Paintball Forum

IBC Solutions
Public Safety & Community Advocacy

The Bronx Paintball Society Forum
By Hector Farrulla August 6, 2006

Airtank safety: preventing tragedy

True story: So here I am at home, tuning the trigger on a new
marker I just purchased. I screwed in a brand new tank that I just
had filled for the first time. I start my tinkering. When im done, I do
what all careful marker owners should do when they are not firing
them: I start to unscrew the tank. I only shot a few shots with no
paint or loader attached, so I know that the tank was relatively full.
What I didn’t notice was that I was actually unscrewing the bottle
from the regulator. My daughter loves to watch me tinker with my
toys so, of course, she was present as was my wife in the bed
room. I noticed the tank was harder than usual to unscrew but I
payed it no mind. As I kept unscrewing, all of a sudden a loud POP
filled the air and the tank flew out of my hands and into the wall,
bounced off the wall and flew out of my bedroom , barely missing
my daughters head by inches. The tanks flight ended in the
bathroom. I was in complete shock after noticing what had
happened. I was lucky that the flying bottle rocket didn’t hit any
members of my family but had it did, there were sure to be a
serious injury, if not a death. Remember that these bottles hold
thousands of pounds of pressure. The bottle was propelled by
escaping air and flew at a high rate of speed. Fast enough to
leave a dent in my wooden bedroom door. I took the tank to my
friends at Stingray paintball in Brooklyn NY, and they told me that
the tank never had any loc tite in the threads. Loc Tite is a
permanent thread sealer used to prevent threads from coming
loose easily. They applied the loc tite needed and the tank was as
good as new. I am fortunate that this incident hasn’t hurt any one,
as I later found out that the same incident elsewhere was the
cause of a fatality in more than one instance. I feel that ALL
paintball tanks, wether it be co2 or nitrogen/compressed air,
should have a bright visible mark that aligns the tank and the
regulator. When unscrewing the tank, one must watch to see if this
bright line becomes misaligned. If it does, it means that the
regulator is unscrewing from the bottle, and it may fly out
uncontrollably if its still being unscrewed. A mark of this sort will
help prevent accidents. Until this becomes standard industry rule,
you can make your own tang/regulator unscrew indicator, with a
little tape and nail polish.

I took some photos to illustrate. With tape as your guide, mark a
straight line from reg to tank with nail polish, (my wife still wonders
what happened to her nail polish). Let dry for a few minutes then
pull tape away. Voila! A home made indicator. Wont rub off like a
marker would, either. Make it a MUST to look at this line every time
you unscrew the tank from the marker. If it does mis align, screw
back in as tight as possible , then take the marker with tank
attached to a qualified air smith IMMEDIATELY!!! They should be
able to diffuse the situation. A little caution goes a long way. Lets
play it safe.