How to Bulk Fill Station

A dip-tube/siphon tank that you rent or buy will only give you about 25 12oz tanks from a 50 lb tank, or 8-10 from a 20 lb tank.

If you do not get a siphon tank (dip-tube) people have suggested that you could just turn the big tank upside-down to get a fill. DO NOT TRY THIS!!! The sediment (rust and dirt) in the fill tank will transfer to your markers CO2 tank and from there go into your paintball marker. Which can RUIN your marker and anyone else's marker who's bottle you fill!!!

50 lb tanks weigh 150 lbs full, so two people are required to take it to be filled. Also when you get it in place tie it to a tree or something stable so it doesn't fall over. That's why we like the 20lb tanks, they are just 50lbs full, easy for one person to transport.

You will also need digital scale, don't try to fill without one, you risk exploding the small CO2 tanks burst disk! Wal-mart has a cheap digital fish scale, that will work in the camping/hunting department, or try a cooking place for a digital kitchen scale, make sure it reads ounces not fluid ounces when you fill.

 Make sure you don't unscrew the valve from the tank when you take it off the fill station, some tanks don't have enough loc-tite, and might blow off and knock someone upside the head. GET IT FIXED IMMEDIATELY IF YOU SEE THIS HAPPENING. Empty the tank and take it to your paintball store to be fixed. This isn't a home fix it job.

FULL small CO2 tanks left in a hot place like in the SUN, or the trunk of your car, can burst a burst disk if even a little overfilled, so watch where you put a full tank.

It is extremely important that you the fill station operator check the valve on the tank you are filling. Twist it, it should never move. The tank can become a dangerous fast moving projectile if the valve ever comes loose.
You need to check, that the valve does is not loose, and will not turn when you are unscrewing the tank from the fill station.
A mini fill station consists of a blow off valve, a hose, and a CO2 tank adapter on the end of the hose.

1. Make sure bulk tank valve is closed., and the blow off valve is closed

2. Make sure your CO2 adaptor's pin depress is all the way out. (So it will not open the CO2 bottle's pin valve when the CO2 bottle is screwed on).

3. Inspect the O-Ring on your CO2 bottle. Replace O-Ring if necessary. Attach the bottle to the CO2 adaptor by screwing it in as you would screw the bottle into a Paintball marker.

4. Screw in the CO2 adaptor's pin depress. You should hear and feel the fill station's hose charge with some of the left over air in your CO2 tank.

5. Slowly open blow off valve

6. If you have a couple of ounces of air left in your CO2 tank you will be able to cool the tank while you drain it. You CO2n encourage this by rapidly rotating the CO2 tank upside down, then right side up, etc., while blow off valve is open. Drain your bottle completely.

Do not attempt to fill a partially full bottle (It won't actually fill, the bottle if not chilled will only take in gas, and you will end up with about 1/3 of a full bottle. If chilled it takes in liquid and gas)

7. If the tank is not nice and chilled, you're going to need to chill it through the following steps.

* Close blow off valve.
* Open the bulk cylinder's main valve for 3 or 4 seconds then close it. This will put a few ounces of CO2 into the CO2 tank. Be careful with small tanks like 7oz as these can fill very fast. For small tanks only keep valve #1 open for 2 seconds or so.
* Go to step 5 above.

8. Now you should place the CO2 bottle on the digital scale, Zero out the scale by turning it off and back on, while the bottle is sitting on it.

9. Open the bulk cylinder's main valve Watch the scale and close the tank valve when the scale reads the bottle's capacity. That is, only fill your 7 ounce bottles to 7 ounces. Do not over fill your bottles. Over filling your bottle puts stress on your burst disk, even an ounce over will cause the burst disk to stretch slightly. This allows the tank to be over filled without bursting the disk. The burst disk is designed to rupture and safely vent gas. If the burst disk does not rupture, the tank will explode. Which would you prefer?

[So if it does go over quickly close the main valve #1, and use the blow off to reduce it to the tanks capacity if done immediately there should be no harm because the tank is still cold and the extra weight has not yet expanded from cold liquid into added gas pressure.]

10. Close the bulk cylinder's main valve.

11. Unscrew the CO2 adaptor pin depress until it is completely disengaged.

12. Open the blow off valve to drain the compressed CO2 still in the hose.

13. Unscrew your newly filled tank from the CO2 adaptor.

IN REVIEW
Inspect tank valve, check hydro date and O ring
screw onto the CO2 adapter
screw down the pin depress
empty remaining gas from tank.
Weigh tank (Leave on scale and zero the scale)
Put 2-3 OZ in the tank then drain to chill,
Fill to volume that the the bottle is listed for.
Turn off gas
Back off the pin depress,
Use blow off valve to release the pressure in the hose
REMOVE BOTTLE SLOWLY MAKING SURE THE VALVE IS NOT COMING LOOSE