FX Bottle valves, is there a mimimum pressure, or do I have a defective one?

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CyberDyneSystems

CyberDyneSystems

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May 1, 2021
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Rhode Island, United States
Or is the fill adapter useless and dangerous?

I have a new FX bottle valve I ordered from Ohio Ariguns, installed on a 700cc alsafe bottle.

I just tried to fill it for the first time using my spritech and this;

https://canadashootingsupply.ca/product/huma-air-quick-fill-adapter-for-fx-bottles/



I got it up to about 100 bar and decided to give my spritech an break. Shut down the compressor and then opened the bleed/relief valve (so as not to preload it when I turned it back on)

Well, all the air that had been pumped in just kept coming back out. When it got low enough I pulled that adapter off, and naked the FX valve continued to release the last gasps of air.

It turns out that there is no valve in the adapter linked above, it is a straight opening all the way through? So ok, that means opening the bleed valve will let the air out until I unscrew it,. hopefully allowing the FX bottle valve to close. But doesn't that mean I am unscrewing from the bottle with all that pressure still in the whip? Even if the FX valve does it's job, this would still be a hazard?

Should I just send it (FX Bottle valve) back? What about this fill adapter? or did I not fill it enough to work? or something else I am missing?

Thanks in advance.
 
Those adapters are well known for causing issues with the bottles o-rings. They count on blowing the valve open with pressure rather than the intended pushing the pin on the valve to open it. They are not a very good design in my opinion as problems can arise from their use.

Best Fittings makes an adapter to fill or empty the FX bottles that opens the valve in the way it was intended to be opened. Which is the same way it is opened when the bottle is installed on the gun by pushing the pin in.

https://www.bestfittings.co.uk/shop/fill-probes-adaptors/buddy-bottles-valves/best-fittings-fx-buddy-bottle-filling-adaptor-with-quick-connect/
 
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Thanks Biohazardman. I also just found this right on Huma's on site, which seems to agree with what you are saying;

https://www.huma-air.com/Quickfill-adaptor-for-FX-pressure-bottle

"NOTE:

Inside the FX valve construction there a 4,5x1,5 oring used. This ring is the only part keeping the valve seat in it's correct position. Due to the blast of air, in some occasion, this o-ring can be dislocated causing the valve seat not to close properly.
It can be solved or prevented following the instructions below;

By replacing the red marked factory oring below, with the new o-ring (with a different size and hardness) what is included with the bottle adaptor, the valve seat will remain perfectly in it's position during use and will seal properly.

Huma-air includes this new model of o-ring with their FX bottle quickfill adaptors. So in case it would happen, it can be solved inmediately, or of course you can also replace this o-ring before you start using the quickfill adaptor. The size used is 5,5×1,5 FKM"



Of course, I did not get this o-ring, either way, it does seem a bad idea. Ah well, so now I have to fix an o-ring in the new FZ bottle valve.

I've already placed my order for the superior adapter you linked to, thanks for that!
 
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More info.

I took this FX valve apart to change the seal, only to find nothing visible wrong with it. What i did find though was that the M18 male threads of the valve and the female bottle threads were covered in a significant amount of aluminum shavings! I now believe that one of these tiny flecks of aluminum was also present inside the bottle, and had lodged in the tiny opening of the valve itself. I cleaned it like crazy, very difficult, as these fine shavings stuck to the FAX M18 sharp threads like magnets. I ended up having to use pressurized water, and then air. Air alone did not do it. Once I got it all back together I was able to fill it (this time through a rifle) and then remove it and the valve worked as it should. I hope I was able to mediate any shavings inside the bottle itself. Cleaning those threads was easier. less sharp I could use my fingers!

I'm not clear on where the aluminum shards came from (Other than the fact that they are clearly cut from the interior threads on the Alsafe 700cc bottle. But when?)

There are only two possibilities that I can imagine;

- QC/defect in the bottle manufacture. Some of the thread cuttings still inside. Seems odd, I'd imagine those thread are cut long before it's near a bottle.

- BUT, . It also could have happened when i first installed this bottle direct to the Kral, and I did not notice when I removed it to use with the FX adapter. I have the original Kral M18 block adapter, and looking at it now I can see that there are some of these fine aluminum shavings on it as well. But this does not mean cause and effect, it might have shaved up the bottle threads on installation, or it might have just gotten some of those shavings on it due to the fact that they were already present in the Alsafe bottle.

I KNOW that the FX valve I installed was clean as a whistle, just like the other's I have purchased.



For the record, this bottle will be swapped back and forth between my LCS and my newly modified Puncher Pro 500 which is now set up with an FX compatible Black adapter. It was fist installed directly to the Puncher Pro.



Anyway, check your threads for shaving!




 
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