Food Grade Argon vs Regular Argon

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What is the difference between the two. They both are 100% argon. I have a customer who needs food grade argon for his wine machine. I am trying to figure out if we can just give him regular 100% argon. Any info would be great. Thanks
Reply:There is no difference, it is all a big myth.Disclaimer; "I am just an a$$hole welder, don't take it personally ."
Reply:I have no idea what is food grade argon or what is required for wine machines.What I do know though is that there are different purity grades when getting welding gases for welding.For example when we weld materials like inconel 625 we use grade 4.8 (99.998%) but when welding carbon steels etc we use grade 4.6 (99.996%).You will not find 100% argon.
Reply:Not a technical term. It means whatever any particular gas company wants to sell to you.  I've read that usually low purity stuff is used for food, like 99%. In the case of wine the only goal is displace oxygen. You could use nitrogen for that.
Reply:Some gas suppliers have an argon grade that has some special testing/packaging done on it to make it suitable for food applications.  These guys happen to refer to our producthttp://www.vinassure.com/Why_Argon_.htmlExperience is something you get right after you need it
Reply:Its probably like medical oxygen instead of welding oxygen. The cylinders have a vacuum pumped on them before they are filled.  I don't  think it would make much difference between 99.4 and 99.6 grades of argon myself.
Reply:Originally Posted by mwshawIts probably like medical oxygen instead of welding oxygen. The cylinders have a vacuum pumped on them before they are filled.  I don't  think it would make much difference between 99.4 and 99.6 grades of argon myself.
Reply:If it was me, I would get what the customer is calling for and bill him accordingly. If anything happened and there wasn't a paper trail back to the gas he specified, I could see you being held accountable. As DSW said, often a compliant product (whatever the compliance organization is) isn't any different than the non-compliant one next to it, but it went through the cert process and the paper trail exists.
Reply:Originally Posted by Ag SpecialtiesWhat is the difference between the two. They both are 100% argon.
Reply:Are you are not talking about Food grade CO2? not Argon. On the Praxair website it lists Food grade and standard CO2.My LWS doesn't know what the difference is.
Reply:We asked Mr. Currie if he would recommend Argon over Nitrogen for our device: “ Yes. Argon is heavier than Nitrogen and stays in the bottle better, both on top of the wine and doesn't leak out as easily.”   We wanted to be sure the Argon we use would be as clean as we could get.  After investigating, we found that Industrial Argon can often be stored in cylinders that have been previously used for other gases and might be slightly contaminated.   Mr. Currie said: “…..there could be oil in the Industrial Grade Argon for example.”THE MYTH: Carbon dioxide blankets wine. THE FACTS: Although substantially heavier than air (44 vs 29 MW), the turbulence with which this gas is introduced into a headspace through a 1/4" line results in substantially mixing. Dry ice works much better, but sets up a worse problem: headspace CO2 dissolves rapidly into wine, imploding the tank unless a vacuum relief valve (almost always) invisibly allows air to be sucked in. THE MYTH: Argon is expensive. THE FACTS: Argon by volume costs three times more than nitrogen by volume. But it is so much more effective than in actual use it can do a better job for less money. In many cases, a blanket that stays put will do the job better than several complete headspace volumes of nitrogen. Argon is the cheapest and most effective means for most inert gassing. In truth, gas cost is chump change. At 6.5 cents a cubic foot, an entire 1000 gallon headspace full of argon costs nine bucks. A barrel of argon costs fifty cents. Figuring which gas to use in a specific application will usually blow the savings as brain labor. Vinovation has nothing but argon on premise, because it's never the wrong choice.
Reply:Originally Posted by Hue JassMr. Currie said: “…..there could be oil in the Industrial Grade Argon for example.”
Reply:Thanks for all of the responds to this crazy question. I called my dealer, which is PraxAir and they told me that there is no difference in the gases other then a bunch of paper work. So i decided to use just regular argon. Will get a food grade argon tank next week with all the paper work. Thanks again.