Aluminum vs Steel & why?

[stephencilento]

Hi everyone!
I am in the market for buying tanks. My question is, what are the noticable differences that I will see in a Steel tank vs an Aluminum tank. I have heard several oppinions for each, and some have said that they both will last just as long. So why one over the other? Any help would be great! Thanks.

 

[pollywogg]

Steel Tanks are more negatively buoyant, so you can take some lead off the belt. The only thing is, if you are a warm water diver, you might not even be wearing the ~6 lbs it allows you to drop.
A steel tank will cost more than an aluminum. You will notice with steels that you get more gas in a comparable package. If cared for properly, you can give your grandkids your set of steels. Aluminums have a shorter lifespan overall, but they can still last years and years if taken care of properly.
In steel tanks, you can have issues with pitting and rusting. These are non-issues with aluminum.
This is just a very brief answer. If you do a search, this issue has been discussed ad nauseam. I hope this was helpful.

 

[ONESPEED]

Go steel, aluminum is for beer cans.

 

[floridanewbe]

def steel

 

[c5diver]

I resently got a steel 100 and it makes me to back heavy causing me to roll. if you want to go steel try one first. i didn't think there would be much differance between the al80 and the steel 100 but its a heavy tank.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

I resently got a steel 100 and it makes me to back heavy causing me to roll. if you want to go steel try one first. i didn't think there would be much differance between the al80 and the steel 100 but its a heavy tank.

Try a pair of steel doubles.

 

[herman]

With all due respect to the steel tank fans, for warm water shallow diving they are often times not the best choice. They cost about twice as much as aluminum (you will want more than 1 tank most likely), have rusting issues and they may well overweight you. I can't (well.... refuse to use) use steel 72s for a lot of the diving I do because they overweight me more than I find acceptable. The life span of a AL tank is way more than the life time of an average diver so the life of the tank is not an issue. Them being negative is more hype than actually useful. Sure you can take a few pounds off your weight belt but you are paying almost double for every tank you buy for the ability to remove 4 or 5 lbs of weight from your belt. At $2 a pound, you can buy a lot of lead for the extra cost of 1 steel tank. And on the negative side, you lose the ability to shed that weight if you don't need it. Being overweighted is a big problem with a lot of divers, having an extra 4 or 5 lbs you have no way of removing is not helping the problem. Unless you need a lot more capacity than an 80 or always need a large amount of weight, there is no good reason to go steel.

 

[KY_BOB]

Go steel, aluminum is for beer cans.

What he said. The only downside to steel IMHO is the upfront cost. 5 years from now, you won't remember what you paid for it.

edit after Herman's post: I dive mostly cold water with a thick wetsuit and like being able to drop the lead. If I dove only warm water, it would be a different story.

 

[Jupiter31]

You gotta go with - or at least strongly consider steel. We love the larger capacity and the negative boyancy aspects of steel. I think you will be very pleased.

That said, with the steel tanks, do you:

Plan to buy them through your LDS or on line?
Dive steel with split fins?
Use a "Spare Air" as back up w/ the steel tanks?
Dive them in S. FL or the Keys and need a recommendation for an operator - or a weather report for December?
Did you get certified PADI vs NAUI?



Just kidding with you - along with steel vs aluminum the above are some of the most debated/asked topics on SB!

 

[DebbyDiver]

I have a couple of 25 yo AL80s and a couple of 15 yo AL80s and they are still going strong. I'm OK with them, and replacing them is not in the budget. The disadvantage of the Aluminum tanks is that as you breathe them down, they become more buoyant and if not properly weighted from the get-go, you may find yourself floating up at some point in your dive. I'm a kayak diver, and I usually stay down until I have only about 200 psi left, so I am always overweighted at the beginning of my dive.

If you can afford them, go Steel. If they are a financial hardship, go for the Aluminum. Either way, enjoy your dives!