Air tank/air efficiency question?

[Robert Dalton]

I'm new to owning my own gear and have the planet eclipse etha, with a 3000 psi steel tank however I only managed to put through a hopper and 2 pods before I'm out of air from a 2-2.5 fill in my tank?

What can I do to improve this, do I need to change settings or buy a larger tank?

 

[Tom]

Have a look at the calculator linked below, this will give you a comparative guide

http://www.scubatoys.com/paintball/paintballshots.asp

Part of the issue is that by starting with only 2000 - 2500psi you are disadvantaged by not having the capacity the cylinder will take *
Changing cylinder won't help with that, other than a bigger one

You can always adjust settings for more or less efficiency, barrel matching to the bore of the paintballs on the day and fine tuning velocity
With velocity it's not just a matter of shooting at the allowable velocity (eg 280fps) but you can find more consistency with a little turn down. The hammerhead website has a good guide to this as 'dialing in' their barrel kits

* Regarding the initial pressure issue- if the fill system is fast the cylinder and air will heat up, the air expands and you get an artificially higher pressure, wait a few minutes and as the cylinder and air cool the pressure drops

When filling do it slowly, stop a couple of times and pause for a moment then fill some more. If filling from empty then definately take time
Then return a few minutes later to top up
(Check the fill pressure when you have filled and check again a little later, then you will know if this is the reason)

At the start of the day fill up as early as possible, then top up before going in game. As you exit refill, and then top up before going in game

 

[Robert Dalton]

Thanks for the advice Tom, maybe it was due to the site not having their compressor on explaining the lackluster air fills.

I'll take your advice when I'm out next weekend see if it helps!! Thanks

 

[Tom]

I didn't go into the issues of it depending on the type of source, there are many ways a fill system can be configured, and also some people use dive cylinders when they are in remote locations

It's not realy practical to run just from a compressor - it has to be running while people fill. It's better to have some stages such as the compressor filling a large holding cylinder, then that feeding into the fill rig. You can then still run the compressor while people are filling, but can also turn it off and people fill which will gradually drain the main cylinder.

As each person fills the source and users cylinder equalise pressure, the source slowly drops in pressure

If it's big enough or there are sufficient multiple cylinders then people won't notice the drop and get approx 3000psi
If it's not big enough then the first person gets just under 3000psi, each person in line gets a little less
In these cases it's best to ration the fill, and give everyone a lower pressure such as 2800psi. Then everyone gets a consistent 2800, and it will last longer before the source drops below 2800

Even better is if the source and compressor are set a little higher and the fill rig regulated. Even if the fill rig can hold more then fill the source at say 3500 and regulate the full station to 3000. People then get consistent 3000psi fills for a while

Another method is to cascade cylinders. This is how people have used scuba cylinders for more serious fills at remote locations, especially as fills from dive shops charge per fill no matter how low the customers cylinder was to start
Eg have 3 scuba cylinders are filled to 3000psi:
Fill your empty paintball cylinder from number 1
Both drop to 29-- something
Avoid draining the paint ball cylinder too much and just keep topping it up to avoid needing so much to restore the fill
Accept that for the first few fills, until it starts dropping too far

Next top up from 1 as far as it will go, eg 2500
Use number 2 to top up further for 2900 etc
Keep filling from both 1 and 2 each time

You then notice cylinder 2 is lasting longer
When it's had it use 1,2,3

When 1 has dropped too far to bother take it to a dive shop and fill to 3000
Now call it number 4. So you have 2,3&4
Use 2 as the starter, 3 as top up and 4 as final top up

Repeat

 

[Robert Dalton]

The site I go to has 4 scuba tanks connected to a compressor I think but someone must have forgot to turn on the compressor in the morning so we were getting low fills to start with, never got near 3000 all day

 

[Gee Tee]

Assuming you have a 48ci tank and not a 68ci or larger

You won't get very many sots off 2500psi