Tank failure, anyone? How many?

[airgunmike56]

I have had a large carbon fiber I think 6 liter tank fail,,, Has anyone else? Not valve, Not hose but a TANK,,
The tank was given to me by my brother in law , It would leak down to 3000 psi , Back then I had my Sheldon compressor , It took about 10 minutes to fill back up to 4500 psi, It would leak out over night or a day or so very slow leak, I had to put it in a full bath tube to see all the little bubbles coming from under the carbon fiber,,,
ONLY POST IF YOU HAVE HAD A TANK FAIL... Lets see how many?

 

[rayroz]

Firefighter for 25 yrs full time dept never had one blow . Anything is possible , they will start leaking at the neck or if the carbon fiber starts to delaminate .
Ray

 

[Motorhead]

Yes a 60min size. Inner aluminum vessel fails and air starts seeping out threw the carbon wrap.

 

[6gun]

Hopefully op will share more about the story, make, and age of the cylinder. I've been in hpa for 25 years and I've yet to see a failure as mentioned. It nice to hear it was a slow failure, liner pitting I bet.

 

[MikeAllen]

Firefighter for 25 yrs full time dept never had one blow . Anything is possible , they will start leaking at the neck or if the carbon fiber starts to delaminate .
Ray

Hey rayroz, thank you for your many years of service as a first responder!

 

[JW.]

The only one I heard of was due to the tank being stored in a cabinet with other chemicals that deteriorated the resin and it failed.

 

[rayroz]

If God knew how good the job is he would have applied for it . Thanks

 

[Revin]

I have a buddy bottle leaks out bottom

 

[Ratzy]

Nope none
Have in carbon fiber:
3 9L
2 6.8L
1 2L
6 1.1L (4 short, 2 long)
2 0.8L
6 0.7L
4 0.5L
2 0.48L

 

[Trucker3573]

I think you will find that the failures that exist are like you describe. Why those tanks are very safe. Never heard of one going off like a bomb.

 

[Ratzy]

I think you will find that the failures that exist are like you describe. Why those tanks are very safe. Never heard of one going off like a bomb.

That takes fairly extreme external pressure like crushing or shooting.

 

[jps2486]

I had a buddy bottle leak around the valve. I replaced the O ring and problem gone.

 

[bchannell]

At one time I was the guy during industrial emergencies who filled tanks and kept the firefighters supplied with air. Never once had a failure. We did a lot of training classes back then and only had witness account videos of, IIRC, two failures. One let go in the cab of a fire truck and one was spray painted and the chemicals in the paint damaged the epoxy and it failed. Don't recall all the details now. But, I've seen some pretty ratty looking tanks still holding air.

Funny story....we used to, as protocol, slide the breathing air cylinders in a 8-10" piece of PVC pipe as a blast shield!!!! It was actually written in the procedure. Like that would make ANY difference in a failure. That dint last long when a couple of us brought it up and we bought a fill station with a true blast drawer.