Cold weather firing.

[shmoesus]

During the summer I have no problems with firing my potato gun, but during this cold winter I have had horrible luck just trying to get the gun to fire.
Is this cold weather compressing the gas/fuel to the point were Ignition impossible
Dose any one shoot during the winter, If so can you give me some tips if you do anything different depending on season.

[jrrdw]

If your cannon is made of PVC, keep it warm because it gets brittle in cold weather. Try using a leaner mix...

[shmoesus]

What is a learner mix?
I am using a simple combustion system, The whole thing is PVC.

[metalmeltr]

Its in the 50s here, too cold for pvc?

[Technician1002]

Keep your fuel warm. In cold weather you may be spraying less because the can is cold and spraying at a lower rate.

[jimmy101]

Also, in cold weather it takes much longer for the fuel to mix than it does when it is warmer. In my generic gun, before I installed a chamber fan, the firing procedure that launched a spud 300 ft in the summer would barely launch one 50 feet in the winter. In both cases the fuel was syringe metered.

If you are using an aerosol with any low boiling liquids in it, like ether, methanol, isopropanol ..., then in cold weather those liquids are likely to condense, which will seriously mess up your fuel ratio.

[shmoesus]

Havent been on in a while but thanks for the tips, it was one cold winter!! guns are firing fine now ill have to put some pics and video's up of them!

[saefroch]

In colder weather, the vapor pressure of propane is lower, and the flow out the nozzle of any canister pressurized with propane or butane will be much lower. Spray 'n' prays are no good in the winter, you need some sort of metered fuel.

Glad to hear they work again!