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PSA: Paintball Regulator Threading

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Hajimoto:

PSA:

There has been a growing trend over the years where paintball tank technology has made its way over to the HPA world and it really should not be happening. Please let me expand, Co2 produces around 800PSI so a removable bottle with a ball or pin seal can be removed without much of an issue but when you start hitting 1400PSI or higher, there is an incredible amount of stress exerted on the regulator bonnet threads. They begin to gall and wear excessively when being screwed in or out under these pressures.




Anything over 2200PSI really should have the ball seal or pin seal removed to prevent the bottle from being filled off the PCP and then screwed on which is why most of your higher operating pressure bottle guns (except FX which has a very well engineered close tolerance activation gap on the internal valve) cannot be filled off the PCP.

Case and point is the newly released Gauntlet 30 caliber which still uses a paintball style regulator but the output pressure or operating pressure is 2800psi. Paintball threads were never designed to deal with those pressures and be actively threaded on or off.

I know we have all seen videos or articles where the instructor shows how you loosen the bottle and shoot down the pressure remaining in the PCP you can easily remove the bottle. It is the initial loosening of the bottle that causes the thread damage. If you do not believe me, look at the galling of the thread of some bottles that have been removed or installed under pressure, they will be thinner and razor-sharp as the metal is deformed during this process.

Do yourself a solid, don't install or remove your bottles under pressure without understanding that you are reducing the service life of that part.

sb327:
And it is probably wearing the internal threads of gun as well.

Thanks for sharing,
Dave

7624452:
Install a cut-off valve between the tank and the gun.  :)

moorepower:
Great timing on this!

Scotchmo:

--- Quote from: 7624452 on July 30, 2022, 05:15:39 PM ---Install a cut-off valve between the tank and the gun.  :)

--- End quote ---

+1

If I plan on installing/removing pressurized bottles, I put a "cut-off valve" on the builds. So I will use HP regulators with the ball/pin seal intact.

But it's not such a common thing on production airguns.

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