Cheap Ebay Carbon Fiber Tanks

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I looked at this type of tanks before and yes its cheap but I learned the hard way a long time ago when I was building hot rods, a old wise man told me "you go cheap, you get cheap" "you get what you paid for" and this was a true saying because when I was building an engine I went with the cheaper heads and wouldn't you know 2 passes down the track and boom.

But if you do buy it, please let us know...
 
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I'd be leery of anyone advertising a "Scuba Bottle Carbon Fiber"



especially with a description like this.............at least it has "High pressure resistance"





Product Description



As SCBA and life support cylinders feature aluminum alloy liner with thin wall and full-wrapped composite material exterior with carbon fiber and glass fiber with are suitable for Paintball Refil, SCBA, oxygen respirator, fire extinguisher, medical aid and emergency, as well as for use in automobile, space industry, etc. Carbon cylinder Characteristics & Features:

1. Light weight: Up to 30 percent lighter than comparable steel cylinders;

2. Outer layer with full-wrapped superior glass fiber features creep resistance, shock resistance and corrosion resistance, etc.;

3. High pressure resistance;

4. Leakage first before explosion;
 
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Back to the old question: is it DOT rated/certified? If not, you can only fill it at home with your own rig, or if you make a drug deal with your local fire department or someone with a 4500 psi pump. With Chinese tanks watch for fake DOT certifications....your life is worth more than 300 dollars. Look for used SCBA tanks with 5-10 years left for around $100-200. 
 
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Here's the risk on these or any "Cheap" items you get directly from China.


If they go through proper channels to import their items to America they need to pass quality test to make sure they can be sold in America.

The ones you get directly from AliExpress of Ebay could be blemished or slightly defective. That which could not pass the US Standaed to be imported. Rather than throw them away they sell them at a discounted rate directly to the public.

Not saying that they are unsafe?! But they may not be as high quality as the ones that actually gets inspected and Imported.

So it's a risk you need to decide if you're willing to take? If you have connections to someone that will hydro test them for you then that should be fine!
But most places won't without a DOT.


 
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Acecare builds many tanks for the European markets. They are reputable. Just because a tank is DOT certified does NOT mean that each tank is tested but rather the tank type and model has been submitted for testing and when passed ... the tanks "all" receive a certification number by DOT. 

Like stated above the lack of DOT certification will prevent getting the tank filled unless you or a friend has a compressor. I believe Tim Hill is or was importing some DOT certified Acecare tanks a while back.
 
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I'm not going to sway you in any way. My only complaint on tanks in general is take my Scott, interspiro, any I've owned. DOT states 15 years. SAME TANKS IN EUROPE, 30 year life. I would say I'd rather buy a tank here, used from Joe B, or any brand I mentioned, and a Crosman compressor that'll be out within a year, and fill it myself, take "my chances" as that tank will outlive me, never be exposed to 7 to 11K psi water fill pressure in a hydro tank. The meniscus Ain gonna rise on normal tanks. Keep pushing and it may. 4500psi fill. 1:5 safety ratio, that's simply (should theoretically be) 18000, 22,500psi before any tank "Should" blow. They shouldn't ever "blow." The resin in the carbon fiber should literally be pushed out of the pores it bonded in, just like pushing play doh out of a strainer or toy meant for it.

I'm also going to say this. I changed my seals on my Discoveries and put in Magnum AirPower's 3 screws that sheared at 186,000lbs each. I feel safe. Crosmans screws, when I saw them, scared me, but they meet the 1:5 ratio. No bottle gun or tube states, test every 5 years. I did NOT have to reseal my guns. I wanted to learn, one was 8 years old, and I wanted to check internals as I hand pumped before tanks. No rust, no problems. The valve holes were not circular. That valve body had been pushed back hard enough to make them look slightly oval and have a 0.020" gap in the front of all 3 holes. Bills screws heads sunk in there filling that oval and they exude quality. I don't take them past 2700 anyway as that's where that valve locks with other OEM parts. Just my 2cents on the dollar.
 
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Rico

Just keep reading back through this section of the forum. lot's & lot's posted on these.

T3p pointed out this particular company is know. That's certainly a + , as there are really very few scba manufacturer plants in the world a previously unknown brand or supplier would be scary indeed.

As folks say HPA can be dangerous , even little ole 100psi can kill you if things go that way so we all use caution and common si

NO dot stamp, no fill & maybe no travel filled ( but ??) .

