One: are they 100% necessary? can you mount the tanks at a tilt and then run the gas supply tubes through warmers (like keel coolers) under the hull before they go to a gas manifold/expansion chamber? the reason I ask is that the supply of tanks around hear are not anti-siphon but for a 24oz bottle they cost $24 apposed to $70 from BDE. any ideas? Two: my second alternative is to run HPA tanks @ $220 each, would need 2 to support the weapon system and for balance of the ship, but this is a little expensive for my taste. dose anyone out there use HPA? I would rather go with choice #1 if is safe to run without the anti-siphon valves on the CO2 tanks
I doubt you need one, in fact I dont know of anyone in MWCI that uses an anti-siphon valve on the tank in their boat and nobody seems to have problems.
As long as you keep the bottle tipped up a little the liquid will stay in the tank. If you have the bottle flat the liquid gets into the the regulator and could make the pressure rise, blowing hoses. We had two ships with this problem, tipped the bottle up and it went away.
You don't need an anti siphon. Nor do you need worry about warming the gas. As long as the bottle is not higher than the regulator, then you should not have any problems. If you do have problems, the most likly thing would be to freeze your regulator. Usaly they freeze in the shut position for some reason, resulting in no pressure untill they warm up. But it takes an alot of liquid being sucked though the regulator for that to happen. I have done it on the bench, when test firing tripples. After going though 3 complete mag loads in under a minute, it froze up nice. After the regulator warmed up, I just proped it up so it was not sucking liquid, and no problem..... Except I froze the bottle, untill I put it in a bucket of water. Using HPA is not a good idea. I don't think anyone has abilty to fill HPA at lake side.
