On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 00:39:48 -0400, Wild_Bill wrote:

http://www.truetex.com/carbonation.htm

Indeed! That Richard J. Kinch treatise, titled " Carbonating at Home with
Improvised Equipment" was what gave me the idea to build my own carbonator.
He delved into the SCIENCE of it all; which gave me courage!

But even that wonderful tutorial missed out on a few points. For example,
"infusion" and not "flow" are what he should have used to describe how you
get 4 liters of CO2 into a 1 liter bottle of Orange Juice in a closed
system.

Also, he didn't describe some technical points, some of which are listed in
this CO2 Dynamics web site
(http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tech...dynamics.shtml)
such as a "full" tank contains only about 34% liquid CO2.

But most surprising (to me), was the statement that the pressure of a co2
tank has nothing to do with the amount of co2 in the tank; the pressure (as
long as there is "some" liquid in it) is always dependent solely upon the
temperature.

"At room temperature (70°F) it's about 853 psi."

So, with my new carbon dioxide tank, I'm not sure how I tell how much co2
is left in the tank. Does anyone know how you tell when it's getting low?

In article , Elmo wrote:
On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 00:39:48 -0400, Wild_Bill wrote:

http://www.truetex.com/carbonation.htm

Indeed! That Richard J. Kinch treatise, titled " Carbonating at Home with
Improvised Equipment" was what gave me the idea to build my own carbonator.
He delved into the SCIENCE of it all; which gave me courage!

But even that wonderful tutorial missed out on a few points. For example,
"infusion" and not "flow" are what he should have used to describe how you
get 4 liters of CO2 into a 1 liter bottle of Orange Juice in a closed
system.

Also, he didn't describe some technical points, some of which are listed in
this CO2 Dynamics web site
(http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tech...dynamics.shtml)
such as a "full" tank contains only about 34% liquid CO2.

But most surprising (to me), was the statement that the pressure of a co2
tank has nothing to do with the amount of co2 in the tank; the pressure (as
long as there is "some" liquid in it) is always dependent solely upon the
temperature.

"At room temperature (70°F) it's about 853 psi."

So, with my new carbon dioxide tank, I'm not sure how I tell how much co2
is left in the tank. Does anyone know how you tell when it's getting low?

With a little personal experience, you can tell by the weight of the
tank.

And once the liquid is completely gone and the pressure starts dropping,
you probably have a few days of usefulness remaining. A few liters of CO2
at 800 PSI is enough to carbonate 10's of liters of soda before the
pressure in the tank drops to the 100-120 PSI or so used for carbonation.

- Don Klipstein )

On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 19:28:32 +0000 (UTC), Elmo
wrote:

So, with my new carbon dioxide tank, I'm not sure how I tell how much co2
is left in the tank. Does anyone know how you tell when it's getting low?

Ummm... arithmetic? Weigh the empty tank (or ask the supplier for the
empty weight). Weigh the tank with whatever amount of C02 you have
left. The difference is how many pounds of C02 you have left.

You can also sorta do it the same way as with a propane tank. Get a
liquid crystal thermometer strip and glue it vertically to the side of
the tank. Leak a little gas and you should see the warm/cold liquid
dividing line. The problem is that the propane tank is quite thin
compared to most CO2 tanks, thus making the thicker CO2 tank more
difficult to see the dividing line. It also works best with steel
tanks, and doesn't work at all with aluminum.
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=gTkeAAAAEBAJ&dq=4358955
You can also use an IR thermometer to locate the liquid level.

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