Paintball tank update

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:31 pm

In case anyone is interested, I did go with the paint ball tank setup for kegging. I think it will be a good solution for me until I can afford to upgrade to a full-blown kegregator setup with 3-4 taps. I'm just serving with a picnic tap for now.

I found you can get them refilled at Dick's sporting goods. The cost is $3.99 (20oz tank) and after 4 refills you get the fifth free. That makes the refills very reasonable compared to a 5 or 10# tank. It's also nice since they are open in the evenings and weekends so if I run out on Friday night I don't have to wait until Monday to get it filled. I keep a spare on hand so I'm always covered.

Even once I upgrade it will still be very useful for bringing kegs to beer events. It would be cool to build one of those portable keg coolers.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:14 pm

I am not an authority on this Randy, so you should probably research this.

But, when I was looking into my keg setup, several sources I found said to be cautious using paintball tanks for driving draft. The reason being that paintball CO2 is not food grade and is not intended for food products therefore there can be harmful comtaminants in the CO2. Make sure you reseach this fully before using to carbonate beer. As I said I am not an authority on this, this information was simply presented somewhere when I was researching my own setup, I went to a full CO2 setup from the start so it become not needed to do further research.

brownbeard · Post by **brownbeard** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:39 pm

It's not going to be any more industrial than welding gas. I read similar concerns. The concern was with lubricants in the gas. One of the guy contacted a paint ball gun mfr, who assured him the gas was pure CO2.

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:50 pm

CO2 and oxygen from any source is the same. There are no "industrial additives" to either. Most likely Dick's has a large tank that gets filled by Airgas or Linweld. Oxygen for industrial use can't have any more contaminants then "food grade".

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:22 am

Yep, I already researched that before I bought the system.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:54 am

tompb wrote:CO2 and oxygen from any source is the same. There are no "industrial additives" to either. Most likely Dick's has a large tank that gets filled by Airgas or Linweld. Oxygen for industrial use can't have any more contaminants then "food grade".

As someone who spent a lot of time in the beverage industry I can tell you that that is %100 not true, there is a large difference in the equipment used to fill CO2 bottles. Yes it can be just a tank, ranging to a system that has paper and utraviolet filters on it.

You are correct that there are no "additivies" in the gas, however as mentioned above there can be different standards for the equipment used and hense differences in the "Purity" of the gas. However, for our standards as long as they do not contain harmful gases there is no problem.

semanticdm · Post by **semanticdm** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 5:10 pm

You are correct that there are no "additivies" in the gas, however as mentioned above there can be different standards for the equipment used and hense differences in the "Purity" of the gas. However, for our standards as long as they do not contain harmful gases there is no problem.

Sorry to bump a dead post - but does this mean that the CO2 at Dicks is most likely safe for use in a kegging setup, or is it better to go to Airgas or Linweld?

T. Powersox

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:29 pm

Dick's gas is safe.

semanticdm · Post by **semanticdm** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:29 pm

tompb wrote:Dick's gas is safe.

You know, I've known plenty of Dicks in my lifetime... None of them could be considered 'safe' to be around after having a serving of beans...

But thanks for the info!

T. Powersox

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:16 am

I've been drinking beer served of these tanks for two months now, and it hasn't killed me yet. Nor have I tasted or smelled anything unusual. It's working well. The only downside is that if you have a leak anywhere you run out of gas pretty quickly. Then again, maybe that's not a downside, as at least you discover it quickly and you haven't gone through 10 or 20# of gas. I always have a spare tank ready to go anyway.