Bleeding water from tanks and guns.

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sawney Bean

Sawney Bean

Member
Oct 21, 2023
1,692
2,446
Tacoma, Washington, USA
Just wanted to see what others thoughts on this are. Both scuba and SCBA tanks valve assemblies have a tube that extends down into the tank a few inches. This is an important safety feature for breathing use as it prevents any water that might be in the tank from entering the valve and being inhaled by the user. For an airgunner however it is undesirable as it prevents us from bleeding out any water that might collect in our tanks. Removing this tube would most likely cause the tank to fail any visual inspection by a dive shop or other commercial source of air, so that's one potential downside of eliminating it.

It seems that it should also be possible to blast water out of the reservoir of a rifle by orienting the rifle so that any water within it will drain to it's lowest point and then dry firing it to expel it. The exact positioning may vary from gun to gun, but it seems that if you were to store the rifle overnight so that any moisture in it would collect where the valve feeds from and then dry firing the rifle while retaining it in that position should expel any water in it that has collected.
 
I replaced my fireman tank valves with DIN years ago when started tethering, the very first was to remove these tubes before assembling. Second, I have a dual stage moisture remover - orange towers.
Last week one of the DIN (aliexpress) valves orings failed when I wanted to refill, I emptied both tanks right away and no visible traces of moisture in exiting air. Same day I ordered a whole set of dimensions from oringsandmore, and replaced the original chinese orings with B70. Today is my work party, refilling both tanks from empty and it will take me a entire day for two 14 liter scba. Cooling the YH as we speak.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: Vana2, maxtrouble, BigVitamin and 1 other person
Upvote 0
TN_Yankee said:
Wow. If I ever fired an air gun and water came out the barrel, I would immediately stop shooting and tear it apart (definitely not keep firing to dry it out). That much condensed water in a gun is a major failure of the filling system, and corrosion possibilities are a major safety concern.
Click to expand...
Water sometimes gets into scuba tanks that are used for diving and the filtration systems dive shops use are generally far more advanced than what we use as airgunners since the air they use is intended for breathing.

It just seems to me that one of the most effective ways of removing any moisture in the charging systems is to let it condense and then to expel it, which is something that could easily be done from a tank providing the dip tube has been removed.

I haven't found any water in the reservoirs of my rifles when I've had them disassembled, but how often do you actually disassemble the reservoirs on your rifles? You could get water in there from pumping them on a humid day with a bad filter and not even know it was in there for years. A few dry fires with the gun pointing upwards after leaving it in that position overnight however would likely expel any moisture that was there and chances are what was expelled would be vaporized and not particularly visible.
 
Upvote 0
honestly ive never had an issue with water in tanks or guns and i live in humid florida .. when i cracked open my 10yo marauder i handpumped for several years i fully expected some water to be in it. not a drop ... not that it couldnt happen, im sure it could with no thought put into it ... for one use a pump indoors in a low humidity environment, thats #1 .. keep handpumps well maintained (learn how to disassemble) and dried and lubed, and use a condensing type, large metal cannister filter on electric pumps and keep that located 'high' in relation to the pump, and dried out between uses ..
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sawney Bean
Upvote 0
longdog said:
Who has found water in their gun?
I know it’s possible, but never seen/heard testimony of such.
Click to expand...
Well, here you go: I had to rebuild my Seneca Aspen due to water corrosion in the air tube (and the commonly failing o-rings). The brass valving in the tube was crusty green. Now, that pump system does not have any water condensation drain feature, so what I've started to do is, before I put the gun away for the day, what Sawney Bean described: invert and tilt the gun so the tube to transfer port is lowest, and "dry" fire one off. We'll see how that is working next time I open it all up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sawney Bean
Upvote 0
Berserkeley Mike said:
Well, here you go: I had to rebuild my Seneca Aspen due to water corrosion in the air tube (and the commonly failing o-rings). The brass valving in the tube was crusty green. Now, that pump system does not have any water condensation drain feature, so what I've started to do is, before I put the gun away for the day, what Sawney Bean described: invert and tilt the gun so the tube to transfer port is lowest, and "dry" fire one off. We'll see how that is working next time I open it all up.
Click to expand...
Sorry ‘bout your Seneca.
Now I’ve heard one.
Thanks
 
Upvote 0
If you buy a new scuba bottle, there really shouldn't be any water or moisture inside. Not even traces, of course not. If it's a used one, you should first open it and look carefully to make sure there aren't even traces of water or moisture ever being there. If there are traces, they should be taken care of by the company that sells and maintains scuba bottles.
As for the tank of the air gun, there should not be any moisture or traces of moisture in there either. Otherwise, there is something wrong with the filling method or something.
Even so, even if there are dehumidifiers, filters, etc., it's not a bad thing to occasionally look into the tank during maintenance to make sure there are no traces of moisture.

