If a tank fail hydro, what happen to it

[bletso]

If the hydro people condemned the cylinder there will be a record. Ask for it They are required to keep it until the tank hydro would expire. That will let you know if it indeed failed. Six months is a long time for anyone to keep someones property without prior agreement or compensation.

Dale
Engineered Inspection Systems, Inc. Home Page

 

[redacted]

I had 2 tanks fail hydro for "cracks" the same day, the PSI trained inspector removed the old VIP stickers and returned the tanks intact advising me of the nature of the failure. Did not charge me either. On examination by a different shop with more qualifications, they passed..

Was this "failure" declared by a dive shop or by an authorized hydro inspector?

Authorized hydro inspectors should condemn (by marking with Xs) a tank that fails their test/inspection. Dive shops, unless they are also an authorized hydro facility, should return the tank sans VIP sticker unless the owner has authorized other action.

 

[Teller]

They should not mark out anything on the cylinder without the owners permission. The owner may want to take the cylinder to another hydro shop for a second opinion. If the DOT gets XXX out then there is no need for a second opinion now is there.

Pretty much implicit when you give a cylinder to a hydro shop that you are giving permission for it to be condemned if it fails. Often the same when giving it a dive shop for a VIP however a cylinder that fails a VIP can often pass with remediation. Thus a dive shop should not condemn a cylinder without permission.

That said with either case it would be best to have the customer sign something acknowledging what my happen in the case of a failure.

I am a cylinder inspector and as an inspector you are not allowed to damage someones property such as drilling a hole in the tank, damaging the threads ect. Second opinions are always an option. When you take your car to get inspected and the muffler fails can I damage it beyond use just because it failed my inspection? The scuba industry is the same way. By XXX out the DOT on the cylinder it can now not be used at all. This is wrong and should never be allowed.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Was this "failure" declared by a dive shop or by an authorized hydro inspector?

Authorized hydro inspectors should condemn (by marking with Xs) a tank that fails their test/inspection. Dive shops, unless they are also an authorized hydro facility, should return the tank sans VIP sticker unless the owner has authorized other action.

It was a dive shop who found a "crack", not the hydro inspector, I wrote poorly. Turns out it was a "fold" which is different and OK. Tanks later passed Hydro / VIP. They did however, just return the tank sans sticker when they "failed" it which is what I expected them to do.

 

[Scared Silly]

I am a cylinder inspector and as an inspector you are not allowed to damage someones property such as drilling a hole in the tank, damaging the threads ect. Second opinions are always an option. When you take your car to get inspected and the muffler fails can I damage it beyond use just because it failed my inspection? The scuba industry is the same way. By XXX out the DOT on the cylinder it can now not be used at all. This is wrong and should never be allowed.

Here we go again ... some folks think condemning is destroying. It is apples and oranges. Further a scuba VIP is not a hydro. Again apples and oranges. Reread my post - it was regarding hydro tests NOT VIPs.

For the remedial when a cylinder fails a hydro it is condemned - DOT marking are XXX out. Cylinder should then be returned to the owner. The hydro shop is NOT going to ask your permission to XXX out the markings they are going to do it.

When a cylinder a fails a scuba VIP it can be either rejected or condemned. If reject that means it may be possible to correct the issue and then pass. If condemned here again it can have the DOT marking XXX out. At this point I would not without the owner's explicit permission. Why? the cylinder may not be suitable for scuba but be fine for paint ball which has no standard other than current hydro.

Once a cylinder has been condemned it is still capable of holding pressure and it can still be filled but only privately - not commercially.

Now notice I did not mention destroying anything? If one wants to render a cylinder incapable of holding pressure then yes the owner's permission is needed regardless if done at the hydro or scuba shop.

 

[Teller]

I am a cylinder inspector and as an inspector you are not allowed to damage someones property such as drilling a hole in the tank, damaging the threads ect. Second opinions are always an option. When you take your car to get inspected and the muffler fails can I damage it beyond use just because it failed my inspection? The scuba industry is the same way. By XXX out the DOT on the cylinder it can now not be used at all. This is wrong and should never be allowed.

Here we go again ... some folks think condemning is destroying. It is apples and oranges. Further a scuba VIP is not a hydro. Again apples and oranges. Reread my post - it was regarding hydro tests NOT VIPs.

For the remedial when a cylinder fails a hydro it is condemned - DOT marking are XXX out. Cylinder should then be returned to the owner. The hydro shop is NOT going to ask your permission to XXX out the markings they are going to do it.

