I bought a used SCBA tank a few weeks ago in preparation for getting my airgun. Today I was going to go fill it up at a diving store, but as I moved it around, I can hear a small amount of water in there. Is this an issue? Can the people at the store dry it out? Appreciate any help!
Hearing some water inside SCBA tank. Any issues?
- Thread starter winkzy
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Based on the sound can you quantify the volume of water? Are you thinking something like 15mL or something in excesss of 15cc?
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I don’t believe the diving store is going to fill that tank. Best thing to do is to have the tank reinspected. My local Fire Equipment & Service shop well able to help me with hydro and inspection for $35 even through I have my own scuba compressor to fill my tanks.
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Yeah bad idea to fill it or any gun if you have water in it. If you had it hydrod sounds like something went wrong.
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I dunno, once you do any of those you influence the outcome. I'd just leave it alone. Once you open it up you can no longer observe it in the state it was, think Schrödinger's Law or like Charles' Law and Boyle's Law and stuff. If there is moisture in the tank, which is what it sounds like, then it's probably better to estimate the moisture amount using the sound of moisture. If you open it up, and it has pressure, you'll never be able to effectively measure the moisture. If there is no pressure and there is moisture then that's a really odd situation as well and best to leave it alone? *shrugs*
The tank could easily have 15mL of water (as is common) or worse 15cc or even worse 15 cm^3 of water.
The tank could easily have 15mL of water (as is common) or worse 15cc or even worse 15 cm^3 of water.
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You could run an inline moisture filter THEN fill the gun be sure the tank is always upright position before emptying out the rest of the air to dry that tank out after its become too low on pressure to fill the gun.
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That same scuba store I was going to go to does hydro inspections, maybe I should do that. It was done in 2016, but I guess who knows what went on during those 4 years. They fill it up with water and dry it out right? I'm guessing maybe that's a good idea.
Last hydro was 2016
Yeah there is no pressure in the tank. I'm bad at quantifying it, but maybe its like 20-30 ml. Not sure. I think I'll just have it hydrotested early anyway to be safe. It was done 4 years ago anyway.
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There is usually a "straw" looking thing hanging down from the valve that prevents water on the tank from getting in your gun. The downside is that you cannot purge it by turning it over.
If you have a rubber mallet it's easy enough to remove the valve and dump out the water. I had to do that on a couple used scba tanks I bought off ebay when I first went with PCPs
If you have a rubber mallet it's easy enough to remove the valve and dump out the water. I had to do that on a couple used scba tanks I bought off ebay when I first went with PCPs
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If you keep filling it with moisture it will ruin the liner and start leaking. I have seen to tanks that go moisture in them do this. The high pressure and moisture eats the aluminum liner. I'm going to go get one of them and cut it in half and see it.
Tanks was leaking thru the carbon
Tanks was leaking thru the carbon
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All I can say is that you sure got good hearing
Shalom
John
I surprisingly do have very good hearing!
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Good idea there, then at least you know for sure and you can play it safe. If there are issues with the tank you'll know and you'll have peace of mind if all is well.
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Perky Val is correct, there's about a 3" siphon tube that comes out of bottom of valve assembly. Unless there's over 3" of water when tank is inverted it will not come out. Valves come off SCBA's fairly easily once emptied if you have a strap vise or some way of securing tank w/o damaging it.
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this is what the valve will look like inside the tank.
just unscrew it from the bottle and dump out the water....... nothing special.... make sure the bottle is empty of air . no pressure....
just unscrew it from the bottle and dump out the water....... nothing special.... make sure the bottle is empty of air . no pressure....
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This doesn't make much sense to me. Sounds like you are assuming the water is in vapor form and will escape or change its form if the tank is opened. Ridiculous - drain the air, open the tank and dry it out.
Also - 15 mL = 15cc = 15 cm^3
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