But if you find it, you should never remove it by dry firing it off. Corrosion is not a good thing under these pressures and not in any other way.
 
Upvote 0
I have never found water in my rifle, and i have only looked inside of my oldest 200 BAR 12 L steel tank, and it have only been filled like 8 - 9 times by a dive shop since i got it in 2012

Now having my own compressor and filling / boosting 12 L tanks, i am a little amazed how much water accumulate in the separator / filters during even a minor 180 - 300 BAR fill.
But i figure there is no way around that, just have to drain it and make sure it do not end in your bottle.

I have 1 time put my 12 L / 300 bar tank upside down and opned it, but no vapor came out of it, and on that valve also no " straw " on the valve.
Just like the valve for my carbon fiber tank i have not yet received, will not have the straw installed.
Actually have the straw right here on the PC table.

IMG_20231201_114234.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sawney Bean
Upvote 0
Interesting, I would have thought that any water (vapor?) in the PCP would be exhausted in the normal process of emptying the reservoir while shooting.

Recently I serviced the steel air reservoirs on my two (8 and 9 year old) HW100 PCPs to replace the o-rings in the check valves and inspected the interior with a bore-scope. I didn't see any corrosion.

For reference - I use a CF tank and a Air Venturi compressor with a secondary moisture trap as my hpa source. Seems that the primary trap built-in to the compressor is catching all the of moisture (about a tablespoon on a 10 minute charging session) as the air exhausted out of the secondary one is always dry.

Cheers!
 
  • Like
Reactions: longdog and Sawney Bean
Upvote 0
coffeepan said:
But if you find it, you should never remove it by dry firing it off. Corrosion is not a good thing under these pressures and not in any other way.
Click to expand...
The thing is, if there is any water in the reservoir, chances are about 99.9% that the shooter is completely unaware of it and will remain so pretty much forever. How often do you disassemble your guns and look inside the reservoir after all? When I opened up my S410 to add a regulator I'd had it for maybe 20 years and the only time I'd had the reservoir open in that time was once when I had the fill fitting changed out. That said, the three times I've had that gun apart it was always dry inside.
 
  • Like
Reactions: longdog
Upvote 0
Sawney Bean said:
The thing is, if there is any water in the reservoir, chances are about 99.9% that the shooter is completely unaware of it and will remain so pretty much forever. How often do you disassemble your guns and look inside the reservoir after all? When I opened up my S410 to add a regulator I'd had it for maybe 20 years and the only time I'd had the reservoir open in that time was once when I had the fill fitting changed out. That said, the three times I've had that gun apart it was always dry inside.
Click to expand...
It depends on how often it is disassembled, maintained and tuned. Some do those things often, some very rarely if ever. The type of weapon is also decisive. But the point was, it should be, at least in my opinion, something that should be done from time to time.
I don't really disassemble, tune or repair air weapons myself, but I prefer to pay someone who knows it better than me to do it. Then I ask that you can also look into the tank.

Of course, there have been situations, e.g. there was something in the water separator in the compressor, then everyone checked the scuba bottles to see if water or moisture had gotten into them. But it was a single event in the close circle.
 
Upvote 0
I've seen pictures of water damage in airgun reservoirs and tanks used to fill them. I know it can happen. I've never had any trouble with moisture myself, but I use a hand pump and limit my pumping sessions to 50 strokes or less before bleeding the line and letting pump cool for a few minutes.
I break my guns down when the seals start leaking usually. Occasionally, one goes long enough without issue to have the seals replaced simply because it is time. I always expect to see moisture damage and corrosion, but I actually have never found anything of concern once I've taken it apart. I'll keep doing what I'm doing because it seems to work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: coffeepan
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu