nitrox or air,

[dmaziuk]

I will note that I have survived over 70 years of breathing 20% (and sometimes higher O2). Only noticable problems have been at higher elevations where I had less of it.

I believe the first hints that free radicals theory doesn't quite work was when they tried feeding huge amounts of anti-oxidants to competitive athletes expecting their performance to improve by leaps and bounds. Strangely enough, that didn't happen.

Of course the flip side is people living at higher elevations are believed to have longer average lifespans.

 

[DevonDiver]

Personally, I'm far more concerned about hyperbaric maladies when diving, rather than some undefined risk of premature aging...

I'm all for nitrox. It's prudent for every reason. Cost and availability are the only possible reasons for not opting for it.

Not only does nitrox reduce nitrogen on-gassing, it also makes off-gassing more efficient... and is likely to have a discernible impact on reducing incidence of microbubbles (bubbles too small to exhibit DCI symptoms).

Given that medical studies are beginning to show links between microbubbles (microemboli) and immune system/blood-brain chemistry issues that can pose significant long-term health impacts (such as brain lesions)... I think the benefits of O2 for divers outweight the concerns of 'oxidization'.

For more info, see my article: Subclinical DCS, Decompression Stress and Post-Dive Fatigue

 

[Patoux01]

Nitrox whenever possible... Which makes me sad, as I have "just" moved, and have yet to find a LDS with decent prices for nitrox (and not asking for oxyclean tanks)...

 

[underH2Oman]

I dive Nitrox all week long.

 

[gcarter]

So long as nitrox is reasonably priced, I will choose it - I pay the same for 21 or 32 at my LDS, so all my local diving is generally 32, works with the MODs I dive.

Even if nitrox is expensive I will generally use it if I am otherwise NDL rather than gas limited.

 

[Ghetto Diver]

A nitrox fill costs $4/tank at my LDS and an air fill costs $3/tank. Regardless of tank capacity so I always dive nitrox.

If I wasn't diving my own tanks and the price difference was $10 a tank or something I'd probably dive air unless the depth of frequency of dives called for nitrox.

Go on......
Where do you get your fills? Assuming prepay of some sort...

To keep relevant...I dive air unless boat diving.

 

[Dhboner]

Nitrox. The only time I refrain from diving Nitrox is on a dive where the hard bottom exceeds the MOD (like a deep wall dive). I have never had a wing failure but if I ever do I don't want to be worrying about toxing while I work to resolve the issue

 

[Lorenzoid]

Unless you are doing decompression diving you will not likely come close to CNS O2 limits.

. . .

While I happen to agree (especially with the bet-hedging "likely" after the "not"), there was a huge contentious thread on this not too long ago--and that one probably wasn't the first one in the history of SB. It got way too technical for me, and I lost interest. But there are people who will argue otherwise and try to come up with some (unlikely) scenario to prove their point.

 

[Kairoos]

Go on......
Where do you get your fills? Assuming prepay of some sort...

To keep relevant...I dive air unless boat diving.

Diver's Direct. Normal price is $4/fill for air, $6/fill for nitrox. With a fill card you pay for 10 fills and get 2 free, so it brings the price for air to about $3.33/fill and nitrox to $5/fill, so I was a little off on the breakdown price. Still a good deal compared to some of the other LDS down here asking $9-10 for a nitrox fill (and only $5 for air).

 

[Centrals]

If I can do multilevel dive I use EAN21.
If it is a square profile on a new site(24-36m) then I might consider using Nitrox.
If it is multi-dive(>3) in a single day then I will use nitrox on couple of them.
Have to be flexible.