Word of warning : Don't Leave Full CO2 Tanks in Hot Car!

[mordantly]

that business would be in a world of sheeeit if that happened today.

 

[NorthernBrewer09]

Yeah the station wagon thing could work just roll down your window and keep it ventillated but i like the motorcylce thing better

 

[medic4070]

Not to mention that a burst disk letting loose is damn near defeaning. When I was a firefighter, we had one let go on a 2200 psi SCBA tank. It was louder than hell, even from 50' away and around a corner! I'd hate to be riding in the car with one when it kicked off.

 

[McKBrew]

People use CO2 tanks for filling tires, esp in off-roading applications (something I just recently learned).

I imagine people have them inside vehicles all the time in that application. Not saying there aren't risks, but they can be mitigated.

 

[rageman]

Re: CO2 - Propane similarities: I used to do propane refills, and we would always help customers load the tanks into their cars, and would always advise customers to head straight home if they had a non-open vehicle (i.e., car/wagon/van) because of the risks of heating tanks. IIRC, we couldn't legally fill more than 2 tanks (80 lbs) unless the person was in a pickup due to orders from the fire marshal about explosives.

PV=nRT or no, I just would not pick up a freshly filled CO2 tank and leave it in my car any longer than to get it home. If it can kill you in your car, better not to leave it there at all IMO.

 

[abledsoe]

So I am in the process of converting an upright fridge into a kegerator for a friend. Once its done I have to load it in my truck and drive it 3 hours to his house. Is it okay to leave the full CO2 tank inside the fridge in the back of my truck for that long of a haul?

 

[Bopper]

So I am in the process of converting an upright fridge into a kegerator for a friend. Once its done I have to load it in my truck and drive it 3 hours to his house. Is it okay to leave the full CO2 tank inside the fridge in the back of my truck for that long of a haul?

You should be fine. You only have to be concerned if its exposed to hot temps (i.e. trunk on a hot summer afternoon).

 

[bja]

I had a 2.5lb CO2 cylinder filled for use in our basement bar. I always placed it in the back wedged under my seat so it would not be rolling around and that's where it was on that day. I was going to pick up my young daughter and then go home. I noticed that the cylinder would hiss every minute or so which I had never heard before. After probably half an hour of this, the pressure valve blew. The entire car fogged and I managed to get into the center turning lane and get the door open. I was standing in the center turn lane gasping for air with fog pouring from my car. If my daughter had been in the car, things could have been worse. I took the cylinder back to the shop that filled it and the guy realized he put 5lbs into that 2.5lb cylinder. I managed to get a free refill out of the deal, some safety glasses and something else I can't recall. From then on, I used a bungee cord in the trunk.

Same thing happened to me. They overfilled my 5 lb bottle, but it waited until I got home before it blew. I had it sitting next to my bar, and about 5 feet away from a 90 gallon aquarium. Luckily no one was in the room when it happened and nothing was seriously damaged.

 

[TrickyDick]

Well now we know what NOT to do,

Can anyone speak to "best practices" In handling CO2 tanks?

I have a 5, 10 and 15 or 20 # tanks.

I keep next to kegerator. there are some other things around it, but its not chained to anything to keep it upright. Kids can mess with it if they wanted. Any way to safety proof this?

5# sits on storage shelf with Reg attached. 10# is in corner - haven't used for years since I got the larger cylinder. No reg attached but its full in corner of garage on a bookshelf.

Gets up to 100 degrees in my garage in summertime.

Use the 5# for cleaning and sanitizing kegs and stuff.

Always worry about a bad accident.

TD

 

[triethylborane]

Well now we know what NOT to do,

Can anyone speak to "best practices" In handling CO2 tanks?

Do keep water out of your CO2 tanks. CO2 forms carbonic acid in water, which will cause rust (not in aluminum tanks, however). It is hard for the customer to introduce water into the tank, but the filler can do so with "wet" CO2. If you are concerned, ask where his CO2 dew point is. Look for -64C dewpoint on the CO2.


