Fill Stations
Printed From: Tippmann Paintball
Category: Tippmann Paintball
Forum Name: New Player Forum
Forum Description: New to the sport? Get Professional Advice Here!
URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=191182
Printed Date: 31 October 2025 at 3:17am
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Topic: Fill Stations
Posted By: Gigglez
Subject: Fill Stations
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 10:37am
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Hey everyone, Im new to the Tippmann forums, Ive been playing paintball for about a year now and Im in the process of trying to build up my local play group for woodsball. The problem I've run into is that after 2-3 games people with 12oz tanks run out of CO2 and cant afford a larger tank. The logical solution seems to be to buy a fill station, Im looking to get a fill station thats affordable, the downside being that I need a tank with a syphon tube because of the liquid CO2 our guns use. So after a few encounters with the local fire supply guy (CO2 provider in my area), he suggested that if I was to buy a 20# tank to use as a fill station I could use a regular cylinder without a syphon tube as long as I keep the tank stored upside down while filling. This suggestion immediately sent up some red flags in my mind, So herein lies the root to my question. In anyone's experience: Can a fill station be used upside down safely? perhaps mounted into a device that keeps it at a 45 degree angle. Please remember that my intent is to be able to afford a cheap and safe fill station so that my buddies and I can get out and enjoy more paintball. Additionally I dont have a truck to tote around a 75# tank so Im limited to a 20# cylinder, Larger tanks are much easier to find with syphon tubes.
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Replies:
Posted By: tallen702
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 12:56pm
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Back in my pro-shop days, we hosted "outlaw" events in the mid-hudson valley of NY. We offered both CO2 and HPA fills at the game, and we had players that brought their own fill stations as well. One of them had theirs set up the exact same way you're talking about, with the cylinder mounted on a rack upside-down. His was perfectly vertical instead of 45* and he basically used some come-along straps to strap it into the frame. It works OK but was a bit awkward to use. Honestly, a siphon-tube cylinder shouldn't be much more expensive. The other option would be to rent a syphon-tubed equipped cylinder in the size you need from Airgas or Robert's Oxygen and charge people for fills to cover the cost. That way you can use a standard fill-station. With the upside-down apparatus, it's more difficult to get it high enough off the ground to both hang a scale for tare weight and fill weight, and to operate the valve on the less expensive stations. If you want to do it right the first time, I'd go with the siphon setup and a good fill station (expect to pay around $70 new) which has a blow-off valve to keep the tank o-rings from going bad. ------------- <Removed overly wide sig. Tsk, you know better.> |
Posted By: Gigglez
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 9:54pm
| Thanks a lot for the info. I was going to buy a re-hydro'd tank from the local fire safety supplier, the problem was that finding a 20# tank with a siphon tube is next to impossible. Guess it boils down to getting a cylinder from amazon. |
Posted By: tallen702
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 11:20pm
Have you checked with your local gas supply companies? I've seen 20# siphon tanks from Roberts Oxygen before. ------------- <Removed overly wide sig. Tsk, you know better.> |
Gigglez wrote:Posted By: Gigglez
Date Posted: 25 April 2013 at 8:10am
| I haven't, I didn't realize that the oxygen companies used siphon tubes I thought it was fairly rare, but I actually have a couple buddies that work in that field I'm going to contact. |
Posted By: tallen702
Date Posted: 25 April 2013 at 9:12am
Yeah, they're actually the ones who supply most paintball pro shops. When I worked at a pro shop, we simply rented our tanks from the supplier. They'd just rotate them out as they were empty and delivered new ones. We used both 20 and 70 pound CO2 and 6kpsi N2 tanks on a cascade. ------------- <Removed overly wide sig. Tsk, you know better.> |
Posted By: impulse418
Date Posted: 17 May 2013 at 4:27am
| 6k tanks are ungodly heavy. I do not miss loading, and unloading those |
Posted By: Parts Tech
Date Posted: 21 May 2013 at 5:21pm
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Use the tanks with the siphon tubes. I am familiar with using standard 20# tanks upside down and it is not worth the hassle. You can't weight the tanks as you fill them. It will cost you more in lost cow and burst discs than the cost of the siphon tube.
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