Oxygen tank questions

[Ilan34]

I'm planning on using oxygen for the first time for my next brew. I'm a little nervous and Google hasn't really helped me out any.

1) Should I leave the regulator attached until the tank is empty?

2) Do they truly have to be stored lying down?

3) Will it be obvious when it's empty?

4) Best way to dispose of them?

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help.

 

[prandlesc]

1) no - connect/disconnect when used. if you're regulator leaks at all, you will have inadvertently left it attached until empty!
2) no - mine always stand upright
3) yes - nothing will be coming out of your carb stone. I give mine a little shot of O2 outside the wort just to be sure I can hear it hiss and know that there is O2 in the tank
4) be sure they are completely empty and then trash

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

^^

Also, idk what tank or regulator you're looking at but a lot of regulators also tell you the PSI left in the tank.

Unless you get a tank that's meant to not be refilled you could even find a gas supply/ welding shop to fill it back up.

On my tank I actually like to clamp the tank shut after I'm done using it. There's a much higher chance of a slow leak through the oring than one when you close the tank. Especially if you can't just easily refill it.

 

[mikescooling]

it just takes a lil bit of o2, 30sec-60sec.

 

[Ilan34]

Thanks folks. Helpful stuff. I bought the Williams Brewing oxygenation kit, and picked up two Bernzomatic tanks from Home Depot. Definitely no PSI indicator on the regulator, unfortunately.

I was thinking I would be giving it 20-30 seconds of O2. I brew 3 gallon batches, generally above 1.060.

 

[outside92129]

If you start brewing more often then you might want to switch to the larger "welding" O2 tanks, much more economical.

 

[prandlesc]

If you start brewing more often then you might want to switch to the larger "welding" O2 tanks, much more economical.

And Williams has a new cool set up for larger tanks. I just bought one and can hardly wait until my o2 cylinders are empty so I can use my welding o2 tank.

 

[Ilan34]

I considered the larger tank briefly because I do brew fairly often, every other week. However, I brew on the sly because of our living situation, and it would be too hard to deal with something larger.

I'm hoping to get 8-10 batches from each tank, so that would work out to approximately a dollar per batch... not too bad.