CO2 fire extinguisher bottles

[gordon stephenson]

I was looking after my daughter's hobby farm last week, her husbands uncle owns quite a large fire prevention/extinguisher/ training business, so the deal was done. A nice log burner for a couple of full CO2 bottles. Got them home and it struck me, Don't they have a dip tube, so have to be used upside down.
Anyway,cracked the valve a little with the bottle the right way up and just got a sort of misty haze coming out. Then turned it upside down and cracked the valve, this time a shower of snowy flakes.Am I correct in thinking the dip tube is not fitted. I have never used CO2 before but give it a go with the bottle the right way up and it welded very nicely, I was impressed, did not seem to be any more spatter than with Argoshield light and no adustment to voltage or wire speed., I will be interested in your thoughts.

 

[madkayaker]

The big bottle we have at work (about 6 ft high) have drip tubs so that liquid CO2 comes out and then it is allowed to vaporise.

 

[gordon stephenson]

I,m thinking he knew I wanted them for welding so maybe had the tubes removed, will ring him tomorrow to ask the question.

 

[madkayaker]

The bottles I scraped the pipe was integral to the valve but the valve unscrews and the pipe could be cut off. There might well be different types of valves. We fired aload off at work to safely decommission system and the gas cloud was very impressive the cloud hugged the ground to the depth of 5ft!

 

[backpurge]

You can get CO2 cylinders either with or without dip tubes dependant upon your application.

A cylinder with a white stripe down the side usually indicates a dip tube is fitted

 

[garethp]

The Co2 extinguishers I use have dip tubes in, the bottles do work both ways up but I've found that using them right way up with a dip tube causes the regulator to ice over externally and stop working after 5 or 10 mins.

The guy who I get my refills from said that the dip tubes can come loose - you can hear them rattle when you move the bottle.

 

[gordon stephenson]

The two bottles I was given are definitely fire extinguishers,but they both have hand wheels as opposed to trigger device.

 

[Robotstar5]

Probably had the dip tubes removed when modified to hand wheel?

 

[madkayaker]

Agree with the above. The ones at work were a pull the pin and run type!

 

[gordon stephenson]

Only welded for a couple of minutes on a bit of scrap but must admit I was expecting a big change in spatter level etc. but it ran pretty nicely. and a big bonus IT"S free,relative has a 10 ton tank for filling extinguishers.I have not searched but is there a way of figuring out how long the bottle will last per pound of liquid. at 8-10 ltr per min.

 

[shenion]

Liters of gas:

1 kg = 2.2lbs
1 cu meter of CO2 gas weighs 1.977 kg.
1 cu meter = 1000 Liters

1 lb liquid to liters of gas = 1/2.2 * 1/1.977 * 1000 = 229 liters

229 liters / 10 LPM = 22.9 minutes
229 liters / 8 LPM = 28.6

With overhead of wasted gas at start, about 20minutes per pound at 10 LPM, 25 min per pound at 8 LPM.

I use CO2 here. On a good wire feeder, it welds with very little spatter.

 

[Jester]

Only welded for a couple of minutes on a bit of scrap but must admit I was expecting a big change in spatter level etc. but it ran pretty nicely. and a big bonus IT"S free,relative has a 10 ton tank for filling extinguishers.I have not searched but is there a way of figuring out how long the bottle will last per pound of liquid. at 8-10 ltr per min.

If it's free - who cares
Also, if they can fill CO2 Fire Extinguishers then they can fill brewery bottles too - same fitting
When I worked for an Extinguisher firm (many years ago, also a relative LOL) wheeled valves were used on cylinders for pressurising large foam extinguishers & for running sirens

 

[gordon stephenson]

Thanks Scott,
When I asked the question I somehow knew you would be the man with all the figures, Both machines I will be using it with have high quality 4 roll wire feeders, Lorch and Fimer.

 

[gordon stephenson]

relative runs his business by the book.Will not fill bottles with CO2 for anybody else, all to do with bottle ownership,test certs and not knowing if anything else has ever been put in the bottle etc.