Do have the tank visual tested every 5 years and hydro tested every 10. Decommission by drilling a hole in the tank. Just some of the basics, the cylinders are strong from really anything you can throw at it from the outside except for maybe a 7mm Rem mag or extreme heat, such as exploding gas cylinders:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/25/national/25stlouis.html




I saw the 2005 Praxair STL explosion. I worked at a chemical company near downtown STL and my co-worker, who had a loft on Washington Ave about 2 miles from the Praxair facility, told me to come up to the top of her loft building to watch the fire. I could feel the heat from the explosions.

 

[bja]

Do have the tank visual tested every 5 years and hydro tested every 10.

Hydro testing is required every 5 years.

 

[esp]

The local Airgas has a picture of a car where someone stored some tanks. It looks like it was used for a car bomb. They routinely load up all canisters onto trucks and secure it, but if you insist on putting it in the car, they make you put it in by yourself. No pressurized canister should be left inside of a vehicle. 80 degrees outside can easily climb to well over 100 degrees inside the vehicle in the full sun.

Another important safety note is NEVER use any kind of oil when screwing a valve onto an oxygen tank (or any tank for that matter). The pipefitting shop I worked in only used teflon tape.

 

[KFH]

If you need to be told not to leave a metal canister full of highly pressurized gas inside a car during the daytime (especially in the summer)... maybe you should be wearing a helmet. At all times.

 

[3 Dog Brew]

Word. :rockin:

Science Rules!

 

[TSR6]

I get nitrogen tanks for stock car racing at AIRGAS - They wont even let me pick them up in anything other than my truck.

They even had a fit that I had a tonneau on the truck in the summer - and as someone else posted, I had to load them in my truck myself... this is the big tall tanks. I was driving 8 miles...

 

[arlewis86]

Strapped to your back like a Scuba tank. I am sure DOT planned for that.

I'm sure it's good for an extra 10 HP, which for a motorcycle is like adding a solid fuel rocket booster!

 

[curlyfat]

Should I be worried about my tanks sitting in my garage year round? It gets 95F+ in there in August!

As to vehicle safety, I had a 25# CO2 tank in my car when it rolled twice. The tank started in my backseat, and ended up in my front passenger seat. I don't know how I didn't get whacked by it...oh and my little .22 rifle that was in the back ended up sticking out the windshield in front of my seat.


Here's a picture of how it sat:

 

[Geigon]

My scuba instructor told us to always transport our tanks upright and strapped in. If you're in an accident and the valve gets broken off the tank becomes a rocket. MythBusters did an episode on air cylinder rockets and showed they can penetrate a cinder block wall.



Seemed like good advice to me to keep this potential force going down! (Not sure it matters in a rollover though :-(

Cheers,
-Brad

 

[petrostar]

I just had my 20lb tank filled on monday because I had a leaky connection on my kegerator setup. Lost a 20lb tank in 3 days while I was gone on vacation. The tank I bought on monday was going to help me find this leak, the first thing I noticed when I got home and hooked it up was how high the regulator pressure was. Almost 2500 psi I think. Long story short, until the tank cooled down and equalized in my garage temperatures I couldnt' even see if my leak check was complete because the psi just kept dropping. It was 90 out that day and only in my car for about half an hour.

 

[virginiawolf]

Good Posts. Where I get my tanks filled the guy said propane left in a car can be dangerous if there's a slow leak when you go to start the car it can cause it to ignite.
They warned me about the c02 on hot days as well. I usually prop my c02 tanks nice and snug upright in the back seat like little babies with some coats. Same with the nitrogen. I usually go right home with them. Ever since I got to learning about acetylene I'm real careful with any kind of tanks.

