I discovered that I ran out of my 20 lb supply of nitrous since my fill up last year and I'm happy that I was able to last until now, but I felt like I could have gone far longer on my second bottle. Now, the bottles that I'm using are JUNK U.S. bottles (and budget ones at that), anyway I called up my local refiller to see if they have 20 lbs of nitrous so that I can fill up. Well, the place nearish to me was out of nitrous and that they were waiting on the next delivery (Pep Boys U.S. auto parts retailer that sells Holley NOS), so I called up the other one I know of that's 45 minutes away and they had plenty for me to feast on. HOWEVER, their air pump broke and required me to chill my bottles so that I could fill up without the pump, and this meant that I had to fill up a plastic bin and fill it with ice and water in order to keep the bottles cool, which is EXTREMELY hard to do in 33*C/92*F heat! Luckily, I made it there and it was off to get filled.
I stood there listening to the sounds of high pressure spitting of the gas and I was feeling pretty good about getting back on the lovely nectar with the new mods to the Sonic, except the gentleman doing the filling advised me that BOTH OF MY BOTTLES WERE LEAKING... WTF!?
He claimed that one of the bottle valves leaked at the top and the other from the side, so I asked him if I could investigate with some nitrous pressure applied. He agreed and then we both went to the mother bottle where he hooked up the lines and applied pressure. The first bottle did not leak at the top of the valve but at the large adapter nut and it was quickly remedied with some extra torque applied with a large spanner. However the next bottle had a micro leak by the gauge port (also remedied with torque), but I suspect that this micro leak is the reason my my second bottle didn't last as long... BECAUSE IT WAS SLOWLY LEAKING OUT INTO THE AIR OVER TIME!!
Secondly after filling that bottle, the main valve continued to seep nitrous and it was enough to be audible, and in order to rectify that, I had to apply a good amount of hand strength to make sure that it sealed correctly!
Needless to say that if it happens again, I'll be upgrading to WON bottle valves!
So be careful what you pay for: it may be cheap in the short term, but it can cost you big $$$, time, and frustration in the long run!
P.S.
The gentleman doing the filling has an Induction Solutions kit, he was praising it a lot and I really wanted to vomit because of it but I didn't want to insult the man who was kind enough to fill up my bottles with the lovely nectar.
P.S.S.
He also told me that they are going to stop selling nitrous at that location due to low demand. Well of course no one will buy nitrous, you (the retailer not the guy himself) force the customer to chill the bottles (in BLAZING heat no less), run out of the stuff too often, are not knowledgeable enough to handle such an easy task, then have the gall to not offer it anymore... OF COURSE PEOPLE WOULD STOP BUYING IT!
I will also be getting my own mother bottle AND refilling other customers with ease!
