TALES of how florida delt with al tanks, al bad alloy, ins policy regs, al parinoia, refusal to accept other shiops vis stickers, requireing unmandated eddie tests at the time were the reasons i bought my steel tanks to begin with. With cave fills being common in the fla industry, ( i am not bashing fla) who knows whether the al tank has been routinly been fillid to +30% or more. and after all , from somes prespective, why should the al divers be held back from diving like th big boy's just becaue they dive with lower cost al tanks. I have to admit that shops have no idea what they are filling when a customer brings in thier own tank. I am not saying that to start a debate on whether cave fills ore ok or not, it is just a fact that the practice is in play when discussing vis and hydros and shop policies. When i was researching my tank buy, i early decided to never own a luxfer tank. not because it was a good or bad tank but for the reaction of some shops the might have problems with the luxfer history and a one rule policy to deal with it.
I too have a psi cert, my training was that we do not look to reject a tank but to prove a reason to pass a tank. Any border line problems were to be a pass and not a fail if not sent out for a second opinion. also things like a pit that is .060 is a pass and not a fail, that the < or = to .060 was ok because the progresion of damage would not endanger the tanks reliabiiity in the next 1 year's time. A crack is different as the depth may not be able to determine. each inspector is on thier own to make the interpretaiton of the damage. All this being fine untill a customer go's to kinkos to have bumper stickers that copy inspection stickers and slap on thier own tank to avoid paying the 15 bucks to have it legitimately vis'd. Now you have perhaps 5 years of fake stickers on a tank with never a valve removed being cave filled. I must admit that i dont blame many of the shops for thier policies. I also know that the majority of the fill stations do not have qualified hasmat trained fillers doing the work. I suspect the fla does not fall into that catagory to much. They are given a minimum set of criteria to check for. hydro vis and psi to get a fill. Most if checked at all look for only the vis sticker and get a 2 minute fill to 3k and out the door they go. lp;s hp's are all the same. In fairness i will say that < half the time when i bring a tank into a out of area shop they actually look over the tank before accepting it for refilling. There are both good and bad shops on the playing field. I will say that when filling to proper psi at the prescribed rates, most likely little should go wrong. but local policies are not made for those who comply, it is for protection from those who dont comply. A third party recently bought a couople of dozen tanks from anclosing shop and when removing the valves found 5 tanks with deep cracks in them, The selling shop had no qualifying inspectors or fill operators. so i know personally that problem fill shops exist.
If i go to fla and have a shop in mind to work out of i call to see what thier policies are before bringing my own tanks. IF its no fills whith out thier vis sticker i go somewhere else. When i get there i often ask to see thier fill operation. I have never been turned down.
Sorry i guess enough said on this off topic aspect of the op's question on 20 year shelf life.
I too have a psi cert, my training was that we do not look to reject a tank but to prove a reason to pass a tank. Any border line problems were to be a pass and not a fail if not sent out for a second opinion. also things like a pit that is .060 is a pass and not a fail, that the < or = to .060 was ok because the progresion of damage would not endanger the tanks reliabiiity in the next 1 year's time. A crack is different as the depth may not be able to determine. each inspector is on thier own to make the interpretaiton of the damage. All this being fine untill a customer go's to kinkos to have bumper stickers that copy inspection stickers and slap on thier own tank to avoid paying the 15 bucks to have it legitimately vis'd. Now you have perhaps 5 years of fake stickers on a tank with never a valve removed being cave filled. I must admit that i dont blame many of the shops for thier policies. I also know that the majority of the fill stations do not have qualified hasmat trained fillers doing the work. I suspect the fla does not fall into that catagory to much. They are given a minimum set of criteria to check for. hydro vis and psi to get a fill. Most if checked at all look for only the vis sticker and get a 2 minute fill to 3k and out the door they go. lp;s hp's are all the same. In fairness i will say that < half the time when i bring a tank into a out of area shop they actually look over the tank before accepting it for refilling. There are both good and bad shops on the playing field. I will say that when filling to proper psi at the prescribed rates, most likely little should go wrong. but local policies are not made for those who comply, it is for protection from those who dont comply. A third party recently bought a couople of dozen tanks from anclosing shop and when removing the valves found 5 tanks with deep cracks in them, The selling shop had no qualifying inspectors or fill operators. so i know personally that problem fill shops exist.
If i go to fla and have a shop in mind to work out of i call to see what thier policies are before bringing my own tanks. IF its no fills whith out thier vis sticker i go somewhere else. When i get there i often ask to see thier fill operation. I have never been turned down.
Sorry i guess enough said on this off topic aspect of the op's question on 20 year shelf life.
