kaaikop said:
And again, noboby seems to want to answer that one: is this dangerous? 8O
has there ever been explosions? 8O I know it might sound silly, I do have
at home several fire extinguishers, and they don't explode by themselves!
There are far far greater dangers lurking in your home. In your garage you park a 1-2 ton hunk of steel filled with 20 gallons of combustible and extremely flammable liquid that has a very low flash point. In many homes you have gas water heaters that kill people yearly if not properly maintained. Just the gas lines are fairly dangerous. Bottom line is that
CO2 tanks are in every restaurant and bar in America and you never hear of exploding tanks or asphyxiation associated with their use despite the high volume. Simple common sense in handling the tanks and securing them all but eliminates the potential for a large release of
CO2. The tank won't explode.
CO2 dissipates very rapidly in air and unless you were in a small well sealed room (or car with the windows up and the A/C or heat on) the levels could never rise to dangerous levels with only 5-10 lbs of liquid
CO2 available. Which brings the other issue up. The only way a small
CO2 tank is going to effect the
CO2 levels in a room dramatically is if the tank were to dump it's contents within a few minutes. That can only happen under two scenarios.
1) The safety valve blew. The safety valve is there to prevent a tank from exploding. The valve is designed to blow and release the pressure in a rapid yet controlled manner before the steel or aluminum tank fails. When the valve blows the noise from the release and subsequent hiss from the rapidly escaping gas would wake everyone in the house and alert them to open windows and doors. However, in order to blow a safety valve the tank would have to have been exposed to heat or overfilled to create the excessive pressure...it is almost a non-issue. The greatest danger of blowing a safety valve is in the ride home from having it filled. Another reason why tank exchanges are much better than refills.
2) If you don't store and support the tank properly and it falls over breaking off the regulator. This, in my opinion, is the biggest potential for a problem with a
CO2 tank, but yet so easy to make perfectly safe. Knocking the regulator will cause a faster rate of release than the safety valve blowing and the tank itself would be propelled around the room. Secure the tank upright and this can never happen.
The main point is
CO2 is totally safe if common safety is observed. Taking a bath can be more hazardous.
I found out about 
HELP!!!
how much should I expect to
