Co2 Cylinder Adapter, Co2 Fittings, And Co2 Cylinders Explained [CryoFX]
Everything You Need to Know About Co2 Cylinder Adapter, Co2 Fittings, and Co2 Cylinders
What’s up guys! Welcome to the CryoFX YouTube channel. Today’s video is on the Co2 cylinder adapter. The more important part of this video is the different types of Co2 cylinder adapters that go on various tanks. We’re going to be talking about co2 cylinders in general; just because that’s what the video is on. Hence, nitrogen tanks, and helium tanks, that’ll be a whole separate video. This one is on Co2 cylinders and co2 cylinder adapters. Without further ado, let’s jump right into this.
On my right – your left – this is a high-pressure dewar tank. It’s a dewar or a bulk Co2 tank this one’s particular high pressure. Because it’s between 450 and 550 psi, most of them do not get that high. They only go up to 350 psi. I’m just going to clarify that as this tank. Then on my left, these are the high-pressure tanks that house Co2. We’re going to discuss both of these in this video and the different Co2 cylinder adapters that go with each.
The Dewar or Bulk Co2 tank
Starting with the dewar or the bulk co2 tank, they come in 160 liter, 180 liter, and other sizes. But, there’re a series of different valves on the top. So, between the co2 cylinder valves, you have your liquid ports, your gas ports, and your vent ports. These are some of the common ports you’re going to see on the top of this co2 cylinder.
The Co2 Cylinder Adapter and Connections/Ports
Now the adapters for these CGA 320 are what is normally off of the gas port; just to note that I say that with a pause. Now where the co2 cylinder adapter comes in, you have your A622 or your CGA 622.
What does this do? I’ll bring the camera up here in just a little bit to cover all of these. This adapter will normally go on your liquid ports, so your gas port is going to be the CGA-32O. The liquid port is going to be the CGA-622 because that’s the type of output it has on it.
Now you have a co2 cylinder adapter that’s going to be converting that CGA 622 fitting over to a CGA 320 and that’s what this adapter does. You could tell that it has a pin that goes inside or a male part this is a female fitting.
Again when I bring the camera close, we’ll show you that more in-depth I just want to cover the overview of this, and then we’ll get kind of in-depth on these individual co2 cylinder adapters.
This will go on the liquid port and it converts it over to a CGA 320. The reason being is that’s the most commonly used co2 fitting in the United States. So with that said, when you are coming off of the vent port, on one of these bulk co2 tanks the vent port is normally going to be a JIC 370 flare fitting or a JIC 370 fitting. That’s what it looks like on the tank.
The Female JIC 37°
I just have one here to show you again when the camera comes up close. The adapter for that normally to convert that over is going to be a female JIC 37°. These come in 5’8 inch or half an inch normally depending on the tank. these fittings are going to look the same the sizes will just be a little bit different. and you’ll have the female JIC 37° over to a male NPT half an inch 3’8 inches whatever you want for the adapter of course CryoFX, which is why you’re on this channel. We have these adapters, we sell these adapters, link is in the description below so just wanted to clarify that for you.
High-Pressure Co2 Cylinders
Now the other type of co2 cylinder is going to be over here on our high-pressure cylinders. In these high-pressure cylinders themselves, the co2 cylinder valve that’s on top is a twist valve for a hand-operated twist on and off and the output on these valves is going to be a CGA 320. CGA is Certified Gas Association. That’s just the American standard for regulating the different types of gas and fittings just to be clarification, just to be clarification, just to have clarification on that.
CGA-320 Co2 Fittings
When you need an adapter for these with special effects or with other types of hoses that you may get, you may need a different type of adapter that converts that CGA 320 to something else. What might you need? Well, you have a CGA 320 fitting right here. This is a fitting, this has a nut and nipple, so the nipple, the nut again when I bring you up closer, we’ll show you in a minute here however this could be also called an adapter. So for this co2 cylinder adapter, you have your female CGA 320, and then you have your male quarter inch npt.
This can also be converted to whatever size that you need, whether it’s a BSPP or NPT. BSPP is British Standard Pipe Parallel. BSPT is British Standard Pipe Tapered. There’s a lot of them out there, that’s for the British side of things, the German side of things, however, that’s a whole different video. So this could be called an adapter.
There is another adapter that I was just holding a minute ago and this adapter itself converts some of the hoses that you’ll get from overseas, whether it’s China or Hongkong or whatever it may be. These hoses do not directly fit onto the CGA 320, so you need a co2 cylinder adapter for those.
What is this adapter?
This is a simple adapter that looks like this. All it does is screw onto the CGA 320 and then the other end is a half-inch NPT. It’s a half-inch BSPP and I say that because when you look at it closely, it’s a parallel-type thread that comes in both parallel and tapered. There’s a minute difference, but there is a difference.
Note the difference on those, is when it’s parallel it’s like this, when it’s tapered, it’s like this. The only way to tell that is to hold it up against the wall and to see that, but that’s my try on that okay. We’ll show you an up-close video as I mentioned multiple times in this video already. So these adapters, these co2 cylinder adapters have an o-ring inside. That o-ring must stay inside.
