Dive Cylinder Explodes - Sydney

[clownfishsydney]

It seems that a dive cylinder has exploded in a dive shop at Cronulla, Sydney. My information is that someone has been injured, but I have no more information at the moment. Hoping it is not too bad.

 

[davegster]

I got into diving through that shop Hope it's not too serious

 

[clownfishsydney]

A friend has advised me that it is not confirmed but appears an old alloy exploded and a male about 50 to 60 may have lost a leg. Terrible news.

 

[Fossil_Diver]

I'm surprised anyone wiuld still fill one of those 6051 tanks. A lot of the dive shops in my area of Florida refuse to fill anything more than 15 years old regardless of make or alloy. I think Florida had a higher percentage of explosions than most other areas and people are extra cautious.
Considering the million of tanks in use explosions are extremely rare. You have a better chance of winning the lottery than having a tank explode. It still sucks to hear about it happening though no mattwr how rare it is.

 

[clownfishsydney]

As far as I know, every dive shop stopped filling them. However, it seems to me that a lot still use them as their course/hire tanks. The only old aluminium tanks I see at dive sites are very obviously dive shop owned ones.

 

[Wookie]

My opinion for what it is worth...

Any dive shop that can't afford to scrap a $50 "liability pill" and replace it for $150 is operating on too tight of a margin and really needs to look at their business model. I've never even heard of a shop using a 6351 alloy cylinder in the past 10 years in the United States, as they must be filled in a containment fill station to meet CGA (and therefore DOT) requirements. That made it very easy for us to refuse them on the liveaboard, as tanks were filled in place out on the deck in front of God and everyone. Can you imagine a cylinder explosion in a group of 10 folks?

Anyway, it's just time for dive shops and fill stations to just say no to these cylinders. Sure, 99.999999% of them are used safely and filled without issue. It's that one or two that blow up every 5 years or so that give the rest a bad name.

 

[KevinNM]

I know someone who has a bunch of them as her rental tanks and was, as they approach another hydro, looking at replacing them all. Apparently they are cheaper when you buy a pallet of them at once.

And no, she doesn't fill them in a containment station.

 

[Wookie]

I know someone who has a bunch of them as her rental tanks and was, as they approach another hydro, looking at replacing them all. Apparently they are cheaper when you buy a pallet of them at once.

And no, she doesn't fill them in a containment station.

Sometimes you just can't fix stupid.

When you buy a pallet (23 or 25, can't remember it's been so long) they pay shipping. The DEMA special is a great way to save some money and shipping.

 

[2airishuman]

I've never even heard of a shop using a 6351 alloy cylinder in the past 10 years in the United States, as they must be filled in a containment fill station to meet CGA (and therefore DOT) requirements.

There are several shops around Minneapolis that will fill 6351 cylinders, although some require an annual eddy current inspection. I don't know for certain if they have containment fill stations, but I doubt it.

I believe it is the DOT's position that there has never been an incident involving a 6351 cylinder that has passed an eddy current inspection within the last five years.

 

[Shotmaster]

There may be a potential issue that remains unaddressed with the the procedures of the hydro test and then stamping of the cylinder, with the possible damage induced by the stamping. I was told that my local shop had one of those cylinders develop a crack after hydro and eddy current testing, when they stamped it. Scared the hell out of them. They said the only way to know is to stamp it first. Then see if it passes hydro and eddy tests. I'm not an expert, just sharing.