Argon, how long should it last?

[Sandaholic]

I went through 3/4 of a 251 cu ft tank of Argon pretty quickly. Maybe 4 days. Does that sound right at all? What I'm wondering is could this pp205 be leaking inside? I've got my CFH set to 18-20. I've now started turning the bottle off when I'm not going to use it immediately.

[Rambozo]

I went through 3/4 of a 251 cu ft tank of Argon pretty quickly. Maybe 4 days. Does that sound right at all? What I'm wondering is could this pp205 be leaking inside? I've got my CFH set to 18-20. I've now started turning the bottle off when I'm not going to use it immediately.

You should always turn off the bottle when not using it. Often the gas solenoids are not a perfect seal, and keeping them under pressure, all the time, will shorten their life.

Depending on what you are doing, that is a pretty high flow rate. At that rate you will only have less than 12 hours of flow time from that bottle.

[performance]

A couple of things. Your flow rate is usually set from 10-20 cfh which on average if you had a 250 cf bottle would last for 10-20 hours of welding non stop. That would work out to about 2-4 days of serious welding. HOWEVER our regulators measure in lpm, not cfh! If you are using our regulators and set it like you would for cfh, then you are putting out about twice the amount you need.

[Sandaholic]

You should always turn off the bottle when not using it. Often the gas solenoids are not a perfect seal, and keeping them under pressure, all the time, will shorten their life.

Depending on what you are doing, that is a pretty high flow rate. At that rate you will only have less than 12 hours of flow time from that bottle.

So do you shut it off if you walk away for 10-15 minutes? Cause that's basically where I'm at now.

A couple of things. Your flow rate is usually set from 10-20 cfh which on average if you had a 250 cf bottle would last for 10-20 hours of welding non stop. That would work out to about 2-4 days of serious welding. HOWEVER our regulators measure in lpm, not cfh! If you are using our regulators and set it like you would for cfh, then you are putting out about twice the amount you need.

Was not aware of that, thanks! I knew something was off.

[Spike]

Yeah, if you have the float ball type regulator, that ball is usually going to sit nearer to the bottom of the gauge. I use a nice gas lens set up and I usually keep my l/min to 5 or less.
I have a giant bottle of argon and I still close it whenever I get up and walk away from the welder and aren't going to be coming right back.

[Rambozo]

So do you shut it off if you walk away for 10-15 minutes? Cause that's basically where I'm at now.

No, just at the end of the job or end of the day. A quick check to see if you have a major leak that needs to be fixed, is to shut off the bottle and watch the bottle pressure gauge. If it drops to zero in 15 minutes or so, you should look into it more. but droppiing to zero overnight is probably not worth the trouble. Since you have a multi-function machine you will also have air going through, and that will not typically be as clean as argon, so the seals on the solenoid may not be 100%. Also the pressure for plasma can be higher than the argon pressure. It's one of the trade offs for a muli-process box. If you do have a big leak, check all your connections with soapy water to makes sure they are tight. You can also back up the tungsten, and smear a film of soapy water over the front of the cup, with your finger, to see if the solenoid is leaking.

[Spike]

When you open your bottle, crack the valve *slowly* so that the pressure from the bottle doesn't slam into the regulator and damage it.
Also, a high pressure bottle like argon has 2 seats on it, one when it's closed, and the other when it's completely open. So be sure to open the valve on the bottle all the way and seat it against the upper seat, otherwise it will be leaking out slowly from the valve the entire time it's open.

[Sandaholic]

Thanks guys for the quick responses, that's awesome!

[Trip59]

Regardless of the size of the bottle, it will last exactly 5 minutes less than you need it to.

I shut mine if I stand up and take off my hood. I only depressurize if I'm going to be longer than a cigarette, other than that, I figure the solenoid is seeing similar to duty service.