Getting my nitrogen tank today

I had the same question and did not want to waste the 3000 psi of breathing air remaining in each of my tanks. Our local supplier said not to worry and we assume that over time the 60 min. scba will be 100% nitrogen. By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. I celebrated New Year's Day by posting this photo "Out with the old, in with the new". Your supplier should be able to provide the orange nitrogen stickers.

Enjoy your N.

long shot ?. what size is the 6000psi tank.

nope that is not the long shot ?, this is

do you fancy counting the Fills you get, and letting us know.

thank you.

Shoz and lessmundane - I'm curious is there a reason for the nitrogen versus a compressor? I have a dive shop 6 miles away that can't fill a tank properly. Always 300-400 PSI short. 

So I've thought about a compressor more than once. I was told at one of the local welding supply shops they didn't even normally handle 6000 PSI tanks. Just how big of a tank you have coming? 

Why not a compressor? They are expensive and break. Nitrogen is dry no risk of water getting into the guns. Cost is about the same. Tank size the biggest one ( don’t know the number)

you have to buy from an air supplier NOT a weld shop. Praxair Air Gas etc 

My tank will be a 6000 psi tank. Here are the dimensions. Mine will be the tank on the right

https://www.polyvance.com/_pdf/NitrogenBottleSizeChart.pdf

I am getting the tank over the compressor because the price was right, see above. Also, judging by the comments, to me at least, compressors seemed like a maintenance hassle. Plus I like the dry air advantage of nitrogen. That said I’ve yet to use it. Hopefully Lessmundane will address your question too.

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Perfect! Makes total sense. 

bubblerboy64 - The weld shop is a gas supplier, or so they say. I'll check this out more. There's two places to check on prices locally here.

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Shoz If you have a truck pick it up yourself & save $25 bucks just be sure to block it in the bed with a 2x4 . Also I'm sure you know to chain or strap it to your wall or work bench . It looks like you got a good buy on the gas , my small co2 welding bottle costs me $64 bucks to fill OUCH . BTW just got my Shoebox f10 yesterday . Have fun & congrats darell

lessmundane your a bottle hog LOL

You using a nitrogen reg for the fill? Hope you got a slow fill set up coming off the 6000 psi. 

Nitrogen will mix well with air. Just a hassle to load, unload and position the upright bottles. Compressor is an easier route to go vs the 6000 psi plus how much you will waste once the pressure gets too low to fill. I'd call Joe on the setup. I could be wrong but we used nitrogen for welding purge but not a 6000 psi. Jmo

To Shoz and the others using nitrogen- have you all done the math to calculate at what I’ve frame does it go past the cost of a dive air quality compressor of say an Alkin for $3400 new or a Bauer(don’t know the cost). Maintenance on these high end compressors will be almost nothing really except to change out the oil and air filter(electric model). I’m sure by the time I need a fan belt on my used Alkin it’ll be a couple of years, but when you all speak of maintenance on a compressor, the higher end models that produce clean, dry, breathable air should take away any moisture concerns on your gun and tanks. 

Im in no way bagging or downplaying your choices to go with nitrogen, with tanks being rented, delivered and filled for a price, I’m just curious if you’ve done the math, and done the math using a high end compressor as the ones to compare to. I hate to say this, but just like everything else, the great low price of XX dollars for a fill, for rent, and for delivery can be changed by the supplier at any time. You and I know supply/demand, or even someone else being put in charge of running the nitrogen suppliers business can make changes that’ll affect that great deal you have now. 

I'm curious why folks rent their tanks? The tanks I use for hobby welding were bought outright. I bought my first argon tank in 1991 (size 2) in the Polyvance chart. It was probably less than $150 back then. You never get "your" tank back when it comes time to fill it. The weld shop would unload the tank from the back of my pickup and give me another prefilled one. There is a catch though. You need to watch the hydro dates. I got hit with a $75 hydro charge once while I was between houses and not welding.

The comments made about "weld shop" versus "gas supplier" made me chuckle. Independently owned weld shops are going the way of the mom and pop hardware store. My local shop got bought out about a year ago by one of the big guys. I was surprised to hear that since the signage didn't change. The guy that runs the shop still works there. He used to fill tanks for me if no prefilled tanks were available. The new company no longer allows onsite filling for insurance reasons. He gets a daily delivery of filled tanks and I need to call ahead to make sure my tank is in stock. The last time I was in there we naming off all of the weld shops in the SF bay area that disappeared. 

Hi shoz

You are smart in having your tank delivered. A 6k steel tank weighs about 300+ lbs and are awkward. I fill to my guns from the 6k tank with joe b. Gauge setup it works great.Just crack tank valve very slowly. Watch tank and gun gauges Enjoy. 

got mine a few months back..sure beats hand pumping..the regulator works great..takes seconds to fill my crown or impact..

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did purchase a dolly at home depot...yes very heavy.

Also purchased new f10 and cal air compressor..used once sold shoebox...crazy slow.

Good thing on the dolly set up. Dang sure do not want a bottle to fall. One thing to remember is that nitrogen is a silent killer. Does not take much to consume you. 

The regulator is another needed thing as I mentioned. They are not cheap. I have 6000psi hoses and fittings from when we filled SCBA bottles. Another thing is keep all connections capped to prevent contamination. 

Had a Showbox. Worked good but slow plus keeping mositure from an oiless compressor was a must. 

At one time I looked at the booster for compressed air bottles. 3000psi were easy finds but the 6000 psi bottle were not available but could be had. Went back to compressor. 80 hard hours now on an Omega and still running. Still not a fast fill but faster than the Showbox. 

Still would like the data on the # of fills from the tanks? Just curious JMO

Curious if you will notice any difference in shot FPS using pure nitrogen due to the different density of the gas. I think pure nitrogen is slightly lighter than mixed air, but could be wrong on that. Have you done any direct testing to see of there is any noticeable difference?

 I checked with a gas supplier that has a 6000 PSI - K size tank that holds 280 instead of the 300. He quoted $12. monthly lease fee and $60. for the gas.

My dive shop charges me $5. to "fill" from 2700 PSI to 3100 -3150 PSI into my 3500 PSI tank, or $6. for only about 4000 -4100 PSI in my 4500 tank. They never fill them. I've complained about it too many times. Even had to bring a low tank that they just filled back a few times. They just screwed up recently and put 3450 in my 3500 tank. I've always known there were a lot more shots in the air I never get. But getting all those good fills on my guns, compared to their normal short fills was what I really noticed. So the last fill I got was 3100 PSI like normal in the same tank and it's out already. That's why this is worth looking at for me. The wife says to just spend the $5 - $6k on a good compressor. Don't like to argue with her. But I don't use all that much air. So it's been hard to decide what it's worth to me to be able to fill my guns full. This looks promising. 

Looks like I need to check on purchasing a tank and do some home work for the number of refills for my 4500 PSI tank.