The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
NitrOx! If it is an "air tank" (no markings) than I assume it's an "air tank". One of the reasons I feel that the green and yellow bands should be used.
Do you check tanks for pressure and contents before you leave the shop?
- Thread starter dabigcat
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Ziggys_Friend
Guest
Okay, I'm real new to this so forgive me if, but isn't "assuming" the whole issue? What if they screwed up and put a mix in your "air tank" by accident? How would you ever know until it's too late?
Last weekend I brought a LP95 tank to be filled and walked away. When I returned I realized the guy had given me a completely unasked for Cave fill ... he simply hadn't realized I was using a LP tank and filled it to ~ 3,500 psi. I noticed, but who knows if he had also had Nitrox available...
Maybe I'm missing something?
~<//><
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
1) Thou shalt have no other gas within me. Many, many divers do not "buy into" the marked tank idea... and you are right, many tanks are filled that are not marked as such. I really, really think this is stoopid. If the industry standard is to mark your stinking tanks, then mark your stinking tanks. Many cavers think that they can bend a lot of rules or even write their own... hopefully they won't get hurt by them, even more so, lets hope they don't unintentionally hurt someone else. It is not "un-cool" to mark your tanks with the yellow and green band. It is very un-cool to fill unmarked tanks with NitrOx.
2) Know thy fill station. Talk with them and let them know what is acceptable to you, and find out what is acceptable to them. If they can't follow your instructions, then find another place.
3) Covet not thy neighbor's tanks If you didn't analyse it- don't dive it! No "trust me" dives!
2) Know thy fill station. Talk with them and let them know what is acceptable to you, and find out what is acceptable to them. If they can't follow your instructions, then find another place.
3) Covet not thy neighbor's tanks If you didn't analyse it- don't dive it! No "trust me" dives!
I agree that tanks should be marked. Unless it is air there should be markings. I wouldn't ever fill an unmarked tank with anything but air, even if it was o2 clean and it pissed off the owner. Putting things into unmarked tanks is dangerous, like storing toxic chemicals in water bottles, unless you mark it someone will drink it thinking it is just water. Too hard to keep track of things with unmarked tanks.
I fill in my garage.
EVERY tank, air or Nitrox, gets a contents sticker.
It has the date, my initials (since I filled it), the FO2 of the mix that I analyzed after I finished filling it, and the pressure in the tank.
This is true even if the tank is an "air" tank. Since I do occasionally let others borrow a tank (and get it filled commercially, so long as they are going somewhere I know will put an OC-gas in it - since my tanks are clean), they might bring it back with some mix in it that has a different FO2. I generally DO NOT dump a partial tank - I will analyze it before top-filling, recalculate the appropriate O2 addition and air top-fill, do that, then replace the contents sticker.
I take no tank to dive it that does not have a tape seal on the valve outlet, indicating that it is full. If the seal is missing I assume that the contents label may be in error in one or more areas (at least pressure, and perhaps FO2 as well, depending on what's happened to it.)
The commercial shops around here typically just write the FO2 on a piece of tape, although they do log by tank serial number on their gas log. That's not enough for me; I want the entire shebang on the tank itself.
If I didn't fill it personally, the "unused" tape is tampered with, or I did not witness it being done at a commercial shop, complete with analysis, and cannot verify the FO2 wherever I am at an absolute minimum, I will not dive it.
There is ALWAYS the chance that an unmarked "air" tank has something other than air in it, and if it happens to have something like 100% O2 in it, you grab the tank and jump in, it is rather likely that you'll never know what happened.
EVERY tank, air or Nitrox, gets a contents sticker.
It has the date, my initials (since I filled it), the FO2 of the mix that I analyzed after I finished filling it, and the pressure in the tank.
This is true even if the tank is an "air" tank. Since I do occasionally let others borrow a tank (and get it filled commercially, so long as they are going somewhere I know will put an OC-gas in it - since my tanks are clean), they might bring it back with some mix in it that has a different FO2. I generally DO NOT dump a partial tank - I will analyze it before top-filling, recalculate the appropriate O2 addition and air top-fill, do that, then replace the contents sticker.
I take no tank to dive it that does not have a tape seal on the valve outlet, indicating that it is full. If the seal is missing I assume that the contents label may be in error in one or more areas (at least pressure, and perhaps FO2 as well, depending on what's happened to it.)
The commercial shops around here typically just write the FO2 on a piece of tape, although they do log by tank serial number on their gas log. That's not enough for me; I want the entire shebang on the tank itself.
If I didn't fill it personally, the "unused" tape is tampered with, or I did not witness it being done at a commercial shop, complete with analysis, and cannot verify the FO2 wherever I am at an absolute minimum, I will not dive it.
There is ALWAYS the chance that an unmarked "air" tank has something other than air in it, and if it happens to have something like 100% O2 in it, you grab the tank and jump in, it is rather likely that you'll never know what happened.
I always check pressure and mix for my own tanks. My LDS is good about getting the mix right, but I'm diving the tank so I check it for myself.
dreamin'
Guest
If the air is hard to swallow you just have to chew it more first.
Why not put them on all tanks?
There IS value to that, you know.
"Air" and "OCA" are NOT the same thing. One is Grade-E AIR. The second is Oxygen-compatable air. If you see an "AIR" contents sticker on an O2-clean tank, you know you have a tank that has (at some level) been contaminated.
I also want to know who filled it, when, and what the pressure was at the time.
I personally believe the entire "Nitrox sticker" thing is crap. I have 'em on my Nitrox tanks only because the shops whine and ***** about it, but IMHO the solution is to have a contents sticker on ALL tanks.
Then there is no excuse for "I thought it was....." when something happens. The sticker is "in your face" with exactly what is in the tank and even better, you know who's responsible if what's supposedly in there really isn't (since you have the initials or name of the person who filled or analyzed it.)
There IS value to that, you know.
"Air" and "OCA" are NOT the same thing. One is Grade-E AIR. The second is Oxygen-compatable air. If you see an "AIR" contents sticker on an O2-clean tank, you know you have a tank that has (at some level) been contaminated.
I also want to know who filled it, when, and what the pressure was at the time.
I personally believe the entire "Nitrox sticker" thing is crap. I have 'em on my Nitrox tanks only because the shops whine and ***** about it, but IMHO the solution is to have a contents sticker on ALL tanks.
Then there is no excuse for "I thought it was....." when something happens. The sticker is "in your face" with exactly what is in the tank and even better, you know who's responsible if what's supposedly in there really isn't (since you have the initials or name of the person who filled or analyzed it.)
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
have NitrOx stickers on each cylinder.
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