right side up", you would be only filling with gas, not liquid,  which would place just about 1 oz. of Co2, by weight,  into your PB tank (NO matter whether it's a 20 oz or a 12 ozer, it always is about 1 oz.)  That's how you know when your bulk tank is running out, you keep getting a 1 or a 2 oz. fill.

If fields placed only expanded C02 gas into players bottle, they would be lucky to get even 50 shots out of it.  It would be quite obvious.  PB fields use bulk tanks with Dip tubes so it would be impossible for them to do so, unless their tank ran dry.  Also,  the money is in the Paint,  the gas is cheap,  so it behooves them to gas you up,  so you can shoot that paint so they can make money.  A field that short-filled PB tanks would actually be lessening their paint profits, not making more money.

It's wise to fill just below capacity.  Place 18 ozs into a 20 ozer,  place 11 ozs into a 12 ozer.  This leaves a small gas bubble which allows for better expansion if the gas as it enters your air lines and gun's valve.  This becomes more critical as temps drop in fall and winter.

Finally, don't refill your tanks unless you are experienced and know the safety issues.  A bulk Co2 tank contains a lot of potential force and should be respected.  Tipping them upside down is probably not real safe.

does it matter weither the 20 oz. is higher or lower than the main 20 LB tank? would it make a difference in filling it? 

just kinda wondering because the way siphons work