Economics of Nitrogen

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ITACUD

ITACUD

Member
May 26, 2022
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Hoover, AL
I can rent a large N2 tank for $120/year plus fills. The local dive shop only goes 3000 on compressed air, and I want higher, so next option is a compressor.....

Has anyone analyzed cost of owning a compressor and compared it to N2 tank supply? I'm not gonna be shooting over a couple hundred rounds a month in my case








 
I feed my compressor and guns nothing but nitrogen. Its not expensive compared to all the crap people go thru to dry the air.

The nitrogen does NOT support combustion.in the cylinders of the compressor nor in your gun, it is a smaller molecule and lighter and without any oxidizers water co2 etc your equipment will last longer. One cubic foot of nitrogen is 28316 cc my tank holds 120 cubic feet I have 2 one on a tuxing twin bare bones model and a Gx cs2 the Gx has 11 hours on it and never an issue never get above 105 f while filling guns, I only use it the beeman 2027 any more so it'll probably out live me.. 

I will fill my tank a couple of times a year at most and If my usage increases I'll get a bigger tank refills cost about 20 bucks to exchange my tank. I own mine but if you want to rent as many people will thats about 10 bucks a month.


 
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How much does a nitrogen tank cost to fill? How many gun top offs will it provide?

How big is the storage tank?
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I was quoted an 80 cu ft tank. 6000 psi. I didn't write down the fill cost but I thought he said $20... Could be totally wrong on that part. I would also have to buy a valve/whip for it, and would still need a portable tank to take shooting.


 
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If you got one at a flea market and a large tank then you got robbed of your 30 dollars I would bet that tank has raised lettering around the neck ring that say's airgas or liquidair or praxair or property of ****** you need to take it to your local welding supplier and see if its a good tank that they will fill or exchange. Large tanks cost in excess of 300 dollars mt

Fills are going to be somewhere between 20 to 40 bucks depending on size of the cylinder.

Someone asked how many gun fills I'll let you do the math there are 28316 cubic centimeters in one cubic foot of gas my 580 cc bottle on my avenger has 35 cubic inches in it there are 144 cubic inches in one cubic foot my tanks hold 120 cubic feet each and I refill about twice a year..

If you look at my profile pic it is of my gx setup all compressors have a single air intake spot thats where you hook up from you regulated nitrogen tank you only feed it 8-10 psi

it compresses and sends it to your gun
 
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heres a better shot
PXL_20210816_191023304.1653790802.jpg

 
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If you got one at a flea market and a large tank then you got robbed of your 30 dollars I would bet that tank has raised lettering around the neck ring that say's airgas or liquidair or praxair or property of ****** you need to take it to your local welding supplier and see if its a good tank that they will fill or exchange. Large tanks cost in excess of 300 dollars mt

Fills are going to be somewhere between 20 to 40 bucks depending on size of the cylinder.

Someone asked how many gun fills I'll let you do the math there are 28316 cubic centimeters in one cubic foot of gas my 580 cc bottle on my avenger has 35 cubic inches in it there are 144 cubic inches in one cubic foot my tanks hold 120 cubic feet each and I refill about twice a year..

If you look at my profile pic it is of my gx setup all compressors have a single air intake spot thats where you hook up from you regulated nitrogen tank you only feed it 8-10 psi

it compresses and sends it to your gun
Click to expand...

Correction on your calcs- one cubic foot is not 144, that’s square inches in a square foot(12 x 12 = 144)

cubic inches in a cubic foot is 1,728 (12 x 12 x 12 = 1728)
 
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I can rent a large N2 tank for $120/year plus fills. The local dive shop only goes 3000 on compressed air, and I want higher, so next option is a compressor.....

Has anyone analyzed cost of owning a compressor and compared it to N2 tank supply? I'm not gonna be shooting over a couple hundred rounds a month in my case







Click to expand...

What one doesn’t foresee in tank rentals and fills are, one, that’s the price you’re quoted today. With everything going up I bet in six months that price will be higher.

Second- whatever dealings are made in tank rentals and fill costs are subject to change if and when the local supplier gets bought out by someone else or worse yet, corporate.

meanwhile, consider the fact the time you take doing rentals and such, meanwhile with everything going up a really nice, stout compressor that costs x amount of dollars now will also go up in price, making purchasing one of those even harder to swallow. 
The best suggestion I can make is to look at yourself and honestly evaluate how devoted you are to this hobby. If you say “PCP’s forever!” then I would do the buy once, cry once deal and invest in a dive air rated compressor like the Bauer or my personal favorite, the Alkin. Once you recoup from that expense you are not at the mercy of any rental company or any hikes in prices.



just so you know, just two years ago, if I remember correctly, a horizontal or vertical model W31 Alkin could be had for $2900 not including shipping. This is for the standard model without the auto stop or auto purge.

A friend of mine bought his coming on a year ago now, and I believe he paid $3400 minus the shipping, and it’s also the standard model without the auto stuff.



So while one is renting tanks for a year, think about what that Alkin is going to cost then
 
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Those big tanks can be a real handful to move if you have to transport it yourself to fill. And if you like going to the range or group shoots, you will still need a carbon bottle of some size to take along. Since you will be using nitrogen you won't be able to give or take air sources easily. Putting nitrogen and regular air in the same gun, as I have read elsewhere, is really dangerously bad.
 
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Just starting out with PCP, previously spring guns only. why wouldn't you be able to fill a small portable tank from a larger tank using a regulator to set the pressure for filling the portable tank? I'm not familiar with what is available, but that doesn't seem like it should be hard to put a regulator valve on the nitrogen tank set to whatever fill level is required.
 
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Just starting out with PCP, previously spring guns only. why wouldn't you be able to fill a small portable tank from a larger tank using a regulator to set the pressure for filling the portable tank? I'm not familiar with what is available, but that doesn't seem like it should be hard to put a regulator valve on the nitrogen tank set to whatever fill level is required.
Click to expand...

You can. Georgia Airguns sells a valve with hose for filling your carbon fiber tank. The main goal for me would be to avoid the large up front cost of a quality compressor.
 
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It does not have raised lettering from a air/gas company. I'm in the middle of moving and I can't find it but I'll try. I do know it is steel and said it fills to 6500 psi. I believe it said it was multi use for any inert gas. I am wondering if what I have is a welding tank of some kind. I did look up nitrogen tanks on Google and mine looks completely different then those ones. I may have given bad advice. Like I said before I haven't had the chance to use it. 
 
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Ok I found it but for some reason I can't upload photos right now. What I have is an argon/helium/nitrogen welding tank. It's 40cf and 6500psi. Is there any reason why I couldn't use this tank to fill airguns? Seems like it would be a minor detail of finding an adapter to a micro bore hose with a female foster at the end. Again thanks for being patient with me this is something I have never done. I was hoping to use that welding tank tho and if it's not possible you could save me a bunch of money 
 
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I was all set to go Nitrogen as my nearest dive shop is an hour drive. What I found is that in my rural area, nitrogen is fairly expensive so the economics didn't work out very well. Also I was surprised that the big 6k PSI tank didn't provide quite as many fills as I expected for my 97 cu ft portable tank I fill the guns with.

I went with a compressor...but it is a big chunk of money to put down.
 
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