Paintball Gear
It is very important to have effective gear, without a good tank you can run out of air in the middle of a game or worse yet get hurt, without a good mask you could get seriously injured. This page will give you brief descriptions of various paintball equipment and what to look for when purchasing these items. At our paintball store in Ramsey we stock everything you need and can special order any piece of paintball equipment you may want.
CO2 Paintball TanksThere are two types of paintball tanks commonly available on todays market and we are going to start out with what is currently the most common type. The CO2 tank is a good option mainly because of its low purchase cost, your average CO2 tank will run you about $20 and most are good for 5 years from the date of manufacture before it needs to be
hydrotested. It's going to cost about $5 to fill the average tank and can be filled at most sporting goods stores as it is very widely used, a 20oz tank will shoot between 400 - 600 paintballs. The major downfall to using CO2 in paintball markers is the fact that it is a very dirty liquid, this will require you to clean you marker more often and decrease the life of the o-ring and parts. Other short comings of this liquid propellent is that it cools greatly as you fire your marker and the liquid turns to gas, this cools the parts and o-rings inside the gun and could cause premature wear. You will also find that the output pressure of CO2 tanks fluctuate also as you travel thru different rates of fire, this will contribute to the inaccuracy of propelling a liquid filled capsule.
Pro’s:
Low initial cost
Filled at most sporting good stores
Con’s:
It’s dirty
Hard on internal parts
Inconsistant pressure output
More expensive to fill than compressed airCompressed Air or N2 Paintball TanksNow on too the newest in paintball propulsion technology the Compressed air tank, commonly referred to as a Nitrogen or N2 because the air around us is compressed and it contains 78% Nitrogen. These tanks are going to cost more to purchase but will almost pay for themselves the first few times you play. Compressed air is a very clean way to power your paintball marker and is much less expensive to fill at about $3. The tank come in a many different sizes and pressures, you may have heard someone refer to a tank as a 68-4500. The first number refers to the volume inside the tank in “Ci” or cubic inches and the second number is the “psi” or lbs per square inch. These tanks operate at very high pressures up to 5000psi so they cannot be filled by a home compressor as they mainly top out at about 170psi, compressed air tanks generally need to be
hydrotested every 3 to 5 years. A few good things about compressed air tanks is that they produce a very consistent output pressure and can be filled while screwed into your marker. Downfalls to running these tanks are they need a special compressor to fill them that you will not find at any sporting good stores, they also start out at about $50 and go up to $250 depending on the size and quality.
Pro’s:
Very Clean
Consistant pressure
Easy to fill
Con’s:
Higher purchase cost
Filled only at paintball stores
