Praxair

So here is the story, a couple years back I bought a steel 20# Co2 Pepsi Tank off a guy that closed a Ice Cream Shop, the driver just left two of them. So the tank was empty this week and yesterday I called my local Praxair Air to exchange it, which even before I bought the tank I had already called and asked if they would exchange it. Reason I called this week is to see if they had a change in company police, they did not. Now throughout trading stuff on CL I also picked up a green O2 Tank(steel) that I used for HBrewing, it was empty too. The guy at Praxair air told me that I could Exchange the CO2 tank (27usd) and he could not exchange he green O2 without a RX, but would give me 40usd credit. So I am cool with all of that, jump in the truck and head over. The same guy from the phone was there to help me and goes back into the shop and brings back the exchange tank, it is another Pepsi tank, but it is aluminum. So he takes the two tanks, gives me a full 20# aluminum tank and hands me 12usd. Score of the week!

Question is, since it is an old Pepsi tank, one year into a hydro, can I polish this tank like I did my kegs? It is a good tank, just lacks the visual appeal that I would like to have.

I would be careful on screwing around with a pressurized tank. When they are cleaned up and painted, they are done so depressurized, then hydrostatic pressure tested afterwards. Even at low pressures, they can become a missile.

Well it will take me about a year to use 20# of CO2, so I might wait until then.

I would have at it with the polishing wheel, or just shoot some fresh paint on it. Just be careful with it and don't drop it or ram the valve into anything and it will be fine.

My only question would be, regardless of how long it will take to use it seems as if your gas distributer is an exchange only service rather then fill and return. With this said why waste time on somethig you wont have a year from now anyway... give it a fresh paint job and be done I say.

Praxair will refill or exchange his tank, although it might take them a day or two if they have to send it to a refill station. Some praxair locations fill on site, while others use a central filling station. They almost always have exchange tanks so you can walk out with a full one if you don't want to wait for a refill.

I have other sources to refill, fire extinguisher company. Thanks for the replies. I will post pic when I polish it up.