Testing A 1960s Crosman CO2 Powerlet

[Abasmajor]

A shooting friend of mine had the means of testing the purity of various makes of CO2 capsules where he works and was surprised at the levels of contamination except apparently for those made by Umarex. I must have used capsules from many different manufacturers over the years without any particular problems that could be directly attributable to contaminated gas.

Brian

[FOZZD1]

Maybe Crosman were ahead of the game and were reducing their CO2 emissions long before the car manufacturers
got into the act.



Sorry I will take myself to the naughty corner and will be quiet.

[edbear2]

Hi John, we regularly scrap batches of 100's of aircraft life jackets at work that are C02 operated, some have powerlets similar but slightly different to anything used in any airgun (I used to see guys popping powerlets for days then scrapping the containers and thought "what a waste").

Anyway, the shelflife is to re-weigh at 4 years and there is a percentage that is allowable, much like a fire extinguisher test, on my gas inflated lifejackets on the boat they just say change at 4 years regardless.

Thing is, I have seen containers 20-25 years old from storage that are still perfect, but the are very high quality as you would expect, so maybe it's down to the type of closure as mentioned by another poster.

We must have binned thousands since I have worked there, I will see if I can find some samples to measure as it would almost be worth making an adaptor if you are a C02 buff,

The REAL fun (and dangerous due to the energy) stuff is letting off scrap aircraft slides and 60 person liferafts

ATB, Ed

[Josie & John]

Hi John, we regularly scrap batches of 100's of aircraft life jackets at work that are C02 operated, some have powerlets similar but slightly different to anything used in any airgun (I used to see guys popping powerlets for days then scrapping the containers and thought "what a waste").

Anyway, the shelflife is to re-weigh at 4 years and there is a percentage that is allowable, much like a fire extinguisher test, on my gas inflated lifejackets on the boat they just say change at 4 years regardless.

Thing is, I have seen containers 20-25 years old from storage that are still perfect, but the are very high quality as you would expect, so maybe it's down to the type of closure as mentioned by another poster.

We must have binned thousands since I have worked there, I will see if I can find some samples to measure as it would almost be worth making an adaptor if you are a C02 buff,

The REAL fun (and dangerous due to the energy) stuff is letting off scrap aircraft slides and 60 person liferafts

ATB, Ed

Interesting Ed.

I have a batch of Crosman CO2 from when CO2 first came off ticket in the UK, which I 'saved for best'. Perhaps this was a poor investment I'll have to try one; one of these days.

John

[Geezer]

Very interesting thread. Never seen that topic explored before.

Tests on older post-“bottle cap” powerlets would be very interesting too.

[edbear2]

Interesting Ed.

I have a batch of Crosman CO2 from when CO2 first came off ticket in the UK, which I 'saved for best'. Perhaps this was a poor investment I'll have to try one; one of these days.

John

Hi John, the ones at work are same as the one in the link, but 28g and made in Austria, covered in part numbers and a minimum weight to 2 decimal places!.I asked the guys at the top and last time they did a scrap out they had 2 guys popping capsules for over a day and the result was several dustbins full!

We had literally 1000's of aircraft seats at various times, each with a jacket, plus liferafts, you name it.


https://www.aspli.com/2489/united-mo...yABEgIXMvD_BwE

ATB, Ed


ATB, Ed

[Josie & John]

Hi John, the ones at work are same as the one in the link, but 28g and made in Austria, covered in part numbers and a minimum weight to 2 decimal places!.I asked the guys at the top and last time they did a scrap out they had 2 guys popping capsules for over a day and the result was several dustbins full!

We had literally 1000's of aircraft seats at various times, each with a jacket, plus liferafts, you name it.


https://www.aspli.com/2489/united-mo...yABEgIXMvD_BwE

ATB, Ed


ATB, Ed

Hi Ed,

I can see how lots of people would see this as a waste but when you think of the purpose the cartridges are used for, skimping on CO2 could result in lives lost, so I can see why they are disposed of.


Kind regards,

John

[Josie & John]

A shooting friend of mine had the means of testing the purity of various makes of CO2 capsules where he works and was surprised at the levels of contamination except apparently for those made by Umarex. I must have used capsules from many different manufacturers over the years without any particular problems that could be directly attributable to contaminated gas.

Brian

Hi Brian,

One quick question - you mentioned contamination and Umarex cartridges being the 'cleanest'. What contaminates were present? Was it just oil or were other particles present? Not sure if your friend would know?

Kind regards,

John

[Abasmajor]

Hi Brian,

One quick question - you mentioned contamination and Umarex cartridges being the 'cleanest'. What contaminates were present? Was it just oil or were other particles present? Not sure if your friend would know?

Kind regards,

John

Hi John,
Unfortunately, the friend I mention is no longer a member of the club I shoot at so I can't be sure of the actual nature of the contaminants he was talking about. He was a big air soft shooter and used lots of CO2 capsules in his skirmishing rifles and pistols. In general, he would only load Umarex capsules with regular use of maintenance capsules as a result of his experiments. I can't say I have experienced anything more than the expected seal failures using various makes of capsule over the years with minimum preventative maintenance. I bought one of the first Umarex CP88 pistols when they appeared many years ago and used a lot of different make capsules before storing it away until just recently. Having made the decision to move it on, I test fired it first and was pleasantly surprised that it still held gas and was as powerful as ever with the original seals still in place.

Brian

[Josie & John]

Hi John,
Unfortunately, the friend I mention is no longer a member of the club I shoot at so I can't be sure of the actual nature of the contaminants he was talking about. He was a big air soft shooter and used lots of CO2 capsules in his skirmishing rifles and pistols. In general, he would only load Umarex capsules with regular use of maintenance capsules as a result of his experiments. I can't say I have experienced anything more than the expected seal failures using various makes of capsule over the years with minimum preventative maintenance. I bought one of the first Umarex CP88 pistols when they appeared many years ago and used a lot of different make capsules before storing it away until just recently. Having made the decision to move it on, I test fired it first and was pleasantly surprised that it still held gas and was as powerful as ever with the original seals still in place.

Brian

Thanks Brian,

I have had similar experiences and also bought a CP88 from this site's sponsor within days of them coming off ticket.

1 drop of Pellgun oil on the neck of every other cartridge is all the maintenance I carry out, although I some will say even that is too much oil. I rarely shoot more than 1 cartridge through a pistol at a time though, so it may be several months or longer between shooting sessions.

John