Problems with AIR

[jeffers]

Right guys, I need some advice.

Firstly, My AIR keeps bleeding out of the small safety valve. I can't seem to dial the output pressure down or up either.(dialer moves but doesn't seem to have any effect).

Any suggestions on what might be causing this? If its a case of dirt and stuff in the reg, how do I clean it?

Secondly, my IR3 will not dial up above 150fps. When I put my freinds AIR on (one that is working!!!) nothng happens whether I dial it up or down. The dwell is set at 14 and the output pressure is set at 645psi.

Any ideas???

The IR3 has the new opti board with COPS 2.

Any help would be much appreciated:happy:

Many thanks

Jeff

[Benfrain]

Just had a mail back from WDP to say that my IR3 is on its way back - apparently the exhaust valve needed replacing due to exposure to high pressure.

Afraid that means very little to me! What could have caused this? I've only used it twice, both times with the AIR I got with it!

[Emmit]

Benfrain......your cause might be indicated in one of your previous posts. You said the safety vent was leaking. Well that means that your reg was exposed to a high pressure situation. Well it was exposed to this situation, chances are that your marker was getting un-regulated air into it which is what caused the damage. Maybe. Did you tell WDP everything including the problem with the AIR when you sent it in? This would certainly help them provide you with a possible scenario as to why your marker was exposed to a High pressure causing the exhaust valve to be bad and need replacing.

[Benfrain]

Yes, I sent them a covering letter explaining that the AIR had been blowing from the safety vent and the AIR itself was sent in with the marker.

Why would the safety vent blow in the first place. As I mentioned - it started to blow when it was filled above about 700psi - could this be because the person filling it was doing it too quickly? Forgive my ignorance in these matters - new to all this!

[Emmit]

Benfrain......the fill pressure is not where the issue lies (well not completely I don't think). If you have the reg turned up (ie the screw turned in) your reg is still being exposed to pressure. If you blow a seal on your reg your gun is the next thing in line. While you were filling the tank was your AIR on or off? What I mean is did you have the adjusting screw in or out? When you're filling it you should really have it backed out so that there is no pressure on the reg. We had a sticky about this a while back, but it's gone now. Hopefully that helps a little.

[Benfrain]

The AIR was definately not dialled down to nothing when the air was filled. I had set it for about 650 the last time I got it filled so I wouldn't have to mess with it in future. Are you saying that every time I've finished a day with the gun I should dial down the screw on the AIR so it is off? That will be a major pain - I hate having to set velocity and pressure etc every time I use a marker. Is there a quick on/off type thing I can put between the AIR and IR3 to solve this issue?

If I had dialled down the AIR before it was filled how would this have helped? Surely as soon as I dialled it up after filling it would have done the same thing? How can I check that all is well (seals/valves etc) before causing any damage?

Sorry for all the questions!

[Emmit]

Benfrain

Yes you really should turn your AIR off before every fill. Yes it is kinda a pain in the arse to reset it before each game, but it will extend the life of your reg. If I'm reading correctly you're also saying that you leave it pressurized constantly? As in the full marker? That's really not good idea (IMO) with any marker.

As for how it might have helped. Well simply put you would not have been slamming 4500psi against your reg. If you have your reg off, then you're not putting any pressure against it while you are filling your tank. This will prevent you from blowing through o-rings. Now here's my theory on what happened (basically it happened to me a few weeks ago) You probably had a bad o-ring or 2 or more. When you went to fill the tank, the reg started creeping, or in this case maybe it didn't creep at all it simply went straight to the high output. Once you've gone that far the only way to stop it is to back off the reg. You really want to look at the piston o-ring as well as the rocket o-rings, while you've got it apart you might as well take a look at the main seal.

This topic really seems to have gone to a discussion on the AIR, and we should really direct all the questions there for future reference. I hope that I'm able to help with anything, don't be afraid to ask questions you and others will never know unless someone asks the question. I don't pretend to know everything, but I'll do my best to answer the questions to the things I do know. I will also copy and edit the thread as necessary to get the relevant AIR issues in the AIR forum