I decided to set up CO2 on small (30L) tank, equipment ordered from Aqua labs, looks identical to that sold by CO2 art and CO2 supermarket. Simple regulator with solenoid and needle valve, adapter for disposable CO2 bottles, plastic bubble counter, 2 metres of clear tubing, 45mm Atomic atomiser, 600g welding bottle.
First day everything set up, works as expected, bubble rate can be set to whatever I like. After two days I decide to "fiddle", fine-tune the bubble rate, do more leak testing, check connections are tight. I find I can't get a steady bubble rate. No matter how much I open the needle valve, it runs fast for a short while then bubble rate slows down to a crawl, possibly a stop. I noticed the pressure (on single tiny high pressure guage) is all over the place, and drops significantly every time I switch the solenoid off and on. Eventually if falls to zero. I google symptoms and conclude I'm out of gas, must have had a leak.
During my panic I read CO2 supermarket guide which says use wrench to tighten adapter to bottle, I only hand-tightened originally, so think maybe that's what went wrong. I did try tightening with wrench while fiddling, before giving up.
I order a set of 3x390g bottles of Amazon, as surprisingly this is cheaper per gram than using 600g bottles.
I disconnect the "empty" bottle and there is a strong hissing sound as I do, then a small explosion as the regulator disconnects and tiny fragments of the black rubber seal are blown everywhere. Not sure what I did wrong, maybe I had the solenoid on and the back pressure pushed the metal pin through the seal destroying it.
Ordered new adaptor seals from CO2 supermarket.
Weighed new and old bottles and find 600g bottle is about 600g more than the TARE printed on it, and the 390g is about 400g more. Both bottles are the same size and even before I weighed them I could tell the 600g was still significantly heavier. So conclude 600g is in fact not out of gas, it is still nearly full.
I install new seal and reconnect 600g bottle, this time I only tighten a little with a wrench. (I think maybe I held the bottle to tightly originally when trying to follow CO2 supermarket advice to tighten until the bottle turns, and maybe damaged the seal.)
The pressure goes to 800 psi when connected, but even with the needle valve fully open the bubble rate is low, but stable for the past hour or two, at about 12 per minute.
I leak test everywhere, cannot find an issue.
The PSI is gradually dropping, however if I slightly disconnect the bottle from the adaptor and tighten it again it jumps back up to 800 psi.
I decide to just leave it and see what happens, maybe the bubble rate will speed up if constant running pushes out any water that might be blocking flow. After a couple of hours the PSI has dropped to 500, but the bubble rate has stayed constant.
Will try to continue to monitor rather than fiddle for the rest of the day. In the mean time, does anyone have any ideas what is wrong?
Am I wrong to think that PSI should stay at 800 all the time, if the bottle isn't empty?
Why is the flow so low?
First day everything set up, works as expected, bubble rate can be set to whatever I like. After two days I decide to "fiddle", fine-tune the bubble rate, do more leak testing, check connections are tight. I find I can't get a steady bubble rate. No matter how much I open the needle valve, it runs fast for a short while then bubble rate slows down to a crawl, possibly a stop. I noticed the pressure (on single tiny high pressure guage) is all over the place, and drops significantly every time I switch the solenoid off and on. Eventually if falls to zero. I google symptoms and conclude I'm out of gas, must have had a leak.
During my panic I read CO2 supermarket guide which says use wrench to tighten adapter to bottle, I only hand-tightened originally, so think maybe that's what went wrong. I did try tightening with wrench while fiddling, before giving up.
I order a set of 3x390g bottles of Amazon, as surprisingly this is cheaper per gram than using 600g bottles.
I disconnect the "empty" bottle and there is a strong hissing sound as I do, then a small explosion as the regulator disconnects and tiny fragments of the black rubber seal are blown everywhere. Not sure what I did wrong, maybe I had the solenoid on and the back pressure pushed the metal pin through the seal destroying it.
Ordered new adaptor seals from CO2 supermarket.
Weighed new and old bottles and find 600g bottle is about 600g more than the TARE printed on it, and the 390g is about 400g more. Both bottles are the same size and even before I weighed them I could tell the 600g was still significantly heavier. So conclude 600g is in fact not out of gas, it is still nearly full.
I install new seal and reconnect 600g bottle, this time I only tighten a little with a wrench. (I think maybe I held the bottle to tightly originally when trying to follow CO2 supermarket advice to tighten until the bottle turns, and maybe damaged the seal.)
The pressure goes to 800 psi when connected, but even with the needle valve fully open the bubble rate is low, but stable for the past hour or two, at about 12 per minute.
I leak test everywhere, cannot find an issue.
The PSI is gradually dropping, however if I slightly disconnect the bottle from the adaptor and tighten it again it jumps back up to 800 psi.
I decide to just leave it and see what happens, maybe the bubble rate will speed up if constant running pushes out any water that might be blocking flow. After a couple of hours the PSI has dropped to 500, but the bubble rate has stayed constant.
Will try to continue to monitor rather than fiddle for the rest of the day. In the mean time, does anyone have any ideas what is wrong?
Am I wrong to think that PSI should stay at 800 all the time, if the bottle isn't empty?
Why is the flow so low?