Contaminated Argon

[tapwelder]

Seems like it will take more time to test and sue them, than return the bottle? I have had bad gas(bottle) too.. returned it and moved on.

What do you anticipate you will recover from a law suit?

You may be able to just weigh a few balloon full a control vs your bad bottle.

A state lab may be able to help, probably easier if you are dealing with weights and measures rather than some chemical analysis.

[Weldordie]

Well did you pass or fail?

Wow! How clever. You've, really, added a lot to this thread.

[M J D]

Wow! How clever. You've, really, added a lot to this thread.

Well aszclown I figured since you know everything you could have answered. You have obviously never heard about asking questions if you can't deal with the answers. You asked about " tests" for contaminated argon and was told what the majority of welders in the real world do. Perhaps you should have went to the outer cover of a phone book and started there.

[Munkul]

Wow, some people really don't understand the value of pausing to consider their own part in things.
This "I am right, you are wrong" BS is partly the reason why there are so many lawsuits. Communication and understanding go a long way to solving problems, and they don't cost money.

Glad I'll never meet you weldordie, you sound like a barrel of laughs

[danielplace]

I'm going to make this as simple as I can.

Does anyone know of a way to test the contents of a jug of Argon to see if it is contaminated?

Stubby bottle of what should be pure Argon for tig welding, but it's contaminated with something, as proven by welding with a substitute bottle, which yields beads, as expected. Beads produced from stubby bottle are junk, and when 4043 rod is introduced it just carbons up in a ridiculous glob.

You already knew answer to your question and answered it yourself already.

Tested. Failed.

[albrightree]

Did your gas supplier provide a lot number for the gas you recieved , if so they should be able to provide you with a Certificate of Analysis the (COA). I get this with food grade nitrogen from Praxair/Linde .

If sending it to a laboratory for Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis and testing prove to be too expensive, you could just test for them most commonly used reactive gases with a handheld meter.
This device does 3 of the most common gases that would possibly cause your welds to come out poorly. See @ 1:42 There a many others available from Grainger industrial supply who I think owns Lab Safety Supply .



My company uses the devices to check the nitrogen purging of our coffee packs. We target less than one percent, I don't know what level of contamination would cause bad welds. I'm sure you can google it.

Good Luck with your endeavor

[G-ManBart]

I've got a life, but it's growing short. All I asked for was how to test for bottle contamination... not for all you dipshtts to give me advice I don't need.

With this sort of attitude, it's probably a waste of time, but I'll point out a few things that maybe you're analytical mind missed.

Your question was simply too vague to get good answers. First off, you asked if there was a way to test for contamination....yeah, weld with it and compare to a known good bottle. That's one test that's pretty conclusive. The problem is, that's not what you were really trying to ask. Then you filled in that you had compared it to a known good bottle to know there's contamination....but still didn't give enough information to get good answers. It sounds like you want an analysis of the contents of a bottle, not just if there is a general contamination issue.

Still, it's not as simple as asking if it's possible to get the gas tested. Are you asking just out of curiosity? Are the results so you can confront a vendor? Are they going to be used in some sort of legal process? The answer will change depending upon which of those it is (or something else).

This is a classic example of junk data in, junk data out. If you want good answers, you have to provide enough information to get them. Otherwise people are left to assume, and that's what you're seeing here.

Threads on forums rarely stick exactly to the topic...it's just how things happen. Rather than get irritated, and start insulting people, it's just as easy to ignore responses you don't find helpful.

[John T]

Sorry I’m late Fellas….

Did I miss anything good?

[Broccoli1]

Sorry I’m late Fellas….

Did I miss anything good?

You can catch up by watching Judge Judy

[Lis2323]

Sorry I’m late Fellas….

Did I miss anything good?

We did our best without you, but it’s just not the same….


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Weld_]

Here is a link to a website where you can purchase equipment that will help you find the purity of your argon.

https://www.servomex.com/gas-analyze...-sensed/argon/

[camfab]

Not here to play " mother hen" in this shltshow. I would imagine the amount of " contaminated" cylinders is very low, probably less than 1 in a thousand. Most suppliers offer a " pure" argon which they state is guaranteed to be more pure than the regular grade argon cylinders. I imagine it's comparable to how oxygen is labeled " medical". It's one of those situations where you have to trust your supplier and realize that there is always a possibility of something such as human error happening. Out of hundreds of not thousands of cylinders I've changed over the years I've yet to encounter a " contaminated" one. I have however grabbed the wrong one out of the rack and encountered problems which I realized what happened. Some times you have to suck it up and move on. Similar to getting a defective auto part. In either situation threatening litagations if laughable.

This is interesting MJD, I did not know a higher grade of Argon was available. Next time I'm ready for a bottle swap, I'm going to try it out if it's available. I've been chasing some kind of contamination issue that's been driving me crazy. Thank you

[M J D]

This is interesting MJD, I did not know a higher grade of Argon was available. Next time I'm ready for a bottle swap, I'm going to try it out if it's available. I've been chasing some kind of contamination issue that's been driving me crazy. Thank you

It may be something available only at certain suppliers. It may be labeled as " laboratory grade" or something along those lines.

[Munkul]

Lab grade is different to commercial grade. You'll pay through the nose for it.

If you're regularly getting bad bottles, then its well overdue for a supplier change... but by and large, commercial grade argon is just fine for welding, since that's what everyone in the world uses...

[davec]

There are many degrees of purity once you start getting into lab grades. You will hear people talk about "how many 9's" as the higher the purity the more 9's you add after the decimal point and the higher the cost. 99.9% 99.99% 99.999%...etc. 5 nines is very spendy... But yeah none of this is needed for welding...

[danielplace]

https://specialtygases.messergroup.c...h-purity-argon

[G-ManBart]

Sorry I’m late Fellas….

Did I miss anything good?

Well, I just realized I spelled "you're" wrong and it's too late to edit

[John T]

Well, I just realized I spelled "you're" wrong and it's too late to edit

In the words of the great Christopher Moltisanti,

“ It happens”