Lowes now sells a portable CO2 regulator for paintball tanks:
formatting link
For $90 (plus a paintball tank you have to supply?) you get regulated CO2 on a 10-foot hose with quick-connect fitting. Meant for running air tools from your belt, but looks like it would work fine for beverage applications.
One other note: I'd be concerned about using CO2 in my air tools with the greater cooling effect than air, unknown effect on tool lubrication and potential for accidentally feeding liquid. The solution is easy however, just get air fills from a SCUBA shop instead of CO2. It's cheaper as well.
You can't get much compressed air in a paintball tank, compared to the expanded volume of CO2.
Depending on the delivery rate, the output CO2 gas should not be that cold. The tubing coil will warm it very effectively at low delivery rates. The tank is small enough that ambient heat will warm it directly.
There's actually a product made for beer that uses one of these from Williams brewing:
formatting link
This is more pricey by far, but includes a keg and other stuff. The regulator (which is basically the main thing you need other than a tank and assorted hoses) runs around $85.00. I couldn't see what the range was on the Lowes regulator -- beer is usually dispensed at around 12PSI.
Might even be cheaper to get a bev regulator and DIY your own adapter (assuming you need one) for a paintball tank, but I don't know.
I think the only other problem is that iirc paintball fills tend to be expensive for the amount of gas you get.
I'd hope anyone at a SCUBA shop doing fills would understand tank ratings, particularly if they have purchased the adapters to do paintball tanks. Of course you could also get a SCUBA tank and regulator with the appropriate QC adapter and have a nice large regulated air source.
But, it's next to useless. The amount of air you can store at CO2 pressures is very small. CO2 is stored as a liquid. The volume produced is way higher than air at the same pressure. Just like water produces way more volume in steam when you boil it.
Yeah I saw these yesterday at Lowes. The "Rhino Power" tanks(9oz or
20oz) are by Blue Rhino, the same folks that do the propane tank exchanges. It looks like they are setting up the same system at Lowes where you return the tank for exchange. However it is so new that no one at customer service could manage to perform the proper incantation for the point of sale computer to divulge the actual cost, after the return credit, of the co2 cylinder. I figured I'd wait a couple weeks and go ask again.
I've seen plans arround the net for that very thing and also for a filling settup that uses a 20Lb CO2 tank mounted upside down to dispense liquid to fill the paintball cylinder. I'm not sure I have a pair big enough to do that myself but the plans are "out there".
"Bob F" wrote: (clip)Just like water produces way more volume in steam when you boil it. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hey, why not just fill the tank with water and throw it in a bonfire? Watt do you say to that?
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.