Fire extinguisher problem

[eanna]

I'm having some trouble with my co2 tank which is a 2kg fire extinguisher with a regulator screwed on to where the cone used to be. I was adding gas to cornies by squeezing the handle intermittently while carbonating/dispensing. The extinguisher has stopped working for this as the gas now seems to come out from between the two levers that are being squeezed together and not into the regulator at all. If the regulator is open now gas actually flows out of the cornies and out of the extingusher.

The first time this happened, I thought the regulator wasn't sealed so took it off and on again and it worked for 1 day. Next time I touched it It didn't work, which is the current situation.

Has anyone encountered this before or know anything about it? Its a mostly full tank so I'd hate to see it go.

[brewerhooer]

Hi There, I had a similar problem with a fire extinguisher C02 tank... In my case the leak was small enough and with a bit of fiddling with the handle I was able to make it stop until the next time it was touched. When I brought it back for a refill I mentioned it to the guys there and they swapped out the tank for me. If you call them up they might swap it for you if you bought it recently.

[Snuff]

Had a similar problem when I kept a 2kg in the fridge with the cornies. The seals on the tank would contract due to the cold and gas leaked. Kept it out of the fridge and never had a problem.

[eanna]

Thanks for the info. I'll give it another fiddle tonight. It didn't seem like any seal leak I've ever seen, it was more of an immediate, intermittent total failure.

[Will_D]

If you are using an "unmodified" Fire extinguisher with a CO2 reg on it then the bottle has to be inverted!

F'ex's have a dip tube so that the liquid CO2 is dispensed in case of a fire emergency.

Using a Fex and CO2 reg upright can cause the reg to freeze!