I have a FX M3 but no compressed air for fill . Can I use nitrogen instead ,with out damaging the FX M3.
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Tuning nitrogen in pcp (FX)
- Thread starter larryboy
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Nitrogen is approximately 78% of the atmosphere... your gun won't mind at all. Benefit is that your Nitrogen will be very clean and dry.
You probably know this if you have access to it but be careful where you use it. Nitrogen makes up a large portion of the atmosphere but it will also displace oxygen in high concentrations. Watch for leaks and use good ventilation.
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If you are going to use nitrogen be very careful with your supply tank because some have 6000psi . I have seen one take off like a torpedo if it falls and valve gets damaged. If you can get it its actually better for your gun because it's clean and dry.
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Thanks for the replies on nitrogen. Will FX be able to tell if its used. Don't want to void new gun warranty. I know nitrogen would be better but FX says don't use it.
Thanks Larryboy
Thanks Larryboy
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No they will not be able to tell if you use air or nitrogen. It really does not matter which one you use although as stated above nitrogen is drier for the most part.
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Nitrogen is the absolute best thing to use in a pcp. I used it for a while until the price got stupid.
As stated above, it is 78% of our atmosphere. It contains 0 moisture. No FX won’t have a clue and would likely be glad if all of their customers used it.
As stated above, it is 78% of our atmosphere. It contains 0 moisture. No FX won’t have a clue and would likely be glad if all of their customers used it.
No manufacurer will probably ever reccomend using anything else than air. Not because nitrogen is bad, but because of the risk of customers filling other wrong gases on theire guns, or from wrong sources. It usually requires some adapters to your fill kit, to use it on nitrogen tanks. Will thouse adapters make it possible to fill from other tanks with gases which can be dangerous? I do not know. Also, some industrial tanks use 6000psi. So there is some safety issues involved around the fill sources rather than the gas itself.
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I believe those small tanks have a very low service pressure - less that 150 bar, IIRC.
How many fills you will get will depend on how high you fill to & what pressure you refill at. There are calculators to help with this. I do not have a link available right now.
Do you know the service pressure of your tank?
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My golden rule is:
Am I comfortable with worst case scenario?
If the answer is not, then I evaluate how risky and on my control is
to eliminate such risk.
If the benefit do not compensate the risk, then I do not go that way.
I would not even evaluate to use nitrogen. No clear win with a clear worst case unacceptable.
Am I comfortable with worst case scenario?
If the answer is not, then I evaluate how risky and on my control is
to eliminate such risk.
If the benefit do not compensate the risk, then I do not go that way.
I would not even evaluate to use nitrogen. No clear win with a clear worst case unacceptable.
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Nitrogen is an inert gas. As far as harming an airgun, absolutely not and is about the driest cleanest source you could use. The downside is it displaces oxygen and if your gun leaks, it will displace the air you breathe. Enough of it leaking in a small space and you or your family/friends could suffocate so ventilation is key.
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The air we breathe is 78ish percent nitrogen. even a 700cc bottle on a gun discharging into a room or car wouldn't be enough to cause suffocation. Questionable to unlikely even with a scba tank. Cars aren't airtight.
We use nitrogen in aviation and work with it all the time. It was preferred since it wouldnt cause oxidation, was moisture free and wouldnt include oxygen to fuel a fire. We never worried about suffocation even filling tires in a tire shop or other devices. Even purging or discharging full sized bottles didn't cause a problem.
If I had a free to super low cost for nitrogen I would certainly run it given my use of it over the last 30 years.
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Nitrogen is the ONLY gas that I feed all of my HPA compressors and so thats all my guns see No Water NO oxygen No co2 and because its the smallest molecule in air your guns will shoot a little faster and your compressors will never experience Detonation the main killer of your compressors.
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Been using nitrogen on all my PCP's for the last five years. Moisture free and works well. Purchased the hose assembly from Joe Brancato at Airtanksforsale.com.
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Also only use N2 from 6000psi airgas tanks that I shuttle into smaller carbon tanks for filling PCPs . I am done when the tank gets to 3000psi but I have a contact that I found on Craigslist who takes them for another use and shares the cost.
I once ran a comparison in the M3 with slugs. 900fps on air and 935 on nitrogen, so an extra 5% FPE due to the lighter gas. Not in the same ball park as helium but as others mention, there are several additional advantages. I shoot a lot and the Nitrogen costs me $300 a year plus an initial outlay of 700 for a 6k PSI reg. I was spending about the same amount on Chinese compressors which would last around 18mos. Nitrogen is bone dry so I don’t worry about water (which also reduces FPE). More importantly though, I can refill my rigs in a few seconds without all the chug-chug-chug, which drives my wife nuts.
I once ran a comparison in the M3 with slugs. 900fps on air and 935 on nitrogen, so an extra 5% FPE due to the lighter gas. Not in the same ball park as helium but as others mention, there are several additional advantages. I shoot a lot and the Nitrogen costs me $300 a year plus an initial outlay of 700 for a 6k PSI reg. I was spending about the same amount on Chinese compressors which would last around 18mos. Nitrogen is bone dry so I don’t worry about water (which also reduces FPE). More importantly though, I can refill my rigs in a few seconds without all the chug-chug-chug, which drives my wife nuts.
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I have to tell you N2 just about killed me but it was a fluke. I was the main autoclave operator programmer at BAE systems in Ontario CA. We had a problem with the water chiller that was used to cool the auto clave after a run. It would just keep running. Well it ran over the weekend and when I came in to work my lead told me that I needed to get the clave unloaded asap so they could start laying up the next part. The temperature inside the clave was down in the 50s so the air inside just hung there when normally it's warm and will be displaced by the cooler air outside of the clave. So I climb up into the clave and start disconnecting vacuum hoses next thing I know it's lights out. Luckily I was just a few feet inside and when I passed out my head was in air that had some oxygen in it. If for some reason I'd of had to go to the back of the clave it would've been lights out permanently. I never felt like I was out of breath because I was able to rid myself of the CO2 but wasn't bringing in any oxygen.
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