Helium to scuba "whip"

[Uncle Pug]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
Once the tank gets down below 500 pounds or so, even if the tank I'm filling is empty, the flow is so slow that it drives me nuts. At this point I usually call it empty. Trimix is a PITA but I am hopelessly addicted.

Continuous blending.
The tank I just turned in had a vacuum in it.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...

Continuous blending.
The tank I just turned in had a vacuum in it.

Someday.

 

[oxyhacker]

Good points. Thought Hydraulics International makes a much cheaper Haskel clone - John Allen (Northeast Scuba Supply) has them for about $3500.

But if one forgets about boosting O2 and just boosts the He or finished mix there are some even cheaper alternatives, like surplus nitrogen boosters/amplifiers like the Haskel AA9s and Spragues S-86s that don't have full separation between the sides and hence can't be O2 cleaned. These can be had for $100-400 on Ebay and from surplus dealers. Only catch is, you'll be tempted to use them for O2, which may or may not work.

roakey once bubbled...

I'll have to disagree with padiscubapro here, don't bother with one that's O2 ready. Too much cost for too little gain. Get a good digital gauge; this will allow you to add the O2 first because of its accuracy. With two or more cylinders of O2 you'll be able to "draw down" your O2 to a very low pressure. This coupled with the fact that O2 is very cheap in the grand scheme of things means you never need to lift it -- and you'll use the O2 almost completely.

The booster can then be used for lifting only the He and doesn't need to be O2 clean.

Roak

Ps. I'm currently mixing Nitrox which requires higher O2 pressures and therefore in theory doesn't allow me to draw down my O2 as low as I could mixing Trimix. The last bottle I returned had less than 100 PSI in it. That's just a buck's worth of ABO.

 

[omar]

Well Mike when you do you could use the new Heliox analyzer that just came out.
see http://www.atomox.com

omar