Why You Must Use a Co2 Washer
When you’re using other types of co2 cylinder adapters, you must use a washer with those as well. The reason being is, that this is a metal-to-metal connection. When you go on metal to metal here, here’s my example you have what’s happening here. When you have that metal-to-metal connection, normally people try to compensate for that and they will over-tighten this fitting, the fitting will crack and it will break, and you’ll have a co2 cylinder leaking everywhere. So, don’t do that! Make sure you use one of these simple little washers or that the o-ring stays inside on one of these adapters or fittings.
Co2 Adapter
Going in-depth a little bit more, last but not the least is the co2 cylinder adapter has a CGA 320 male over to a 3’8 inch NPT (National Pipe Thread) tapered male as well. Now, this could also be called a co2 cylinder adapter. We’ve had customers refer to these as adapters before. This is fitting, so I just wanted to include that in this video to show you and cover that here.
So, that pretty much wraps it up, at least for the nomenclature and showing you on the cylinders. Now, what I’ll end up doing is I’ll bring the video up close and we’re going to show you the individualized fittings and what they look like so you can have an in-depth closer look at these and how they work in five four three two one.
Co2 Cylinder Adapters/ Fittings
Okay, guys, so we’re up close and I’m going to show you the individual fittings themselves. So the co2 cylinder adapters up close, this is the CGA 622, that’s what this fitting looks like on this video so we get a couple of different angles in there. Now, this particular co2 cylinder adapter does not need an o-ring, this is a metal-to-metal connection.
However, this site does need a washer if you’re going to be connecting it to one of the CGA 320 fittings and just to demonstrate typically that would be a metal-to-metal. That is a no-no you want one of these fittings inside there to go in between it, and that’s what links those two fittings another, so that’s the CGA 320. Again no, it is no washer or no o-ring or no thread tape on this one.
This is the CGA 622 to a CGA 320 male co2 cylinder adapter. This one is just a co2 cylinder fitting or co2 cylinder adapter, which is what some people call it as well. This is the female side that goes on to the co2 cylinder and this is the quarter-inch NPT male that comes off. This is the stem and this is the nut. So, our nut nipple is what they technically call it, uh yeah that’s kind of funny, isn’t it?
What is a Co2 Fitting Nut and Nipple Set?
Now, this is the other adapter I was talking about. This is a 3’8 inch NPT male to a cga320 again you do need a washer on this one. The other fitting would connect with that washer. However, this side would need thread tape for whatever it goes to. This was the other co2 cylinder adapter that goes on some of the foreign hoses.
This side screws onto the co2 cylinder so this if this was the co2 cylinder CGA 320 you have your o-ring inside there. This would screw on like this and that would seal it there. This technical fitting is a half-inch. It’s a very poor design. This is a fitting that is imported not made in the United States. Hence, they are a little bit off I will just foreign warn you on that.
JIC 37° and SAE 45° Fittings
Now, this was the 5’8 inch JIC 37° fitting that I talked about earlier. This particular fitting itself is a 37° slope if you will 37° and there’s 45°. This one’s 37. It’s the most common so you won’t have to worry about that if you try to connect it to something and it threads in but you still have a leak.
Well, then this is probably the uh difference different type than this, 37, 45 degrees you’ll know that when it leaks. So regardless just want to cover this.
This is normally in the vent port of your dewar tanks or your large bulk tanks and this would be the co2 cylinder adapter that you would need. For that, some people call this a co2 cylinder adapter. This is just a fitting. This is a half-inch NPT tapered thread which is standard and this is the female JIC 37 degree.
More Info about SAE Fittings
SAE fitting is the technical term and these do not require washers or thread tape. It’s a metal-to-metal connection just like that and it seals and it seals pretty tight at high pressure. So those are the general fittings here I just wanted to bring.
This fitting in this is not a co2 cylinder adapter fitting but I wanted to bring this in and show you the difference. You can see the tapered thread; here it’s skinnier at this end, larger and this one is a parallel pipe. So there is no tapered on it, if you look closely, you could see the same thing on this one. You see that there’s a taper over here and there’s a parallel thread right here, this is the CGA 320.
However, there is going to be no tapered thread on that. It’s just parallel and the reason being is, this seals it. So, typically when you have a parallel thread, you do need some type of o-ring or a washer to seal it thread tape will not work because the way that parallel is tapered will work with thread tape because when you screw this into whatever else you’re going to screw it into it’s locking it in as you screw it in back to the video.
Final Thoughts – Co2 Cylinder Adapter
So, if you’re looking for more information on Co2 cylinder adapter or co2 cylinders like co2 cylinder refills, co2 cylinder prices, and things like that I have a whole other video just on that. We dive deep into the different co2 cylinder refill prices and of course the types of cylinders across the country, possibly even in Canada.
And looking at the cost on these whether it’s for the refill, the co2 cylinder itself. These do matter supply and demand and of course where the trucks have to truck anything from the gas to the cylinder themselves. There’s a small margin on cylinders but I do dive into that in a whole other video so check out that video for co2 cylinder prices and co2 cylinder refills.
I’m Chris, this is CryoFX. I know that, but this video was more important on co2 cylinder adapters. Hope you enjoyed it! Please hit the like button, subscribe button to get more from our channel, and to stay up to date on the newest videos, and of course until the next video.