Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 27

Thread: Death of CO2 tanks on the horizon?

  1. #1
    Insider Ydna's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Adrian MI
    Posts
    210

    Death of CO2 tanks on the horizon?

    There was an interesting change this past year at my local field (Hell Survivors). During their big games, they're no longer offering CO2 tank fills whatsoever. Instead they have you rent a 3000-psi steel HPA tank with your driver's license, or you can buy one for like $45. I think they had a deal where you could get it for $40 if you were to purchase something else, like a rental package for the weekend.

    I guess they're taking a hit on the HPA tank sale, since the CO2 and HPA fills have been free since about 2006, so they must have some other incentive to getting people to buy? But the dwindling price of 3000-psi HPA tanks got me wondering if they'll ever drop, say, another $10. That would place them only a hair more expensive than a CO2 tank, or about the same price as a large CO2 tank.

    I thought it was an interesting change since this particular field had mandated the Tippmann quick-fill CO2 system for the past couple years (2 or 3). Even if you had a standard CO2 tank they couldn't fill it unless it had the quick-fill valve on there, so they would again have you rent or buy one. The system worked good since it eliminated the long waiting line, but now they need only operate their 3000-psi and 4500-psi fill stations. Less maintenance I suppose...

    Thoughts? Would anyone object to CO2 disappearing in this day and age?

  2. #2
    Insider AndrewTheWookie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Central Coast, CA
    Posts
    374
    I remember preferring CO2 when I would play outlaw ball with my friends on some backwoods property way back in the day, but that was about it.
    I don't know, fly casual

  3. #3
    Insider Lumberjack's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Detroit
    Posts
    162
    When I was managing a field, we didn't bother with CO2 because we didn't want to have to deal with having Air Gas (or whoever) to come deliver tanks or going and picking up fresh tanks on our own. Long ago we did, back when it was more common but that was also before the time we bought a 6000psi compressor. Overall, the compressor paid for itself relative to the cost of having tanks filled and the repair costs on our old pair of 3K compressors. We would rent tanks or allow players to bring their CO2 and use it but knowing we couldn't refill it there. Academy was the only local place that could do the fills and they were generally too lazy to do so.

    Keeping track of two air systems is more of a pain than it is worth in my opinion. Perhaps a larger field like Hell Survivors had enough people ask for CO2 it was worth it but in my experience, the more simple set of options, the easier it is to maintain and get players through.

    In retrospect, our pricing was a little too simple, we were pretty cheap, so when we had to raise prices for the first time in 15 years, players got bitchy.
    (We had a flat entry/air/rental fee for a long time. $10 got you all that plus unlimited air, paint was $55/case. We raised our rentals to $15 w/entry and $20 w/200rnds. Paint stayed the same.)

  4. #4
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Los Angeles
    Posts
    3,084
    Add to that the safety factor and that HPA just plain shoots better. Given the amount of bitching among field owners about the logistics of carrying 50 cal paint, I'm pretty surprised anyone still bothers.
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

  5. #5
    Insider new ion?'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Victoria, BC
    Posts
    1,296
    Couple fields I play(ed) at trade your drivers license and your CO2 tank for a HPA tank. Simply because one of them just brings a large cylinder up to the field (small user base) and others just don't want to support co2 anymore.

    If we could find a way to convert those SL68s or whatever tippmann model it was that required siphon tanks over to HPA... Then we might just be able to see the death of CO2.

  6. #6
    Insider Davros's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Posts
    482
    When I last played paintball HPA was not yet available. One field owner one time told me about how in a few years time Nitrogen will be an option. Then I come back after a long absence and every field around here dropped CO2. One recently told me of all the pains involved and that it was losing him money for the last two years he had it. This annoyed me but I understood and would go to a fire and safety business before the weekend and get filled up. (For people who live where I do (Halifax, Nova Scotia): Don Breton's in Halifax. Excellent service and they know what they are doing.) Thanks to you guys here I found out I can use HPA on my old markers. This is making things very convenient gas wise, but I still do not like how excessively bulky and heavy HPA tanks are.

    I got the impression it was almost dead everywhere and I was the only one who cared.

    My brother got me a 5 kg CO2 tank for making home made pop. Was thinking about getting the equipment need to use it to fill paintball CO2 tanks and taking it games just in case someone needs it. This would not be enough for a field, but if CO2 is dying out and only 1 or 2 guys ask for it my 5kg tank would be able to help out.

    So I am someone who would use it sometimes and would like the option but I totally understand filed owners not dealing with CO2.

    Lumberjack: Those new prices are by a massive amount far cheaper than any filed here anywhere in the province. Definitely tell your local players to stop being bitchy over that.

  7. #7
    I know we go thru about (4) 75lb bottles and 1-2 50 lb bottles a week filling tanks out of the shop. We have a pump system so we don't waste hardly anything and are charging $0.25/ounce on it and make decent money on that. If you are using a regular gravity fill system then yea you waste a lot of your profits filling tanks. For most of the people around here that live up to 3 hrs away its cheaper for them to buy a bunch of co2 tanks and get them filled for their tippmanns than to buy hpa tanks that will get the same amount of shots.

  8. #8
    Insider Ydna's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Adrian MI
    Posts
    210
    Is it common for places to not make any money on CO2 fills? Given the wide range of prices back in the hayday of paintball, I always assumed some places were making money on it while others were just calling it a wash. Fields tended to be cheaper compared to stores like Dunhams, Cabellas, or dedicated proshops that didn't have fields attached.

    Of course it's possible they had wildly varying wholesale prices for the gas depending on the business situation. I might not have been witnessing a true microcosm of the market so I don't really know if that was representative of reality...

  9. #9
    Insider AndrewTheWookie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Central Coast, CA
    Posts
    374
    My field prices CO2 to just break even. We never really get many people using CO2, so we don't often need to refill and it's not that much of a hassle to deal with in the long run.
    I don't know, fly casual

  10. #10
    We are attempting to switch to all HPA at our field. The problem we have encountered is a lot of the older Tippmann's in the rental fleet can not get velocity up over 250 FPS.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •