CO2 blow up

OK, got your attention, not an actual "blow up", but I THOUGHT it was! Dropped my tank for fill yesterday afternoon (kinda cool weather) and picked it up early this am, (still cool). Put in the back of jeep, drove (with sun shining in) about 20 minutes when POW! and almost instantly the whole interior was full of a fog! talk about freak ya out! It was pretty loud coming out to! I of course only freaked for about 2 seconds before I realized what was happinin so I rolled down all 4 windows, pulled over (with my head out window like a dog) and jumped out popped the hatch open. Then I sat there and watched all the CO2 run out of the safety blow out valve. I called the place that filled while I stood there. They said pretty normal for it to do that, I pointed out that this was only my 2nd tank fill, they said, yeah, sometimes they are just bad. I am taking it back in, they said a new safety thingy is only about $5 and they won't charge me to refill (which is only $10 anyway). They claim to have one "blow" on there dock about every 2 weeks!!

by the way, the whole tank got a 1/4 inch layer of ice/snow on it, pretty cool looking.

He also said it could sufocate me if I stayed inside.... I don't see how, can someone that REALLY knows, explain if it really is dangerous. My kids WOULD have been sitting about 12" from the blow area!! OUCH.

Making me wonder, would this not have happened if they did not fill so full, or if I would have let some out before loading?

Is this normal? Anybody else ever have this happen? I never read of this once when researching CO2's!!

Thanks guys for your input!
Jason

yes it could have killed you if you stayed inside you need oxygen to live the CO2 is carbon dioxide wich you cannot breathe and live. kinda like people suffocating using a kerosene heater i'm sure you've probably read about that....

Red97XJ said:

He also said it could sufocate me if I stayed inside.... I don't see how, can someone that REALLY knows, explain if it really is dangerous. My kids WOULD have been sitting about 12" from the blow area!! OUCH.

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uh, if you're not breathing oxygen, you will suffocate

OK, so it will kill ya.

Now, what about the, is this normal part?


Thanks!
Jason

pretty cool sight eh?

When I first opend the hatch, it looked like the whole jeep had a bad interior fire, it was pouring out the windows and hatch!

Anybody else seen this before?


The place that did it does TONS of industrail stuff daily. They are located in the center of a HUGE industrial park.

One of the welding shops in my town won't fill or sell you a tank unless you have a pickup truck to put it in for this reason. Its DOT legal to drive with the tanks in a closed vehicle but I guess the shop just doesn't want to be liable.

I have been hauling mine around for the last couple of months in this daily driver, now I am wondering if I should leave it sit at home until the wheelin trips.

What do you guys do?

I leave mine at home until I go wheeling... my daughter is only 17 months so she hasn't joined me out on the trail yet and my son... well he hasn't joined us yet. He is due to arrive mid September.

Brian T.

Played paintball for years, worked with industrial/medical gass workers for a while now. If they know what they're doing then it is supposed to be a once in a blue moon occurance. The blow off disk is supposed to be an "oh shit" precaution. Temp swings definitely make a difference, but it should be a pretty extreme swing.

Vehicle collisions can be pretty freaky so far as to what gets forced where. My concern would not be the lack of oxygen following a crash, but on second thought it could be an issue if I were out cold. And the windows were rolled up. And I was alone. And breathing but that’s not the point I'm trying to make.

If the tank were to get loose with the valve knocked off it could get pretty freaking rough in the cab. The forces likely to be encountered with a rollover on the trail would conceivably be much less severe.



VALUE: 2 cents

Tim

Red97XJ said:

I have been hauling mine around for the last couple of months in this daily driver, now I am wondering if I should leave it sit at home until the wheelin trips.

What do you guys do?

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Red97XJ said:

He also said it could sufocate me if I stayed inside...

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Yes and no. If you're dumb enough to just sit there, with the windows all closed up tight, breathing the CO2 then, yes, it's possible that you would eventually suffocate. Open a window, though, and you'll be just fine.

what tank were you using, i hope its not a powertank.

it's not supposed to happen. that place shouldn't be filling so much that it will blow if the sun is on it for a little bit. the problem is co2 is sensitive to temperature, like everything else really, but more sensitive. when they fill the tank the temp drops and a lot of liquid co2 gets in there, which is good, but u dont want as much as u had. so when the sun shines on your tank the liquid turns to gas and expands, increasing pressure. thats when the burst disk they have explodes and u leak all ur co2 in a hurry. just tell them to fill like 19 lbs instead of 20

OK heres the deal..

I fill co2 cylinders all day, I made my own Powertank set up and do all my clubs. If the cylinder was new that saftey had no reason to be "BAD". Reguardless of tempurature 20lbs is 20lbs. If it was cold when they filled it there is the chance that someone wasn't paying attention to the weight and overfilled it by a pound or so. All cylinders are built to accept the designed load at any tempurature, the testing is incredible!!. We fill cylinders for the govt at a rate of 100+ a day. If they are having one blow every 2 weeks that should be an indicator of a faulty scale, inexperienced personell, or cheap safteys.

Yes it will kill you, if the o2 content drops below 13% you will die. If you have a 20# cylinder, it has enough concetration to drop it to 8-10% according to my calc program.

As far as opening a window....
Not completely correct as a saftey factor
Your body readily accepts co2 through the skin as well as thru the lungs. There are instances in the marine world where personell entered a space after a system discharge with air paks and never came out....
It can kill you even if your breathing Oxygen.

I carry mine every day i my dd. As long as it's secure, out of the sun and properly maintained in my opinion it's very safe.

The only ? is........what color is your tank? If it's black it would explain a lot.

still, i have my kids back there. i'm now taking it out after my trail rides!!

norm

better safe than sorry, I can see your point.

Mine is silver, here is pics of it and the mount. It is a 10# tank. I will have em fill to 9 or 9.5 next time. http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeBMmLJy4atXZA

Also, think I will leave in garage until trips.

Thanks guys,
Jason

Hydrostatic pressure :lecture: .. The people who filled your bottle have a real problem with overfilling bottles on cool mornings/days.. When things warm up, el-pop-o-rooni..

they said, yeah, sometimes they are just bad.

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BS

my cudo's to the layout of the cargo area

co2 or nitrogen is bad ju ju to be exposed to, keeping it at home till trips would be wise, if someone hasn't bought a tank yet, i recomend OBA compressor, a little slower but much lower chance of a boom ( 125 psi or no tank at all )