What's a good size for an SCBA tank?

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FIDI_G

FIDI_G

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Feb 1, 2023
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Atlanta GA
What's that Goldilocks size for an SCBA bottle? Anyone that have used different size SCBA tanks chime in. What's something that isnt too heavy to be portable, will last a whole day of shooting or 5 or 6 fills ?

My personal use case It will mostly sit in the house I'll use my compressor to fill the tank and then fill my gun from the tank. I shoot from inside the house from a window so the tank will be close at hand. I'm not sure how many fills the bottle should have? It should be fairly mobile. As I will be taking it with me on occasion so I guess it should be enough to for a full day. My gun shoots about 60 pellets before I typically refill it. My gun is 4500psi 300bar. I typically fill it to about 280 bar and shoot it down to 150 bar.

Im just not sure what other considerations and dont have any experience with the SCBA tanks. Please tell me what size tank you have and how many refills it provides before having to refill it.
 
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If your gun fill psi is 4,500 and the typical SCBA is 4500psi you technically won’t even get one full fill.
Also, 4,500 and 300 bar are technically not the same. 4,500psi=310bar 300 bar=4351psi.
You will need to know the exact psi or bar for an accurate calculation. Below is a Pyramyd Air link to a fill calculator.
As far as SCBA size, buy the largest you can afford/justify. If I had your gun at that fill psi, I would buy a 94 cubic foot from a quality source like Air tanks for sale, PA, AofA or UA. It is not huge or heavy.
I personally carry two 74 cubic foot SCBA’s to the range when I’m going to spend the day there.

Tank Calculator | Pyramyd Air

We have great deals on air guns, airsoft, pellet and bb guns and accessories. This is your one stop shop air gun mall. Check us out today!
www.pyramydair.com
 
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For a LONG time I carried a 30 minute SCBA in a backpack for out in the field. Last year I scored a 15 minute SCBA (the ONLY one I've ever come across in 30 years of dealing with fire protection equipment! ) which is much mo' better to carry but the 30 min. tank is doable for a day out. If you were looking for a more "in general" tank get a 60 minute.
 
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I don't think you mentioned the size of the air storage on your gun but I put in 180ccs (Avenger size) and your fill and refill pressure and Pyramid's calculator said a 45 minute SCBA tank like I use (66 ft3) would give you 8 refills. Seems about right to me. I most shoot my P35s which have a larger air chamber but only fill to 250 bar. I don't think I get 8 full fills but I probably get 6. I should keep track sometime, it could be 8. You don't have to quit when you can't get 280 bar either, of course. As long as the tank is above the regulator on your gun you can still use it to get more shots. I've taken my tank to the range before and I think I did get below my desired fill pressure but I was nowhere close to having to quit shooting.

I picked a 45 minute tank because there were a lot of them available at good prices on ebay. SCBA tanks are not heavy so even a 60 minute one would be fine for the little bit of portability I need. But refilling a larger tank would take more pumping time for my YH. It handles the 45 minute tank easily filling from about 3000 to about 300 bar on one run of about 15 minutes.
 
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If you are looking for the "goldilocks" size, you are going to be thinking about compromises, which is fine - a key one being that you probably won't worry about always getting "full fills" of your gun. Who cares though - nothing wrong with a 1/2 fill at the end of the day if it means you are carrying around a lighter tank all day.

I use a Joe B Guppy tank (18 cubic feet of air at 4500 psi), and it gives me a steady declining level of fill on my Huben as I shoot it down, but if I really want to push it to the limit, I can probably get more than 400 shots out of the tank (on top of the 100 or so I get from the Huben if I fill it to 4500 along with the tank at the start).

It is a great way to go - nice and easy to use, and easy to fill too. The real way I like to think of things is in terms of how many shots I get out of my different guns from each minute of run time of my Shoebox compressor. Then of course I can consider the runtime to fill the tank from the bottom of the usable range to full with each gun, and that gives me the potential shots out of the tank.

I'll add that an EdGun Easy fill saves a lot of air while filling from the tank . . . very little is lost to bleeding this way compared to normal fills.
 
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The problem with this thread and tank sizes is that the different size ratings do not compare. For instance the American systems are arcane. Tanks should be compared with physical volume and max pressure rating as it is done worldwide in liters. If you talk minutes of use or volume of atmospheric air in cubic bat skins, it has little value.

In point of fact a 12 liter bottle will provide all day shooting at a range or a month's of shooting my pistol 20 shots a day every day and not drop below reg pressure.
 
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