Has anyone had any trouble with the rock the boat regulators? I've got one that I was going to use for some cannon testing but I discovered much to my dismay that it no longer holds a fixed pressure. It will hold 140 psi for a few shots and then the pressure skyrockets and bursts the hose. I have held the tank to make sure that I had it oriented to preclude pulling in liquid co2 and it still happened. I'm waiting to hear back from palmer about how one goes about fixing this and I figured I'd suggest that you all test your regulators before you get out to battling with it. -Greg
I don't know how well this applies to a Rock the Boat regulator, because I use a standard Rock, but here goes. When I first got a Rock regulator, I made a mistake while assembling the pipe fittings leading from bottle to regulator. I unscrewed it, but the wrong end came undone and a small spring and a few other bits fell out of the regulator. I put them back in the way I thought they went, and finished the assembly. Then I hooked it up, and gas lines exploded. A few tests revealed that the regulator was not regulating. I opened up the part of the regulator that had fallen out, took out the parts I had improperly fixed, and put them back in a different way. Fortunately that fixed the problem, but if it hadn't I would have sent it back to Palmer for repairs. Is it possible that there is water damage? How often has your ship been sunk?
It may be water damage, we'll see. I can't find any good way to get the regulator apart to check things out either so we'll see.
Well, I have had the regulator back from them for about a month now, with entirely new guts (I bought the low pressure spring upgrade), no sea time, and it is again bursting the 1/8" pressure lines when set at 120 psig. Something is horrifically wrong here and I will be calling them tomorrow about it, but as of right now my faith in their regulator is exactly zero. More to follow.
I've been using Palmer regulators for 7 years and have never had a problem with them. I have two mini-regulators (Rock the Boat type) for 16-20 gm capsules, one for 28-56 gm capsules and one for standard bottles. All have the same basic design. If your pressure guage says 120 psi and your 1/8" lines are bursting either the pressure gauge is reading too low of the hose is faulty. I have had several problems with of Clippard vinyl hose, both 1/8" and 1/4", bursting at pressures below 150 psi, especially if the weather is hot. I removed all vinyl hose from my models and have had no problems with the Clippard urethane hose, which is more flexible. Bob Pottle
Its possible that you got a bad batch of hose. I recall a few years back that one of the IRCWCC folks had gotten a bad batch of hose and some of it found its way into several people's ships, which caused issues with hose ruptures. Have you tried using the same batch of hose with a different regulator to see if you still have the same problem? That should narrow it down to tghe single regulator OR to the batch of hose. Mike D
Nope, it was a bad regulator, I have sent it back twice now (I have measured the pressure with a gauge and it actually broke my gauge (which stops at 200psig)). The palmers folks found that it had a slow increase in pressure, why, I don't know, but until I have time to sit down and test it myself over many firing cycles it will not be trusted again. The problem was the gauge said 120, then I take the gauge off and begin firing the cannons and a hose would rupture. When I would put it on the pressure gauge after this happened, the gauge would be destroyed due to over pressure. After the second time back it seems to be better, but I am going to spend a good weekend with it fully charged and pressurized periodically firing cannons before it will be trusted again.
