Chris Schneck

A syphon tube is designed to draw out the liquid contents of a container or reservoir. Commercial c02 tanks designed for filling the smaller 3.50z to 24oz c02 tanks that we use on our paintball markers will have a syphon tube installed, becuase its the liquid c02 that we want to fill our tanks with.

An anti-syphon tube is obviously designed to do the opposite. We dont want the liquid form of c02 entering our markers, so an anti-syphon tube can be installed to specifically draw out the endorthermically expanded gas form of c02 instead of the liquid. Anti-syphon tubes must be custom installed for your marker, the tube must always face an upward direction to draw gas only and function optimally. Buying a c02 tank with a pre installed anti-syphon tube from someone else will do you no good if the tube faces into the liquid when fully screwed into your ASA.Anti-syphon tubes are ideal for people who use their c02 tanks attached directly to their ASA. If you have a horizontal tank holder on your tactical vest, like I do, the anti-syphon tube will have to be custom installed to suit your remote line and vest alignment. If you use a vertical pod pack, for example the popular NXE 4+1, it might not be necessary to install an anti-syphon tube as the gas will always be at the top of your tank near the valve.

Unless you are a proficient airsmith, please take your tank to a pro shop to have an anti-syphon installed as a mistake here can be fatal.

It is apparently acceptable to spell it both ways, syphon or siphon. I chose syphon becuase it looks cooler

The Myth : A frozen paintball is a hard paintball.

What I think : Because of the ingredients that go into making paintballs, I don’t think they will freeze and become hard as rock. I think they will shrink, become dimpled & deformed and will overall be very useless. 

Make sure to read : Paintballs - A tasty treat

I’m going to prove how freezing paintballs will effect them by sacrificing a bag of paint and putting it in the freezer over the weekend. The paint is new, non winter formula and in an airtight sealed bag.

The paint was put into the freezer on Friday, February the 1st @ 1pm.

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I retrieved the bag of ‘frozen paintballs’ from the freezer on Monday, February the 4th @ 10am.

Ready for a surprise? The paintballs were NOT rock hard, they were in fact a little squishy-er and extremely brittle. So brittle in fact I’d say they would be near impossible to use, even in the most gentle of paintball markers. The shell was not hard, and the fill was still very much a fluid. I would not be afraid of playing against someone who said they had frozen their paintballs, in fact, id encourage them to use them as I don’t see how their marker will function for very long with all the broken paint in their breach.

I will admit, there might have been a time when paintballs could have been freezable, but the general recipe for modern paintballs doesn’t seem to contain enough water to make them dangerous or near lethal. So the next time some one starts going off about how they froze some balls and it was rad, you can call them out and get everyone to laugh at them for being a big fat liar.

A remote line is really just a hose that allows you to attach your paintball marker to your propellant source without having to have the propellant directly attached to your paintball marker. The advantages of a remte line have a greater impact on those of us who play woodsball then our speedball playing counterparts.

The design of a speedball marker normally factors in having your tank always attached to your paintball marker, so ergonomically it will feel more natural to not use a remote line. That’s not to say you can’t use a remote line when playing speedball, it’s just not very common to do so.

Milsim and aftermarket customized woodsball markers, like the Tippmann A5, can benefit greatly from the implementation of a remote line system.

• The weight of your paintball marker will be reduced, making it easier to carry the marker in a ‘ready to fire’ position for longer periods of time
• When in a prone or crouching position, the lack of a tank on your ASA will allow you to reduce your paintball markers overall visible profile and allow you to get closer to the ground
• Having no tank on your ASA will interfere less with having a stock, which is more common on paintball markers designed for realism
• A remote line will act somewhat as an expansion chamber allowing more room for c02 to turn from a liquid into a gas

There’s really not a lot you need to know about actually using a remote line, they’re very simple. There are 2 physical parts to a remote line, the smaller threaded piece with a nipple on it, the actual coiled hose where on one end your tank will screw into and on the other end there will be a quick disconnect which is the female end that you attach to the the nipple on the smaller threaded piece. Optionally, near the quick disconnect, there may be what is called a slide check. A slide check will allow you to de-pressurize your marker with potentially less stress on your o-rings.

The PMI coiled remote line I own has a rating of 3000psi painted right onto the hose, now I’m not foolish enough to test this limit out myself but I will believe it. My remote line sometimes does snag or get entangled on brush and other woodland entities, but I’ve never had it pulled on so hard that it disconnects from the paintball marker. I’ve done no testing as to a remote lines effectiveness as a source of expansion for c02, but I’ve no doubt it does contribute in that manner.

When purchasing a remote line, there are a few things to consider. I highly recommend a slide check, this will make depressurizing your paintball marker infinitely easier. The hose should be rated to a certain PSI, unless the manufacturer puts this right on the remote line itself you can’t be sure what you’re getting. The part that you screw your tank into should be sturdy and if screwed out all the way, shouldn’t come apart. I’ve seen cheap remote lines where this essential piece comes apart when screwed out, or doesn’t function when screwed all the way in.

Bottom line is, you get what you pay for, I paid over $60 Canadian a couple years ago. That price may have come down slightly, but if your thinking of cheaping out just remember that if you customize your setup to run using a remote line, your day will be cut short without a working one.