NC Wreck Diver
Contributor
I can mix it up here. I have a set of Steel Farber 85 doubles, a set of AL 80 doubles and a set of AL 63 doubles. I obviously like the steels in cold water, but I dive the AL in cold water too. I have this variety of tanks because when I started diving in the mid 80's, AL was new to diving, and that is what you bought. Yes, they are the suspect alloy, but I have them VIP'ed and Eddy current tested every year, and all hydro's have been fine. I'm running out of room for the stamps! I am not afarid of the AL tanks, since all testing has been fine. I did a lot of investigating this issue over AL tanks. The 13 AL tanks that they had a problem with were mostly for SCBA (for firefighting), and a few were SCUBA tanks. What I found out is that the smaller pony bottles were more of a problem then 80's & 63's. So when they fail hydro, I will replace them with steel, but I will dive the AL as long as they pass all tests. Strange to be in two camps..............