Double the price for air

[trymixdiver]

Genesis

Cheaper i suspect. However, i cant set up a fill / blending station at my current location so i am stuck for now.

Andy

 

[raybo]

Charlie99 once bubbled...
So how much weight does it take to sink in Great Salt Lake?

Do they really dive there if they don't HAVE to? I hear there's a geothermal hole out there somewhere that is like hot tub warm.

Even though I'm not a "pro", I've been dropping a pretty good pile of cash at my LDS. Over the last several months, the only air I've paid for was a couple of tanks where they knew I was doing the diving for "hire" (even thought I didn't charge for it)

I can see the economics of having your own fill station as an individual, but seems like it's be tough tot make it as a retail shop on fills alone.

Especiallyin Utah!

 

[Genesis]

The economics only work for people who dive a lot (putting in their own station), but for those people it works HANDSOMELY.

Not only that, but if you dive, come home, and want to dive first thing in the morning you can - without a hassle. That's flatly IMPOSSIBLE in most places (cave country perhaps excepted)

Finally, you get away from the dive-shop weenie factor. $40 to O2-clean EACH tank and valve? Huh? Take it apart, clean it yourself, log it, and that's that. For $5 worth of Simple Green and a couple of hours of your time you can do FIVE tanks. Ok, ok, the O-rings in the valves might cost you another couple of bucks. Replace the seats? Only if they need it.

If you dive frequently, you can cut your cost of diving by AT LEAST half if you buy your gear from LP and put in your own fill station.

If for some reason you decide to get out of diving, the compressor will go for nearly what you paid for it (assuming reasonable maintenance) on eBAY and the rest of the gear will probably sell for at least what you paid for it - assuming you bought it online in the first place!

Dive shops need to wake up and smell the coffee - or go out of business.

Their choice.

This kind of tactic should be "rewarded" by making that choice for them.

 

[SMKChef]

raybo once bubbled...


Do they really dive there if they don't HAVE to? I hear there's a geothermal hole out there somewhere that is like hot tub warm.

I think it requires over 100 lbs. of weight to dive the Great Salt Lake. No one does.

Yes, there are a couple hot springs. One is Seabase, they have built a habitat for all sorts of marine wildlife that you can dive with. This is where we ususally dive.

Another is Homestead Crater in Heber Utah. This site is a large hot spring crater where the water is 98 degrees all year. Its a big hot hole with nothing to see.

 

[Stone]

Omicron once bubbled...
It would be pretty cool to get your own compressor, but how big are one of those things? It could be kind of a pain in the butt having a huge compressor sitting in my garage.

My Bauer Oceanus (4.9 SCFM) takes up 16 x 32 inches (because it sits on a cart). The O2 Tank takes up one square foot. The peripherals hang on the wall. Most of the space is taken up by my tanks.

Here's a link to some pictures:
Filling Station

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Genesis once bubbled...
The economics only work for people who dive a lot (putting in their own station), but for those people it works HANDSOMELY.

Not only that, but if you dive, come home, and want to dive first thing in the morning you can - without a hassle. That's flatly IMPOSSIBLE in most places (cave country perhaps excepted)

Finally, you get away from the dive-shop weenie factor. $40 to O2-clean EACH tank and valve? Huh? Take it apart, clean it yourself, log it, and that's that. For $5 worth of Simple Green and a couple of hours of your time you can do FIVE tanks. Ok, ok, the O-rings in the valves might cost you another couple of bucks. Replace the seats? Only if they need it.

These numbers only work if the staff runs out the door at the sight of you.

Regulars who want after hours fills need not do anything more than call. Someone will be there. If I want an after hours fill, I unlock the place and fill my tank.

Same thing with vis. Drop them off, tell the guys who do our vis that they are my tanks and pick them up a couple of days later. Charge for this service is a beer the next time we go out.

And even better, the guy doing it isn't some basic open water student with time on his hands and an attitude.

That said, I highly recommend that certain people continue servicing (and even building) their own regs, tanks and any other piece of equipment that they can get their hands on.

 

[Arnaud]

Stone, that fill stations is sweeeeeet!

Ditto with the other guys: I have yet to pay for air and I'm sure I will, but I've been a generous contributor to several LDS. I don't mind paying for service and many of these guys have been really helpful in several situations.

All that being said, I also buy online and in Europe (from legit official dealers) where we don't have any price gauging going on. Depends what I need and when I need it.

 

[SMKChef]

Scubaroo once bubbled...
Seriously, what figures are you talking here? From $4 to $8? $5 to $10?

Unfortunately in a landlocked location like Utah, they can probably get away with it. And it's probably the difference between having and not having an LDS.

Actually, there are still enough diveshops in town that people would just move to another shop till they got the urge to increase prices as well.

 

[Genesis]

a "dive club" or two will suddenly appear out of nowhere and a compressor will be bought....

Then the shops who did this (however many there are) will find that not only are they not selling gear, but they are also not selling fills any more.

That'll be the end of that - for them. :wacko:

 

[SMKChef]

Andy,

I think they are charging $2.50 at Seabase, which will bring the price up to $5.00. Doesn't seem like much till you consider that we already pay a daily use fee of $15.00. It does make starting a "club" to pump our own air sound tantalizing.

Did anyone see this fill station on Ebay?
Bauer Fill Station

I think that station is awesome. But where to put it...