exploding plastic storage tanks

[Bill_B]

This thread is quite interesting and explanatory in several ways. I am reminded of the recent incident involving the painting of one of the tanks. As I recall, the painted tanks were declared illegal as modifications presumably due to chemical alteration of the tank by the paint.

The other think of interest is the operating temperature range for the tanks. I know certain plastics become very brittle by exposure to cold temperatures. Mailboxes, plastic fencing and furniture suffer adversely from sub-freezing temperatures. I do not know if the manufacturer has advised about how durable their products are in cold weather, but it seems irresponsible to sell an obvious outdoor object for use in a northern climate.

Back to the tanks. If the temperature range pertains to operating conditions and not "storage" then we may be OK with outdoor transport of the tanks. There's a robot with tanks in my unheated garage right now. Maybe I should be concerned if merely getting cold will alter the properties of those tanks.

On the other end of the heat range, there was some concern about heated air being stored. I hope someone can give some observations about this. I suppose the black color of the newer tanks will allow the re-radiation of heated air's temperature more readily than the white ones. That will help keep the system within operating temperature range. I wonder if there are some 1/4 inch i.d. finned heat sinks I can thread onto the exit tubing from the compressor. Will it be worth dealing with a metal tube as the direct output from the compressor? I know I can get finned tubing somewhere.

In any event, our robots will not go back into competition with the white tanks. Another reason to thank CD posters for the heads up.