Hi all, I am just getting back into paintball after a 5 year break. I "re" purchased an A-5 and a bunch of extras of c*****list.

Anyway it came with about 5 co2 tanks of diff sizes but I am not co2 fan. The rub is there is no where to get Comp air up here and I have large co2 tanks for my business, I am also a fireman and we have the cascade compressed air systems for filling our SCBA systems. Should I stick with the co2 and use my own tanks to refill, or can I fill a 3k or 4500 from the fire stations system. I even thought of getting a larger scuba tank and filling that from our system to use at the field.

Thanks for taking a look.

well if your field doesn't have air fills, it isn't really worth it to get HPA unless you get multiple tanks which get VERY expensive. or you could get a SCUBA tank and fill off of that, but the pressure drops after every refill.

you can fill a HPA tank off the cascade if you have a special fitting which is hard to come by. i have an adapter that you hook up to a scottpack, they are expensive and hard to find tho.

i would suggest you getting a PPS stabilizer and use the co2.

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Wait a min! You work at a fire station? Then by all means use HPA. From what I have heard you can fill off the whip if the pressure is correct. I would get a 4500PSI tank with a good regulator if you go that route. I have a cross fire tank and it is awesome. I have 7 other various HPA tanks and none of them even come close. Something that I just learned is that the HPA tanks reg has a break in period. This means that as you use it, it will become more consistant. From my understaing this is at around 2000 shots. Now the advise from Duff will work as well and the break in period would be the same for the palmers stab. The truth is you have C02 and have HPA available at work. Both ways are workable. I say flip a coin. The catch is get something that is of quality. If you dont you will prob end up buying loads of stuff that doesnt quite work right.

The adapter to use your firestation SCBA fill isnt that hard to come by, get that and get HPA

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If you plan on playing alot then the investment for some large scuba tanks is well worth it. but it does take some time to pay for its self. You can fill them from the firehouse but you need a special adaptor and they are hard to find. (I had a hard time finding it) I still dont have one but my friend does

If you only plan on filling your own tanks then one scuba will do for a day of medium play, the psi will be less after each fill, but i find i do just fine at the end of the day with 2k psi fills.

I personally use 2 80cu 3k tanks to fill my tank, i go from one to the next always in the same order so you save psi in the tanks, then after those 2 i top it off with a 120cu 3.5k tank. with the 3 tank fill method i find that i get ruffly 12-15 fill at 3k way more then i need in a day. So what i do is charge my friends a $ or 2 to use my air for the day. after a year i have 1/4 of my expense for the tanks paid off.

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I get asked "Why?" alot. Why do you do this? Why did you do that? Why would you think of such a thing? WELL HERE IS MY ANWSER..... BECAUSE I CAN!!!!!!

I'm with Barron, SideShow and Hughes. SCUBA tanks are cheap and fairly easy to come by. I got mine pretty much for free just asking guys at work if the had one. A new hydro and I was ready to go. I believe if you can get a couple people with tanks it lasts longer. For instance, use one bottle to do the initial fill and the other bottles just to top off. It lasts all day. I only have a 3000, 68 cu in tank and have no problems. A high game for me is 500 balls.

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There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

Station fill is the way to go (not that I would know anyhting about that...)

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Whats the adapter one would need? My friends father is a captain at the local FD and has OK'd us filling there. We just dont know what we need. Any ideas?

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ODX Squad Commander
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your will need a section of line (steel braided )an female adaptor and an adaptor to mate to the fill station. Find out where they get their fill station serviced. Or see if you can borrow a spare tank or old valve and take it to a pipe and fitting place.

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One of our local stations has its own compressor. Fortunately one of the fireman saved all the adapters that came with the compressor. So, we were able to service with no extra attachments or adapters.

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There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.