Save Money! Refill Aerosol Cans With Fluids & Air!

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There are commercial versions of this, which are made from thicker metal and meant to be reused for decades. They are also much easier to re-fill as they have a dedicated fill opening that's much larger than the schrader valve opening. What you've done does work fine, but I'd not reuse a spray can that's ever been dropped.

FWIW my research says these cans are generally charged to between 50 and 100 PSI off the shelf and I found a quote on a forum that said "Looking up on the net, it appears that US aerosol cans come in classifications, DOT-2Q, and DOT-2P. DOT-2Q are required to withstand a minimum of 180psi without buckle, and 270psi without burst (at 130F = 54C temperature). Dot-2P have a lower burst pressure of 240psi (the difference is in the metal thickness used to make the can). Apparently American WD40 cans are marked DOT-2Q, but I have not found any marking on WD40 made in Au cans. The Europeans use different standards, not DOT." I also found another page titled "Europe versus US on aerosol can regulation" which lists pressure ratings for most cans at around 10 BAR minimum and burst pressures 20 or 50% higher than that. So really almost any aerosol can should be able to be charged up to 100 psi with no issue, but I do agree it's best to be cautious. Personally I have pushed cans to 125 psi or close with no issue, but I'm not recommending that, it's not necessary.

These cans normally use a propellant, though, which maintains the pressure by the propellant continuously boiling and making more vapor. With compressed air, the pressure will drop really quickly when you press the nozzle valve to spray the contents. You'll have to keep adding compressed air and it will be annoying. If you try to make up for this by using a higher air pressure, you risk an explosion from overpressurizing the can. Also, these cans are not designed to be refilled so the fatigue caused by cycles of pressurizing and de-pressurizing is not taken into account in the design.

I have refilled those cans several times (another method using the existing valve without drilling another hole) . But I DON'T recommend using AIR to pressurize them. The air (oxygen) makes nice flammable (explosive!) mixture with the liquid inside. With water-based chemicals it promotes corrosion (rusting) inside. I use CO2 instead. It also looks like the CO2 dissolves in the liquids so there is more propellant available and the spray pattern (atomization) is much nicer compared to the air at the same pressure. You could also use propane, butane, isobutane - for example from those "compressed air cans" - they are most ofter just propane+butane mix. Just watch the pressure so you don't overfill those thin-walled cans. I fill those to around 5bars at room temp

I have thought about doing this before but never figured out how to put the schrader valve in - thanks so much!

I did this over 25 years ago at work,for spraying an electronic switch contact cleaner. it worked great. Filling through the small valve body was the hard part. As this author said, go easy on the PSI.

I actually did this about a year ago myself! I used a wd-40 can, and I just put whatever random general purpose oil I have on hand for oiling stuff. But I used a slightly different brass fitting, one that is made for refrigeration. And I soldered it on with a small pen torch and used 60/40 tin/lead solder, so I didn't have any issues overheating the valve. I will of course have to keep in mind that since I have lead solder on the valve, I should not drink the oil, lol.

I bought one from Harbor Freight when I was in the USA and also from Canadian Tire in Canada I purchased a Vaper Spot Spray. Both of these have a large opening that unscrews where a funnel can be used to add your liquid.

GREAT video. Straight to the point. Clear instructions. Good tips. Thank you

That actually is very helpful!!! I'll give it a try. Loved the video and your vibe! Keep it up! 👍

Great idea ! Thanks for the thorough explanation and the wonderful country side backdrop.

Just a thought, if you inset a 3/8th inch pipe bushing into your can and the bushing had a 1/4 inch pipe hole in it, you could just thread a Schrader valve into it. When you want to fill it, just unscrew the Schrader valve.

Use a solder gun with a large tip and put it in the valve body to heat it while minimizing heat transfer to the plastic parts in the can

I'm not sure that I'll actually do this, but I'm sure glad I know how to after watching this. Thanks.

Easier and safer: use a spray like the one for kitchen degreasers. With a little handle/lever that you squeeze. But get one for lab chemicals. If you reuse an old kitchen grade one it will work only a few squeezes with WD40 for instance. Then the seals get destroyed. You’ll be amazed at the low cost of WD40 by the gallon, for example.

Done the same thing with a garden sprayer, except you only drill the hole & push in a valve for a tubeless tyre. Saves pumping.

Congrats on 10k, well deserved.

Outstanding tutorial. Kudos.

good video..........Harbor Freight sold one of those cans in the 80's, we used it a lot on the farm.