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Co2art Regulator Problems

Fuzzy Shaq

Member
Joined
11 Mar 2022
Messages
45
Location
Wales
Hi, has anyone had issues with there co2art regulator giving inconsistent bubble counter rate. Mine seems to drop slowly day after day. Has anyone experienced this? I've checked for leaks and everything. Contacted Co2art for the past month but they just keep telling me the same thing to clean the needle valve and blast it with Co2.
It is still under warranty. So I don't understand why Co2art keep delaying a repair, I've complained about this for a few months
 
Hi, has anyone had issues with there co2art regulator giving inconsistent bubble counter rate. Mine seems to drop slowly day after day. Has anyone experienced this? I've checked for leaks and everything. Contacted Co2art for the past month but they just keep telling me the same thing to clean the needle valve and blast it with Co2.
It is still under warranty. So I don't understand why Co2art keep delaying a repair, I've complained about this for a few months
Yes. I'll repeat this a 1000 times if I have too, but CO2Art regs don't have a needle valves, I call them nails 😂
You can keep complaining and they could send you 10 new regs that you would still have the same behavior. That's why they don't want to send you new spare parts. It simply wont solve your issue. If what you are looking for is a constant and reliable rate, then you'd need to buy a proper regulator with a proper needle valve, but those cost much more unless you go second hand, which is what I did. Truth is you can get away with what you have, but being the person that I am I couldn't stand those ridiculous, unreliable, poor quality regs out there for which they make you pay good amounts of cash.
 
Mine seems to drop slowly day after day.
Are you saying the bubble rate isn't consistent? Or that it's changing over the course of a full day then resets?

I had an issue with inconsistent bubble rate on my CO2art regulator too, sometimes it would output CO2 at the rate I set it to, other times it would be lower, enough to make a difference in drop checker colour and ultimately giving poor CO2. This was because the working pressure was ever so slightly changing each day. I'm not very mechanically minded, so in all honesty I'm not very familiar with proper regulator practices, but I found advice somewhere online stating that the working pressure can fluctuate if the working pressure dial is increased while the solenoid is switched on. Which is what I had done - initially I found the working pressure dropped a little below where I wanted it, so I increased the working pressure dial whilst the solenoid was on, but this is what led to my issues.

So I resolved my issue by de-gassing the regulator and starting from scratch - setting the working pressure where I wanted it and then only adjusting it while the solenoid is switched off. It's now properly consistent. Sorry if this is super obvious to others, but just thought it might be worth sharing for any other people who aren't mechanically minded like me :lol:
 
Yes. I'll repeat this a 1000 times if I have too, but CO2Art regs don't have a needle valves, I call them nails 😂
You can keep complaining and they could send you 10 new regs that you would still have the same behavior. That's why they don't want to send you new spare parts. It simply wont solve your issue. If what you are looking for is a constant and reliable rate, then you'd need to buy a proper regulator with a proper needle valve, but those cost much more unless you go second hand, which is what I did. Truth is you can get away with what you have, but being the person that I am I couldn't stand those ridiculous, unreliable, poor quality regs out there for which they make you pay good amounts of cash.
Thanks Hanuman, I do regret buying it now. Can you name the brand of Regulator you use now?
Thanks for the advice
 
Are you saying the bubble rate isn't consistent? Or that it's changing over the course of a full day then resets?

I had an issue with inconsistent bubble rate on my CO2art regulator too, sometimes it would output CO2 at the rate I set it to, other times it would be lower, enough to make a difference in drop checker colour and ultimately giving poor CO2. This was because the working pressure was ever so slightly changing each day. I'm not very mechanically minded, so in all honesty I'm not very familiar with proper regulator practices, but I found advice somewhere online stating that the working pressure can fluctuate if the working pressure dial is increased while the solenoid is switched on. Which is what I had done - initially I found the working pressure dropped a little below where I wanted it, so I increased the working pressure dial whilst the solenoid was on, but this is what led to my issues.

So I resolved my issue by de-gassing the regulator and starting from scratch - setting the working pressure where I wanted it and then only adjusting it while the solenoid is switched off. It's now properly consistent. Sorry if this is super obvious to others, but just thought it might be worth sharing for any other people who aren't mechanically minded like me :lol:
Thanks xZaiox, I'll have a go at starting it from scratch. Hopefully it will work cheers
 
As 22802 mentioned you can use say external CO2 reactor which doesn’t need high working pressure. I think reactor is the best method I’ve ever used and because it doesn’t need such pressure to work the bubble rate is more consistent
 
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I think reactor is the best method I’ve ever used and because it doesn’t need such pressure to work the bubble rate is more consistent
It's not the low or high pressure that makes the flow consistent. It's the quality of the regulator and of the needle valve. Good regulators and needle valves have tight tolerances and use quality materials and also sometimes incorporate sophisticated mechanisms to maintain constant and steady pressure. Usually when the pressure is not consistent in the secondary stage of a regulator it usually means there is a leak somewhere and/or the diaphragms are not working properly. If the pressure is stable but you can still see that flow is playing up and down games, then that's the needle valve that's crappy and leaking or contracting and expanding due to poor material choice.

I have dismantled to the core a CO2Art regulator and, OH my, what a surprise... The quality, the tolerances was so bad I was shocked. Majority of people have no clue what they are paying for. These CO2Art regulators cannot hold the pressure in the secondary stage for more than 3-4 days being disconnected from a cylinder. Pressure will easily drop 30%/40% after 4 days and after a week it will be close to 0. Pro regulators can hold the pressure in secondary stages for weeks/months with practically no pressure loss. That's the case of my Concoa which I left 2 weeks with 50PSI in the secondary stage and the primary stage empty. Pressure dropped to 49PSI which is more than acceptable.
 
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In my experience using flux bazooka vs reactor is that with bazooka I needed much higher working pressure and still I have observed weird behaviour when using bazooka it would slowly decrease BPS until it stops. I did weakly maintenance as described in bazooka instructions and still it would clog. To unclog it I would have to blast it with loads of CO2 with fully open nail valve. After that I had recalibrate my injection rate again.

With reactor, it would not clog at all and probably it could be cleaned once a year or never. Also in my case I had always build up CO2 pocket which was like a buffer in case if BPS drops. The way I was achieving 1PH drop without overgassing I was increasing or decreasing surface agitation. This failed me once when I went on long holiday and water level dropped too low and CO2 was degassing too much.

That was my way for success if you go cheap
 
In my experience using flux bazooka vs reactor is that with bazooka I needed much higher working pressure and still I have observed weird behaviour when using bazooka it would slowly decrease BPS until it stops
Diffusers always need higher pressure (~30/40 PSI) because these stones are dense. I had a similar experience with those bazookas with a cheap reg. My line would pop after a few weeks of use. I ditched the bazooka. You never knew when it would happen again. Reactors only require ~20PSI. I am sure they could even run under less.
 
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