I just bought a 20lb CO2 tank!

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Reidman

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I've been watching ebay for a while now and I just got in on an auction with 4 mins left and got a 20lb aluminum CO2 tank. I hope I got a good deal but I guess it's too late to worry about that now. $80 includes shipping.
 
tanks have a 5 year certification on them and will need to be tested and certed (at cost). Used tanks may have X years already used on the cert, or be completely out of cert. Refill stations are likely not to touch the tank if its out of date.
 
Yup, new gets you thru 5 years of just getting refills, while a re-cert is hassle and expense.
 
sirsloop said:
tanks have a 5 year certification on them and will need to be tested and certed (at cost). Used tanks may have X years already used on the cert, or be completely out of cert. Refill stations are likely not to touch the tank if its out of date.

Yeah, but you can swap tanks out at a lot of places.

Anyway, I'll make this pitch to the OP: I have an extra single-valve regulator. PM me if you're interested.
 
Not around here. Not a single place I know of will swap out. The good news though, is that hydro tests at fire safety places is pretty cheap. I paid $12 for a 20lb hydro. They wanted $27 for a fill though so I had to go to two different places.
 
yea, you always want to check the auction or seller for the last hydro certification test date.

honestly though, i generally buy all my tanks used and out of test. i also usually buy them for 20 dollars off craigslist. by the time i pay for the hydrotest and swap, the total usually comes out to around 50 dollars for a full tank within certification.

scour your craigslist at least daily, if not multiple times a day. for a while in the austin area, tanks were popping up every couple months.
 
time is money... why spend time hunting down, driving out to pick up a used tank, taking it to get certed, then taking it somewhere to get filled when you can spend 0-30 bucks more and get a brand new certed tank with a new valve delivered to you? I understand its 30 bucks and may be worth it if you in w/ a cert place. I have no clue where to get a tank certed locally, and consider it a hassle.

Most filling stations will not swap out a tank thats not rented and owned by them. Why would they?? You are basically pushing the cert cost off to them at that point.

obviously there are exceptions...here I am bashing used tanks when I actually bought a used tank! It had just been certed two weeks prior, had a brand new valve assembly, and was $50 shipped. I took a few minutes and threw some gloss black paint I had laying around on there... good as new. :)


http://www.jdhaesloop.com/sanyo1/img_1470s.jpg
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/sanyo1/img_1476s.jpg
 
hm, i guess austin is unique then. pretty much any tank i've brought in (some were quite beat up), they just swapped out for me, and i just paid the cost of the hydrotest, which came out to around 18 for the cheapest that i found. having multiple welding supply shops in the area definitely helps though. i go to different shops for different purposes. one is cheaper for pretty much every swap, and at another, they allow me to do trades (i traded a 5# tank for a 20CF oxygen tank, and i am going to see if i can trade a 20# co2 for a 80CF beergas as a spare, and a 10# co2 for a 40CF nitrogen so i can pour my meads still through the kegerator if i want to).
 
The hydrotest thing is an inconvenience but at least the tank I just bought is dated 11/04 since last hydro so it has a little over 2 years before the next testing. I thought $80 bucks was pretty good and it looks to be in good shape.
 
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