Living in the UK I don't get to enjoy the warmer climates you guys have and this causes havoc with my bottle pressure. The solution being a bottle heater but the best price I can find is £140($230)!! Although this may not be a huge amount of money I can think of better things to be spending it on and would only pay it if I have no other choice(as I figure I REALLY do need a heater) and I prefer making stuff that works rather than just buying bolt on goodies. So I've had an idea or three about how to keep the bottle warmer and wanted your input as to whether or my ideas are good to use, bad or outright dangerous.



So first idea is to move the bottle from the trunk in to the middle of the rear seats using the cabin heat to warm the bottle. Even though this would mean cutting my rear seat up I reckon it would be the easiest to do. As far as the legal side of it goes over here there is no law stating where the bottle can or can't be mounted, just that it needs to be secure.



Second idea is to extend the heater ducting from underneath the front seats straight through to the trunk and then controlling the heater via the heater control on the dash. It'd only heat the trunk when directed to the footwells.



Third idea is to tap in to the engine coolant and run an extra hose from the original system through the car, spiral it around the bottle then back down to another part of the original system creating a loop. Although this would be a fair days work it would be regulated to an extent by the thermostat so the coolant in the hose shouldn't get much above 90 to 95 degrees as the 'stat opens at 88. The other bonus is that with more fluid in the system it should also create extra cooling. If I was to use this system I'd place a valve in the system so that I could turn it off in summer if the ambient temp is warm enough.





All help, replies and responses greatly appreciated

 

When you spray, the nitrous leaves the bottle so there is more room for expansion. The point of a bottle heater is to counteract the temperature factor of the expansion of the Nitrous. When Nitrous expands, it cools (like a can of compressed air) and the vapor point of nitrous is reduced greatly by the temperature of the bottle. At 70f nitrous has a vapor point of ~630 psi. At higher temperatures, like 100, it's around 1000 PSI (don't take my word on that figure).



The Vapor is what adds pressure to the bottle. There are a lot of thermodynamic factors involved, but the idea is to compensate for a quick drop in pressure, or a very cold day.



Your idea might work, but you'd need more money in parts to make the system efficient then you would spend on the el-cheapo version http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Nitro...Q5fAccessories

 

Why not put it in a footwell in front of a rear seat where the heater is already blowing? No cutting up seats, no fabricating air or coolant hoses.

 

I don't think the rear seat well would get warm enough quick enough. Also, that would not work for multi-pass spraying in the summer.

 

The stated problem wasn't multi-pass or single, but a cold climate. Heating from the footwell duct will be a far cry better than hanging out in the hatch area. Not as good as a dedicated heater, but better than nothing.

 

i think they make nitrous blankets, idk i could be wrong.

 

I've had another thought, heated seat pads!!



I must admit I didn't even think of multi-pass. But like Stocker said anything would be better than nothing! It's only november and already the ambient is down to 32f.





I did find this though, figure it may be useful a) for me and B) for anyone else in the future



NOS recommends a bottle pressure of 950 psi for optimum performance.

Bottle Temp °F Bottle Pressure (psi)

-30 167

-20 203

-10 240

0 283

10 335

20 387

32 460

40 520

50 590

60 675

70 760

80 865

85 950

97 1069

 

Yeah, seat heaters would do the trick... That is what I was trying to think of as a replacement but I kept thinking of heating elements I've seen in medical equipment which would be difficult for you to obtain. I knew there was something.



Just hook them up by sewing Velcro to them.





Keep the bottle out of the passenger area. People want to touch things and it would end up with someone opening or closing the bottle, 1 less spot for people to sit, blowdown goes in the center of the car, closer to hot parts, a danger in the event of a leak and just more problems in general when you make it accessible. The trunk is the only place to put the bottle in a tibby.

 

what i used, $17 bux at walmart, refills of the propane are like $6 bux lol.

 

That's not a safe idea, nor is it practical, nor is it good for the paint.