Stop your liquid from venting

[Mr. Wonka]

Hi folks.

There have been times that I've had problems with my liquid oxygen cylinder reaching maximum pressure, venting, having the safety valve get frozen in the open position, and losing lots of oxygen.

Here’s what I do:

I keep a 2 liter soda bottle filled with water near the cylinder, along with some rags or paper towels. If the valve freezes open, I pour water on it to partially defrost it. After that, I push a rag or paper towel over the open end of the valve and continue to pour water on it until the rag freezes it closed.

It works every time if your cylinder is below 350 psi and it continues to vent.

Tom

http://users.csonline.net/glass/o2.jpg

[J Howard]

you can also vent the tank a little. the drop in pressure sucks the valve shut again. water works the best (sometimes so does a tap with a wrench), but this works in a pinch

[CripSkillz]

I was just gona say my adjustable wrech works wonders lol.. have to try the water nextime

[barefoot stash]

All this works great for unsticking frozen valves. However, if you balance your tank by backing out the economizer screw when you get it, you shouldn't have a venting problem.

[somewhere]

I keep a 2 liter soda bottle filled with water near the cylinder, along with some rags or paper towels. If the valve freezes open, I pour water on it to partially defrost it. After that, I push a rag or paper towel over the open end of the valve and continue to pour water on it until the rag freezes it closed.

I'm not sure Tom but that sounds like it could be bad advise. We had a brand new pressure release valve fail on one of our tanks and when it blew the valve off(the valve guts went flyin out) there was nothing we could do but safely vent the tank out of the shop until it was empty.
I agree about the water to thaw out the relief valve. Most of the time that's all it needs and maybe a bit of venting. The freezing it with a rag I think could be a hazard.

Dave my barefoot friend hit the nail on the head back of the economizer screw. We have run threw so many rentals now we have most dialed in and know the ones that give us trouble.

The relief valves are usually thin walled 1/4" npt. Hitting with your adjustable hammer isn't very good advice. Just sayin someone might not know their own strength. It wouldn't take much to shear off that frozen metal.

[Dom]

Yea that is good Tom, another good solution is to call airgas and stop getting shit tanks from other suppliers.

I just switched over, and got a new tank two weeks ago, the gauge still says full and it has not vented once.