CF Bottles

[IcySwan1]

I just bought a compressor capable of filling bottles. Right now I am just filling my rifle but would like to be able to refill at the range. I won't be backpacking so the 75 0r 100 cf tanks seem best. The dimensions between the 2 sizes seem similar. Any reason not to go with the bigger bottle? And finally, is one brand of bottle better?

Thanks.



Mike

 

[Mike_Lenardon]

I have 2 Omega bottles. Both of which are the 74 cu ft variety. I bought the first one in 74 cu ft because it was cheaper. 2nd one I bought used at 2 yrs old and got a unbelievable deal. The only problem I have had is a leaky o-ring where the bottle and valve mate up. I bought a bunch of o-rings for a couple bucks. Used up the air in the bottle, swapped o-rings and away I went. Found a place less than 10 miles away from me to fill them so I no longer am looking at compressors.

 

[IcySwan1]

Mike_L, price is a factor, but anything I buy needs to be shipped to Alaska anf the shipping





















Mike_L, I tried every fire department, medical supply place, welding supply shope, and dive shop near me and nobody would fill to 4500 PSI. Otherwise i would never bought a compressor. I need to keep any eye out for those great deals.



Mike

 

[Alan_B]

I bought the 74CF variety of 4500 psi bottles. The 100CF is quite a bit more bulky. The 74's are pretty compact.. The 100CF takes longer to fill so is harder on the compressor as well. It all depends on how much air you need and how often you want to fill. More smaller fills is better for the compressor. But if the bottle doesn't have enough air for one session then that's a problem. With your own compressor you can top it up more often so the smaller bottle may be fine. 

 

[IcySwan1]

Alan_B, that makes perfect sense and I think the 74 will be the choice.



Mike

 

[bandg]

Agreed. Logical reasoning for an individual situation. I have the larger tank because I shoot remotely quite often and like to be able to have no worries about air. It is probably a bit harder to handle than a 74 and would take a bit longer to top off however. All relative.

 

[IcySwan1]

Bandg, the reasoning here is sound all around. The convenience/ease of handling slightly favors the 74, but I particularly like the lower compressor demands [although I know you could top off the 100 more often instead of waiting until it got down to 3000]. I have less concerns about being remote because I already am remote and any further remoteness would require flying. But I do travel on a long road to attend trap shooting events. I will check and see if bottles can be filled in that town; if not, then big is better is back on the table. Nothing is easy.



Mike

 

[Alan_B]

I have a 72CF Tiger Shark and just received one of the currently on sale Air Venturi 100 ci bottles. The larger bottle holds about 2000 liters and the smaller holds about 500 liters, both at 4500 psi. Together they are very close to 100 CF total which is 2800 liters. But this way I have the flexibility of carrying 500, 2000, or 2500 liters depending on the day's plans. And the refills are pretty easy on the compressor (though that's more dependent on the air usage and refill strategy). Thus far I've limited compressor runs to 10 minutes max. I took two of those (about 8 minutes each) to fill the smaller bottle from zero. Ten minutes at 30 liters/minute is 300 liters. I like 10 minutes because that's the conservative separator drain interval, and that way I don't have to drain it during the cycle. It would take six such cycles to fill the 72CF from zero, which seems like too many, so in that case I would probably do something different like 20 or 30 minute runs with appropriate separator drains. With the flow rate of the LC-110 one could probably go a lot longer than the 10-15 minutes, as I recall that was the same recommended purge duration as the 3x higher pumping rate 220V and they have the same separator. Separator draining should be a function of pumped volume and separator capacity, so if it can go 15 minutes at 100 liters per minute that's 1500 liters pumped per drain cycle. In any case I could go 15 minutes at 30 liters per minute and still be within the manual's recommendations, and that's 450 liters.