Mystery oil in food grade n2 tank?

So we were doing a deep clean on our system the past few days and when I took apart our n2 manifold there was a ton of mystery oil inside. The end caps were coated and super slippery. 100% not hash oil, and no butane goes through these lines so couldn’t be from a dirty butane tank. Any ideas on what this could be? The paper towel I have a photo of is the second wipe down. The first was way gnarlier. Can n2 tanks have mystery oil? This is the first I’ve seen anything like it. We get our n2 from @SolventDirect and they always seem to be clean tanks and say it’s food grade


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enjoy your mystery oils. they’re in EVERYTHING now.

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Waaack. Wish there was a way to distill n2. My butane tanks from @SolventDirect hardly have anything left behind after distilling so surprised there was this much in their nitro

nobody’s looking at this dirty cup yet

get a submicron demister for your mystery oil collection pot

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Can you send it through a desicant column, or some other sort of filtration media, to clean it before it enters the system?

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huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Do we think this is a universal issue with nitrogen? I mean, the shit’s everywhere.

I use hot butane vapor to push, so I’m woefully ignorant here.

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Good call I could just fill my manifold with some sort of filtration

Thanks for sharing. This is the first I’ve heard of this, and it definitely warrants further research. I would love to work with you to gather as much info as possible to help find a solution.

Do you have an estimate of how much N2 was ran through the manifold since the last cleaning? Have any new lines or other components been added between the N2 cylinder and the manifold? Any chance you still have the paper towels?

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Is guess 15-20 tanks since the last cleaning, maybe more. That particular part of the system was never a spot that was cleaned often since we assumed it would have no issues. Nothing new was added. Just swapping tanks to the same hose.
I’m at home now but I think I did leave the paper towel on the table and didn’t throw it away. I’ll double check tomorrow

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Anyone else running nitro, it would be great if you could inspect your systems in similar places that only see N2 to check for residue. If you are able to check, please do, and post your findings here. I will be watching closely.

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Are you using ex1 (food grade ) ?

Just wait till you try this with your liquid co2 tanks and your denatured ethanol totes…

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What kind of hosing is the thick black hose?

Have you tried wiping the inside of that?

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Yeah I use the SS lines that is used for solvent

Also if you didn’t clean your rig down with several different solvents then distilled water or ro water u may have just picked this up from the fittings and the lines.

I clean every hose and fitting w acetone and qtiips and then iso alcohol and qtiips… Then water… then wipe dry and give it a few days to dry when there new

The qtips we’re absolutely black and this was brand new rig and fittings

The black is from the machining of the fittings I suppose… always clean down a new rig or anytime u change valves or fittings or manifolds.

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the n2 is a gas right? mystery oil isnt transferred via gas is it? I know one use of n2 is for race tires and that oils wouldve been noticed by race crews right? Its used to purge hvac and some random oil would be no good for that too. did you evver run a vac on system that couldve pulled it from somewhere? maybe from a vac pump if you didnt valve it off upon turning the pump off? its a simple test- blast n2 into a vessel. i doubt mystery oil is common.

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Ya that’s what tripped me out. I don’t see how oil could be moved in an inert gas without a dip tube or really strong vac. And this manifold sees neither. Literally the only thing that ever gets put though is solvent directs food grade n2

All valves and tri clamp fittings were cleaned prior for sure

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I’d like to see the regulator

Sorry shitty photo of the backside. But standard mastercool regulator I got from BBV a few years ago

you ever done a rebuild on it? If the problem was at the bottle, it stands to reason that you’d see it inside the reg

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