Free air for life?

[I Dive]

Post up the name of the dive shop offering this and see if anyone has experience, good or bad, with this shop and this deal.

 

[Florabama]

When you amortize the investment out over the hundreds of thousands of fills it will give you it ends up costing you pennies per fill (virtually free) and when you deduct the revenue generated from air sales from that initial investment it becomes even cheaper. Air fills are dirt cheap, im sure they spend more in the labor for the tank monkey to hook up the fill whips, but at margins they earn on the tanks themselves its hardly worth it.

I would have to disagree with your assessement. Air fills are a lost leader for most dive shops.

Just the stainless, high pressure tubing to run the air from the compressor to the banks is about $3 a foot. At our shop, we have four banks with about 600 feet of high pressure tubing each. The compressor, the tubing, the high pressure hoses, the whips, the banks, the fill station -- represents about $75,000 -- before we even talk about the electricity bill of about $800 a month to run the 220 volt compressor or the "tank monkey" as you refferred to the retired United States Marine Master Chief that loves diving and fills tanks in our shop to supplement his meager retirement.

 

[robnyc03]

"High-pressure" 3442psi rated cylinders do not require DIN regulators. They are usually sold with convertible valves so that you can use either DIN or yoke fittings. A yoke regulator will function just fine.

One of those myths, kinda like you can't put air in a nitrox cylinder, or that once your switch to synthetic oil in your car you can't use organic oil afterwards. Nonsense.

I did not know you could use regular oil after a synthetic oil change. The oil change guy told me I could not do that. I feel like a I knew that did not sound right.

You learn something new on scubaboard everyday.

 

[Docc]

You learn something new on scubaboard everyday.

I'd verify or check anything learned on ScubaBoard with other reliable sources. Everything I've seen posted is not gospel, or in some cases, even true. You are responsible for yourself.

 

[mike_s]

a LDS is offering free air for life, when you buy a steel tank from them. the tanks are 80's for $275 or 100's for $355. the way i got that figured, at $7 a fill (AL80 last years price) that is 37 and 50 fills repectively, to pay for themselves. too good to be true?
what else should i look for in the deal? they are the closest to my house with one of their stores, and on the way to nearby dive sites with the other 2 stores. i don't see them going out of business, but......

any input is valued. thanks

also, i don't know all there is to know about tanks. if some one could direct me to a thread that explains hp lp pros cons etc.

what if the shop goes out of business?

you're in milwaukee wi. Unless you've got a drysuit, I doubt you'll be diving but a couple months a year (meaning not getting many airfills.

For HP steel tanks you will need to convert your regulator(s) to DIN.

only for the older style 3500psi tanks.

like another post said, most steel tanks now days are rated for 3442psi come with the Din/yon convertible valve

I'd verify or check anything learned on ScubaBoard with other reliable sources. Everything I've seen posted is not gospel, or in some cases, even true. You are responsible for yourself.

yup.

 

[RonBrugger]

Love your enthusiam, but I am sure you meant United States Navy Master Chief (Marine Corps does not have that rank).

 

[Florabama]

Love your enthusiam, but I am sure you meant United States Navy Master Chief (Marine Corps does not have that rank).

Thanks for the correction. I know for a fact, he was a Marine lifer, so what would the equivalent be? I've heard the term Chief bandied around, so I assumed he was a Master Chief.

 

[mike_s]

Thanks for the correction. I know for a fact, he was a Marine lifer, so what would the equivalent be? I've heard the term Chief bandied around, so I assumed he was a Master Chief.

Master Chief Petty Officer in the Navy is an E-9

Marine Corp E-9 Equivalent rank/grade is Master Gunnery Sergeant or Sergeant Major (both E-9's with a slightly different job)

 

[Florabama]

Master Chief Petty Officer in the Navy is an E-9

Marine Corp E-9 Equivalent rank/grade is Master Gunnery Sergeant or Sergeant Major (both E-9's with a slightly different job)

Roger that! I should have known. My dad was a retired Marine Master Sergeant (E8). I guess I heard "Chief" bandied about and didn't think it through.

 

[WD8CDH]

<snip>

The earlier generation 3500 PSI cylinders do require a DIN connection. The newer models solved that by shaving a few atmospheres from the rating.

<snip>
Pete

It's more the fact that nobody makes a yoke only valve that fits the PST 7/8-14 threads than it is a "requirement". Sherwood makes a yoke valve rated for over 4500 psi (due to a smaller captured o-ring) as long as your yoke and regulator can handle it. I have personally used Sherwood yoke valves and Conshelf regulators at 4500 psi many times.

Cousteau regularly used yoke fittings at 5000psi with Spiro Mistral doublehose regulators.