Filling your bottles

[SplashPaintBall]

its scares the poo out of me, first time i ever played paitball ( with my own kit ) my friend filled up his bottle and it went pop ( well the reg came lose ) and the bottle flew into the air and was never seen again. lets just say id rather pay somone to fill it than do it myself lol

 

[Ryan.Grainger]

Hpa

I love it when i go to fill up my bottle, and i connect it with my ninja fill whip, and turn the air on, the air pi$$es everywhere because the fill station is broken, i then have to walk around testing all of the fill stations, to fill up my bottle, seeing that 9/10 of them are often broken

Although where i play only fills up to 3000psi, you can still over fill your tank oh what joy

And because i am a newbie to paintball kinda, been playing for about 5 months i am using a Invert MINI which i believe requires a LP bottle preferably? But i also have a BT Delta for normal days which requires HP what to do? :tsk:

 

[Tom]

I love it when i go to fill up my bottle, and i connect it with my ninja fill whip, and turn the air on, the air pi$$es everywhere because the fill station is broken, i then have to walk around testing all of the fill stations, to fill up my bottle, seeing that 9/10 of them are often broken

Define broken - There are slight differences with fill nipples and they wear.
Connect, check for a secure fit, then fill
Have you reported the problem to the operators?
Have you tried connecting the bottle directly to the 'broken' ones?

Although where i play only fills up to 3000psi, you can still over fill your tank oh what joy

How?
What is the fill system? - Compressor, dive cylinder or fiilling from a cylinder which is rigged to a compressor for topping up?

If they are saying the fill is to 3000psi but you can overfill then is it:

Actually marked 300bar which is not 3000psi but 4500psi
or a dive cylinder at over 3000psi to enable people to get consistent 3000psi fills.

It is possible to fill from a higher pressured source - but this is dodgy. Have they got a 3000psi regulator to control the fill?

Could this be their warning on air safety that the fill is 3000 but that there ae risks with overfilling?


I recommend you read up the air safety information, and if possible get to a UKSPC game for a free air brief.

http://www.ukpsf.com/documents/hpa.pdf

http://www.northvsouth.com/Air-Safety.html

http://www.ukscenario.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=77

Regarding HP and LP pressures, you should use a standard HP output system as the low pressure marker will regulate the input itself.

 

[Roquey]

I love it when i go to fill up my bottle, and i connect it with my ninja fill whip, and turn the air on, the air pi$$es everywhere because the fill station is broken, i then have to walk around testing all of the fill stations, to fill up my bottle, seeing that 9/10 of them are often broken

Although where i play only fills up to 3000psi, you can still over fill your tank oh what joy

And because i am a newbie to paintball kinda, been playing for about 5 months i am using a Invert MINI which i believe requires a LP bottle preferably? But i also have a BT Delta for normal days which requires HP what to do? :tsk:

I Think you need to think about what you wrote, how can you over fill a bottle on a 3k fill when the bottles are either 3 or 4.5?
Unless ive somewhat mis-understood your point. As for the broken fill stations. thats your site, just tell them everytime you go. if they continue to do nothing then thats their problem.

As for the bottle? HP will work on both no problem whoever advised you to go LP on the mini probly should re-check their knowledge a bit. LP works on everything HP works on 99%, i will be corrected if im wrong however as far as i know only un-modded angels must have LP.

When it comes to filling my bottle, i dont mind doing it but i tend to put a few squirts in to make sure its ok then slowly drop the lever down. Looking at it it may seem a little bit silly but thats what keeps my mind at rest. Im quite happy for someone else to fill up my bottle but whether people are willing to have that system is another question.

Quite an interesting question i think. Made my mind work for a few minutes atleast.

 

[bhp addict]

NPF (Bassets Pole) have trained staff to fill bottles. I believe they have both 3K and 4.5K but 99.9% of the time use 3K fills.

I have never been trained, more self taught from watching, listening etc, but I have only filled my own at 1 event. NvS last year.

FYI - There will be Air Fill training at the Super6 events this year. Once you have completed the training, you get a certificate for 1 year. Allowing you to fill your own where they allow.

As long as I don;t have to wait too long, I'm not fussed whether I fill my tank or staff. Either way, it's done correctly.

 

[Kevin Winter]

Not fussed - I'm very careful with my bottles and filling....

