Hello, I was wondering where folks buy their helium tanks for a Balloon mapping kit? Also, do most buy or rent them because I imagine after you use them you are left with this empty tank that you really don't need sitting around? When leads to a third question about whether you would then go to refill them?
Thanks for any experience information you can provide.
Derek
Hi Derek-
Great question. I'm in NYC, and I always rent a tank from an industrial gas supplier-- the kind of place you'd go if you're getting welding gasses, etc, but if you expect to be doing lots of mapping and have a place to store a tank, it can make sense to purchase (depending on how you work with your local supplier, sometimes a purchase just means that they'll swap out your empty tank for a full one when it's time to refill, or that you can get on their delivery route for refills)-- purchasing also means that you will still have any unused helium available for future use (though some places will refund a bit for partially used tanks), instead of having to do a pick-up/return each time.
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Thanks for this response and very good advice @Bronwen
Based on your suggestion, I was able to locate and ascertain the tank purchase and rental availability in my city. As it turns out my university has a contract w/ a local industrial type place that rents 200 lbs tanks (a bit much for my current needs, but good to know). Also, I found a party supply place that sells tanks that holds 4.9 cu ft (cubic feet). According to a calc-convert site, I found that it is 305.9 lbs. According to a Public Lab site on the balloon mapping setup, “We are seeing 5-12 inflations if the balloon is minimally filled (40-50 cu ft) 3-5 if it is medium inflated (60-70 cu ft) and 2-3 inflations if the balloon is filled all the way to 80-85 cu ft.”
Cheers, Derek
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