Acecare does have the "CE" cert. - this is an international forum and "CE" is a good cert some places- on most tanks, maybe?

They also sell DOT cert tanks which at least one dealer sells or has sold recently.

i went with a used scott from an airgun dealer with fill hose, recent hydro - and not a single smudge of a printor mark anywhere- and 12 years life for under 300 delivered.

Just an opinion here, I personally feel the new acecare tanks would be safe for home filling but I like staying with know DOT tanks as the market is currently flooded with good recent hydro used ones. Also even thought it may be just mental I like having the dot stamp & current hydro just for anyone else who might ever be near my equipment.



Johhn


 
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Using that particular one as an example, and assuming the tank ends up being fine

1. I would not trust the fill hose or fittings. those are the failure areas we see posts on (not on these in particular but def the 'cheap' ones)

2. Filling will be an issue at a scuba shop. Eventually... They may take it day one but personally I'd doubt it. But they will (90% of the time) refuse to send it out for hydro testing. Any shop might do it's own visual testing but regardless of what you think about transporting a tank, no one in a commercial truck is going to transport a non-certified tank to a commercial testing facility. And yes... I'm ignoring whether or not they would even test it once it got there. I wouldn't be surprised if they simply 'failed' it and drilled a 1 inch hole in the side.

Don't want to argue, but if you are going to spend $400 on a SCBA tank (and yes that one is $400 with shipping), and get a safe (reliable) hose, then your up to 500ish. Then is the valve any good??? If you replace it (with the hose) with a trusted version you're getting to 625 all the way up to 700+ and still can't get hydro tested and maybe not filled, and without current hydro or DOT cert, illegal to transport.

You price it out. Joe B with 2 gauges and high end fill hose is 780 shipped, little more with 'armor'. Other vendors are a little cheaper but their fitting are often a fail for me (fitment wise) and I DON'T like their hoses.

This all goes up in smoke if you have a compressor, fill you own, are willing to accept the valve/hose and transportation risk. 

All that said, I have the best equipment I know of,, have a nice compressor BUT I'm not perfect on hydros and transporting, So I do accept some risk.

I just get a little worked up on the cheap tanks and compressors as they just seem like short term solutions to me, and not necessarily ways to save any money. (although I will call out the shoebox, that seems to have been a win)
 
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I am certainly not an expert on any of this high pressure stuff, but I do know that carbon fiber fails catastrophically. It explodes when it gives up and sends very sharp shards in all directions. CF failures are exciting and scary. I can only imagine what would happen if a CF tank gives up holding 4500 psi. I have no idea if it has ever happened, but with popular use, it probably will happen some day. I certainly do not want to be around it when it happens though. More importantly having a DOT or CE cert does not mean that particular tank has been tested or is safe. Pumping any tank any time is a serious risk every time. There is no foolproof system anywhere that can absolutely guarantee any tank against failure. It does not exist. We do our best with visual checks of course, but neither the end user nor filling stations have the equipment to detect micro cracking and metal fatigue. The presence of a sticker or a stamp does not give me total confidence ,they only mean that a tank like yours has been type tested at some time in the past. Even trying to find out what that type test was is not easy. Make no mistake about this but a hydro test itself can cause a tank failure by creating undetectable stress cracking . Severe risk will always be present when dealing with high pressure gas. I keep my compressors and tanks in a steel shipping container for both storage and charging and stand outside when the compressors are running.
 
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Funny or maybe not. Was getting my SCBA 44cf filled the other day when the boss says fill it to 4000#, usual fill is 3800. Well the new guy forgot he had a 3000# tank still in line and at about 3600-3800 the burst disk did it's thing. Can you say hurricane in a 10 by 10 room, crap in pants and things blowing off shelves, no real damage but a bit exciting. There are a few places around one can get tanks at a reasonable price that are good for 5 years or so life and fresh hydro. Would like a 66-97 cf take but they get expensive quick, so settled for a 44 with a 347 valve(this is important too) with gauge for $150 and an adapter with a gauge for about $50. So I have three gauges to monitor, tank, fill and gun, makes a nice setup. At the 3800# level I get about 12-14 fills for my Marauder and Bandit for about 800-1000 shots. In summery watch the build date on SCBA tanks, they are good for 15 years and the Hydo date, they are good for 5 years and if you have your own compressor it doesn't matter.
 
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