 

[onlynormalguy]

My Co2 Story:

My neighbor who works fire suppression offered to bring home a 5lb tank. He put it in his sedan, then got called back inside work for a while. He got back in his car and proceeded to drive away. He started to feel bad, and difficulty breathing. He was able to pull over and get out of car just before beginning to black out, took out his cell and dialed 91_. He started to feel a little better, and then saw the tank in the back seat all frosted up. He rolled down windows/opened doors to air out the car for a while, then got back in to drive home, and it started again(Co2 absorbed in fabric?) He's ok, but only because he was able to pull over so quickly. I told him that I would have a hard time explaining to his wife that he died just so I could have bubbles in my beer.

 

[Geohound]

People use CO2 tanks for filling tires, esp in off-roading applications (something I just recently learned).

I imagine people have them inside vehicles all the time in that application. Not saying there aren't risks, but they can be mitigated.

They are great for reseating a bead on your tires or even running air power tools. I spent many summers with a 20lb Co2 tank in my jeep. Mine was strapped to the roll bar in the baking desert sun. I never had a disk blow or have a single problem. None of my friends who used them did either.

Co2 is different than a scuba tank. The liquid CO2 in the tank change air as the pressure is released. This is why gauges on tanks are next to worthless. They measure pressure not the liquid. This evaporative process slows the pressure release rate meaning that a CO2 tank will not become a high speed rocket like a scuba tank would in the rare event of a valve decapitation.

They are pretty much the same as fire extinguishers which people carry around in their cars all the time.

Heres the place i got the tank from.
http://powertank.com/

The stories where the disk blew sound like an over filled tank to me. That's the only time i've ever heard of a tank bursting its disk.

 

[DBarrett]

I witnessed a safety-disk burst on a nitrous tank in a car once. The owner forgot and left the bottle heater on...The pressure built up to 2500-3000psi(about where the factory disks are set to burst). 100 people in the parking lot around the car and nearly everyone jumped out of their shoes.


It could be worse. The disk could fail to blow off:

CO2 is at a much lower pressure though, right? It would probably still do a bit of damage I would assume.

 

[Lazarous]

PV=nRT
live and learn.

Haha like my chem proff used to say...chemistry is a gas

 

[vinper]

or acetylene tanks http://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=76844.0

 

[crash1292]

had the same thing happen on a paintball tank

 

[DBarrett]

Simply put,

 

[DogTail]

MY GF got a full tank from a coworker and put it in her jeep for a couple hours while at work in AZ. Came out and the jeep was still full of CO2 and she had to let it air out for a few minutes before even getting in the vehicle. CO2 all released in a confined space like that can be deadly, if you are ever around when one decides to go open a window or go outside, it can suffocate you!

 

[Jamming]

Easy solution, guys:

I have a 15lb nitrous tank in my trunk 24/7. It's been in there for 8 years. In the middle of summer in South Carolina in months of 100 degree days, I kept a beach towel and a small container of water in the trunk. A soaked towel draped over the top is all that is needed to keep the bottle at normal temps, but if you're really scared (or in my case, need to cool the bottle fast), a little ice water is a quick trick.

When a car is parked outside in the hot sun all day long on a 100+ degree day... I have no idea how hot it must get in the car, but my bottle stayed in usable temps, so it was no where near blowing the safety valve.

Agree. Sounds like to me the pressure relief was weak and not the tank being over filled. You should never have a burst disk rupture on CO2 tank at 100f in a car. My math shows me at least 275f might do it but uncertain. But at 100f its safe in a car filled to max.

 

[MrRoboto]

Im not sure what type of tanks everyone has but I drive an HVAC van in southern California heat. I have Co2, Nitrogen, and Oxygen as well as R-22, R-410a, and R 404a. Ive never had any of this happen to me. In fact to do my job it requires carrying this in your vehicle. I have seen some of the Empty Tanks that Homebrew stores sell and I wouldnt trust them. Go to AirGas or another welding/gas store and buy one of their tanks, when its empty they exchange it for a full one, when they full the empty bottles all valves are inspected and tested and are industrial quality and not some china no name brand stuff.. Industrial tanks can take the heat.