What’s The Difference Between High Pressure Co2 Tanks And Large Bulk Co2 Tanks [CryoFX®]

Difference Between High Pressure Co2 Tanks And Large Bulk Co2 Tanks

What’s the difference between high-pressure tanks and bulk Co2 tanks? Or the larger tanks that you see for a soda machine so to say, and a regular high-pressure tank? Well, the difference really is this. The pressure is number one, the Co2 tanks that are the high-pressure tanks, those are sitting at room temperature because it’s hotter.

How Temperature Affects Pressure in Tanks

The Co2 is at a higher pressure than it normally is inside bulk Co2 tanks. Now, those sit at about 800 to 850 to 900 PSI depending on the ambient temperature outside. The hotter the temperature, the higher the pressure. The less liquid and the more gas, reverse that. When you get a colder temperature, you’re going to have a little bit more liquid, you’re going to have less gas, but it will be at a lower temperature.

Case in point, the bulk Co2 tanks or the larger 160 liter, 180 liter, the tanks that people say they see on soda machines, those ones actually put out about 100 to 120 PSI.  Some are a little bit different from that, so those really aren’t the ones that are used for special effects purposes. But the special effects purposes ones, those are specifically designed to allow up to 350 sometimes 450 or 550 PSI for the very high-pressure bulk type of tanks which is the technical term for that.

Now those, the Co2 sits in an inside capsule if you will, between a layer of vacuum jacketed insulation. Which means there’s negative pressure that insulates it from the outside air. Because of that, the Co2 sits inside at a colder temperature.  Temperatures vary again, depending on many different factors such as the gas that’s in it. If we’re talking about Co2, probably around negative 35, negative 40 degrees or colder. Don’t quote me on that, but this just gives you a general idea. For the example here now, because of that colder temperature.

Pressure Differences Between the Co2 Tanks

Remember what I said earlier, the gas comes out at a lower pressure so the bulk Co2 tanks or Dewar tanks as people call them, the gas is going to come out at about 300 to 350 PSI. This is as opposed to the high-pressure tanks, where the gas comes out at about 800 to 850 PSI. So, that’s the main difference between those two tanks. This is Cryo FX, and that should answer that question. Thank you and welcome to CryoFX.