co2 fire extinguisher

A quesiton from a fellow grower:

Hi there friend. I’m currently growing in a grow tent and Iv been given a co2 fire extinguisher could I use this for my plants and how much should I give them and how often ? Many thanks

I am not sure. I can tell you what I would do. I would google to find what is in a Co2 fire extinguisher. Not sure if you can clean one out or not.

Another option is to contact a company refills gas bottles, and ask them. Peace

It’s not an empty bottle its full . Many thanks for the reply .

Empty or not; You need to find out if the bottles contains toxins.

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It doesn’t it’s just pure co2 but Iv looked on forums and there saying it can kill your plants if given too much and it needs to be regulated coz once you have opened a co2 fire ext it won’t keep and it will leak. So not sure wot to do now wot ya reckon m8 ?

Here’s what I would suggest; mount it on the wall in or near the grow room. If you ever have a fire, use it to put the flames out. You’ll be glad you did. Please, in this instance, use it for what it’s intended for.

If co2 enrichment is desired, invest the money, buy a regulator and a tank and get it refilled (with the “intention to use it for refilling paintball gun cylinders”) at a sporting goods store, paintball supply store or a company that refills gas cylinders, like latewood suggested.

A gas company that refills cylinders won’t give you the 3rd degree about what you are using it for, but they will most likely ask, so be prepared with a reason. If you choose to say something like refilling paintball gun tanks, do your homework and be prepared. The guy behind the counter might be a paintball enthusiast. If you are in America, Dick’s Sporting Goods advertises that they refill them. Great place to drop it off at the counter and ask to get it refilled “while I shop” as to avoid conversation.

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As a former paintball gunsmith and former professional paintball player, as well as helping a school get outfitted for fire extinguishers, I can assure everyone that a CO2 extinguisher would be perfectly safe to be used with the proper regulator for CO2 enrichment in a garden.

However that might be the main part of the problem, making sure the valve on the extinguisher’s tank can be used with or hooked up to the proper regulator equipment.

The standard valve that is on most of those CO2 tanks is kind of universal and can be easily adapted to a refill valve for paintball guns or a soda machine for carbonation, and some of the fire extinguisher valves are the same as well, however many have a valve with all the equipment permanently attached to it to disperse the co2 in a way that is best to spread it out to smother a fire, if this is the case, you will likely need to have the valve replaced, and the expense might not be worth it, buying a different tank with the standard valve would probably be about the same price.

Happy safe growing,

MacG

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Crickey :anguished: fair enough I will go with da grassmaster too much hassle this

Awesome info, MacGyverStoner!

There should be a local place that refills fire extinguishers and CO2 for restaurant’s soda machines and such. They might do repairs and maintenance on tanks or know someone that does. Even if it turns out that it wouldn’t be worth it to have the valve on your tank replaced, if that is what needs to be done, at least you’d have found a place to buy a good used tank and where to get it serviced.

By the way, most CO2 tanks do need to be serviced every 3-5 years or so, depending on the type of tank. So it is actually best to buy the tanks used form a place that refills them, because when you go to get it refilled, you don’t necessarily get the tank back, just another used one of the same type. But if you are always getting your tank refilled like this, you’ll never get a tank back that is almost expired. When a tank expires it needs to be hydro-tested to be re-certified and this might be a bit expensive, and so buying the used one and exchanging it for re-filled ones means you never have to pay for the re-testing on a tank.

To 692190,
Answering the reply fromm you above.

That is true. 1500 ppm is the maximum you can allow Co2 exposaure. Milwaukee makes a Co2 ppm meter.

You would need to find a regulator valve that fits your tank. Bottom line: Will the gas co. fill that tank for you?

Lots of good info in this thread.

yea u can use but i will say spray for 3 secs max, ive been using this method for over ten years and no problem ever, when i use co2 bags or other types of co2 on market i get problems. u just have to make sure its 100 c02 and no toxins

Even though this was long before my time, but you can get a CO2 tank from a Homebrew store. I had to take the tank to a place that filled tanks up. General rule for the place I went to would swap out your tank.

As I had a had a new tank, I wasn’t wanting to be given a used one with unknown history. I had to wait like up to 1 hour so it wouldn’t be to cold to touch.

So if a person is willing to drop some serious coin for gear aka growing equipment and wanted to use CO2, this route should be safe since it was used to pour my beer out of my kegs.