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Looking for O2 tanks for hangar fill station

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PilotjohnS

Well Known Member
I havent been able to find a reasonable gas supply house to lease an O2 tank.
Looking to buy two Oxygen tanks so I can set upma o2 transfill station in hangar. Preferably in socal/ southern nevada area.
 
Believe it or not, you can buy gas bottles on Amazon! I like standard K bottles (250 cubic feet of O2) …. I have three, but I sort of “inherited” them from neighbors, and set up a three-bottle cascade. It takes long enough to use them up (with the help of some neighbors…..) that they usually go out of Hydro by the time they need to be exchanged - take them to the local welding house and pay about $100 bucks for a full tank with a recent(ish) Hydro date….
 
Ironflight said:
Believe it or not, you can buy gas bottles on Amazon! I like standard K bottles (250 cubic feet of O2) …. I have three, but I sort of “inherited” them from neighbors, and set up a three-bottle cascade. It takes long enough to use them up (with the help of some neighbors…..) that they usually go out of Hydro by the time they need to be exchanged - take them to the local welding house and pay about $100 bucks for a full tank with a recent(ish) Hydro date….
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In my area, the local welding shop will not fill tanks that are not purchased or leased from them…pita considering I own several welding tanks.
 
rocketman1988 said:
In my area, the local welding shop will not fill tanks that are not purchased or leased from them…pita considering I own several welding tanks.
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Interesting - they won’t even exchange them? Never ran in to that before. Just to be clear, I never get “mine” filled - I exchange the empty one for a full one. So I own three tanks, but never get the same ones back. It’s sort of like a Timeshare Condo…… 😉
 
Ironflight said:
Interesting - they won’t even exchange them? Never ran in to that before. Just to be clear, I never get “mine” filled - I exchange the empty one for a full one. So I own three tanks, but never get the same ones back. It’s sort of like a Timeshare Condo…… 😉
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I do the same. ~$200 as initial cost to get a tank, $44 to exchange it for a fresh bottle. I have three tanks (result of people leaving the airpark) all from the same place. I might change out two tanks in three years.

Carl
 
Ok after looking into this some more, turns out the local fbo is pretty reasonable at $50 a fill. I am filling about 2x per year (big bottle in plane) so it seems to not be worth getting my own fill station.

Thanks for all the responses.
 
Manning a fill station requires a "working" knowledge of the things that can get you killed: Temperature changes when pressure changes, oxygen as an oxidizer, explosion potential when oxygen acts on a hydrocarbon, etc. Be careful out there and don't become a story rather than a person. Please. This is said from someone who may soon become a fill station. Oxygen is also useful in scuba diving, and has similar issues there but added to that is the fact that you shouldn't inhale much more than 1.3 atmospheres of oxygen.
 
Ironflight said:
Interesting - they won’t even exchange them? Never ran in to that before. Just to be clear, I never get “mine” filled - I exchange the empty one for a full one. So I own three tanks, but never get the same ones back. It’s sort of like a Timeshare Condo…… 😉
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Around here that would be a tank lease. And it’s around $250 per tank per year whether you exchange them or not.
 
Used to do both LOX and gaseous oxygen tank fills at work several times a week. There are numerous safety items that one must be aware of as well as fill procedures. It's not a hard, or a quick process. If you want to invest the time required or the money, I'd suggest having a second set of bottles and simply keep them charged and swap when you need servicing.
 
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