 

[Liam92]

It is one thing for me to comment on this where i'm filling hundreds of bottles a week, but there are plenty of safety features built into tanks to stop any serious problems i.e. the structure of the tank itself rupturing. between burst disks, the testing standards and the grooves on the regulator threads the chances of a tank going during filling are very remote.
however i have not had any formal training except from my own knowledge and being shown how to operate a compressor and fill rig by someone who has undergone that training.
there is a good point raised about the possibility of someone before you having used lubricant on their fill nipple, but i would like to put these worries to rest by pointing out that any oil that would have been on a fill nipple of a previous tank would've been blown into that tank, and would not have been able to stay on the inside surface of the connector and then go into the nipple of the next tank.

as for filling the tanks slowly, the reason for this is that if tanks are filled fast, they heat up and so when they cool you get a drop in pressure. however for the size of tanks that are used in paintball this is a very minor temperature change and is nowhere near a dangerous level. any risk of a tank rupture during filling from a "fast" fill would be structural damage to the body of the tank which would either A. be visible from the outside or B. be damage on the inside which so long as the tank is in test cannot be spotted.
however there is nothing that anyone can do whether qualified or not, filling fast or slow to prevent a tank rupture if there was internal damage and the odds of something like this is very very slim.

common sense prevails and if a tank is in test then this should give you some confidence that there is no internal damage and so long as there is a suitable regulator on the bottle then there is nothing to worry about when filling your own

 

[digitalman]

Personally I'm happy either way. I used to work with high pressure nitrogen and oxygen every day while working on aircraft and as such feel trained and competent in handling either fills from bottles or fill rigs at either pressure. However, if I used a site that, insisted on filling my bottle I'm afraid that I would have to be there to keep a check on what they were doing with my kit.

There should always be someone there to lend a hand, supervise or fill bottles for those who are not happy filling their own gear, who is competent and trained in handling HPA and if the cost of training and certification has to be passed onto the paintballers then thats life, but that cost should be spread over the year and equally to each user, probably work out at a few pence per year per game and it might even be tax deductible and then become free.

Just my thoughts.

Steve

 

[Bigbaddaveyc]

Blooming heck, want to thank you guys for this thread. I've only played a few times and my last walk on was shown how to use the fill station in a few minutes. I'm not stupid and know anything involving 'pressure' can cause problems but this really got me thinking as to what could go wrong. My local site makes sure there's always a Marshall at the station during breakout times and nobody under 18 is allowed to complete the fill themselves, all the fills are also limited to 3k to stop any overfills but I definitely think it would be worthwhile for some more formal training being available for people outside the main games to increase comfort / safety. It can't hurt the more people out there who are competent can hopefully help to ensure the safety of the majority by stopping the numptys of this world injuring or killing others through simple ignorance.

 

[Timboy]

For Shoreline events, we've been running a system regarding bottles and HPA filling for a couple of years that has now been adopted as the standard for the Super6 series, most other well run events now adopt the same system.

All bottles are checked by our staff before being used. The check is basic, just to ensure the bottle is in date and Pi (i.e. a UK legal bottle) and also visual to ensure that the bottle isn't covered in chips or dents.

Any defective, out of date or non-UK bottles are retained and not given back until after the event.

Every player who wishes to use the HPA filling system themselves has to have had a basic Air Safety Training session within the past 12 months.

The Air Safety Training is very basic and takes about 10 minutes and is based on the UKPSF HPA policy. Each person who takes the training is given a copy of that policy.

When you complete the training, we give you a laminated Air Safety Training pass which is valid for 1 year, after which you have to re-take the session again.

The fill whips are constantly manned. So any player who has not completed the training can simply hand their bottle to the member of staff who will fill it for them and then give it back.

Is is fool proof? No.
Are there holes in the system? Yes.
After completing the training session are you suddenly 'qualified' or some kind of HPA guru? No.

But what it does is provide a very low level check of bottles and some very very basic advice regarding the dangers of HPA - which is better than existed before......which was sod all.

Its not particularly time consuming for the player - about 15 minutes per year.

Is is time consuming for the organiser - yes.
Is is quite expensive to run - yes.
Is it a complete pain in the arse to do at big events when you have loads of other things to think about - yes.
Is it responsible and in the good of the game for organisers to make the effort - absolutely yes.

In the past 2 years, Shoreline and Super6 have trained and issued cards to well over 3,000 players (some of which are clearly going through the process for the second time).

If organisers say it can't be done - that's bollocks. It's just that it takes time, organisation and costs money and you need the will to do it.