When a cylinder a fails a scuba VIP it can be either rejected or condemned. If reject that means it may be possible to correct the issue and then pass. If condemned here again it can have the DOT marking XXX out. At this point I would not without the owner's explicit permission. Why? the cylinder may not be suitable for scuba but be fine for paint ball which has no standard other than current hydro.

Once a cylinder has been condemned it is still capable of holding pressure and it can still be filled but only privately - not commercially.

Now notice I did not mention destroying anything? If one wants to render a cylinder incapable of holding pressure then yes the owner's permission is needed regardless if done at the hydro or scuba shop.

Ok I may have misread your post but I still disagree. I know what a VIP and a hydro are and I am not debating that with you. What I am saying is that by XXX out the DOT you are basically damaging the cylinder since no shop can now fill it anymore. Its just a polite way of destroying the cylinder. Also I may need to check the DOT reg but I am pretty sure even if I have a compressor I am not allowed to fill a cylinder that has had the DOT XXX over. I do know that I cant transport that cylinder on a public road so whats the point. I guess this is left up to opinions but I would say XXX over the DOT is the same as drilling a hole in a cylinder.

 

[weaserm99]

OK so back when i was working at a dive shop i was the one that did all the testing on tanks, hydros (yes we had our own hyrdostatic test equipment at the shop) and visuals.

If the tank came in for visual and failed the visual, in our inspection logs we would note why the tank failed and that it did not pass inspection, the tank was then given back to the customer if they wanted it but they payed for the visual. And before someone says that they shouldnt have to pay for a visual that did not pass, the customer is not paying for a passing visual they are paying for the service of the shop performing the visual inspection. With that being said most customers did not want the tank and told us to discard of it.

Now if the tank came in for hydrostatic test and it failed either the visual portion or the hydro portion it was marked properly in our hydro log (DOT can inspect log when they come in for recertfication). The next step was that the DOT markings were stamped out with an X. Now for those that may disagree, well tough nuts, those are the DOT's rules and i can tell you for a fact that the shop i worked for a few years before i started working there had to pay a $250 fine because they did not stamp out the DOT symbols and were writing rejected on tanks that failed. They corrected the issue and started doing the proper procedure which is to stamp out the DOT markings.

Now as for destroying the cylinder or sending it to a scrap yard its only if the owner chose not to pick up the tank, if they wanted the cylinder they had to pay for the testing that was done on it.

Now i will say that i had customers that would pay to take their tank back and head cross town to another shop that would pass them and put their stickers on it, however when they would show up back at the shop i worked for i would refuse to fill it because it did not pass the visual we put it through.

Now with saying all of this the only tanks that i have ever seen fail a visual or hydro were old steel tanks (im talking tanks that were over 30 years of age) and the old style aluminum tanks made out of the old alloy (sorry cant remember the name of it, havent worked in a shop in 2 years).

 

[Scared Silly]

Ok I may have misread your post but I still disagree. I know what a VIP and a hydro are and I am not debating that with you. What I am saying is that by XXX out the DOT you are basically damaging the cylinder since no shop can now fill it anymore. Its just a polite way of destroying the cylinder. Also I may need to check the DOT reg but I am pretty sure even if I have a compressor I am not allowed to fill a cylinder that has had the DOT XXX over. I do know that I cant transport that cylinder on a public road so whats the point. I guess this is left up to opinions but I would say XXX over the DOT is the same as drilling a hole in a cylinder.

Please do read the regs. XXX out DOT markings is not damage. It is a prescribed process that is part of the governing CFRs for the requalification process.

What a person does with a cylinder privately is their own damn business. There are lots of cylinders in the USA that are not DOT approved that get filled privately ad nauseum. The best example are European cylinders which have no DOT markings.

Also the DOT rules for transporting a pressure vessel do not come into play until one has over 1000lbs in the vehicle. About 20 or so cylinders.

 

[3D diver]

Was the friend named Whalerkyle? (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/surface-interval/50551-i-would-love-see-tank-explode.html)

No, not a diver, just a friend with lots of guns.

By the way, I couldn't open that link.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

No, not a diver, just a friend with lots of guns.

By the way, I couldn't open that link.

The thread is in the Surface Interval, which is an opt-in forum. I guess that is why. There is a thread there, started by Whalerkyle titled "I would love to see a tank explode." It has been around for a few years. It is a running joke.