Old scuba tanks, should I bother with a hydro?

[rustyshakelford]

if your getting them for free, take as many as you can.

sell the valves on ebay and recycle the tanks

brett

 

[JDMerk]

Why not just give it a shot at being hydro'd at a fire equipment supply store (ie fire extinguishers and such) around here they will hydro tanks for $20-25, if not less. I think its worth a shot...most likely the tanks WILL pass. I mean how many had those neck cracks anyway and how long were they stored fully charged up?

I say give it a swing, most charge station monkeys wont look at the mfg date as long as the hydro and VIP are current...that is unless you alert them to it.

At any rate...I cant see 20 year old valves being worth much at all, you can buy brand new provalves for $50...these might even be j-valves instead of k...

 

[rstofer]

If you spend the money for a hydro and still can't get the tank filled, what's the point? A new Al 80 with valve probably cost around $150 or just $100 more than wasting money on the hydro.

Now, old steel 72s are worth the money to hydro because you just can't get them anymore. That, and they tend to pass hydro time after time, forever.

I have one of the Luxfer 1988 Al 80 tanks and it is NOT 6351. It's pretty easy to chase that down because Luxfer has a hotline. Still, I have had it for 20 years so if it gets to the point that I can't get it filled, it only cost about $8 per year. Pretty cheap.

Richard

 

[cwkline]

Yeah, take the tanks and see what the local recycle folks want you to do to them to turn them into cash. The guys here want them cut in half. Before I would put $50.00 into a tank that might not get filled even with a current hydro, I would buy a used cylinder for $50.00 to $80.00 bucks with current VIP and hydro.
YMMV
Charlie

 

[Garrobo]

If it's a Catalina, no problemo. Just LUXFER tanks had that problem. I've heard that some of Luxfers newer tank have been cracking too. Anyone got anything on that?

 

[tc]

If it's a Catalina, no problemo. Just LUXFER tanks had that problem. I've heard that some of Luxfers newer tank have been cracking too. Anyone got anything on that?

Sort of accurate- but Catalina didn't go into production with their 6061 alloy tanks till 1986, his is a 1984.

Kidde also produced a lot of 6351 AL tanks back then (WK stamp on the neck, I have one), could have been others too.

Haven't heard anything on the others- heres a link to PSI's library, I'd expect an article there if anything develops-

Library

 

[TMHeimer]

It's odd to read that many shops won't hydro the old ones. I got a 1976 71 steel, which the LDS hydroed and it is my favourite. They said the age was OK. Maybe it's different for steel.

 

[Pembina]

We have gotten rid of most of our older 80s and replaced them with 100s. They are so much nicer, just a little larger in dia.

 

[halocline]

It's odd to read that many shops won't hydro the old ones. I got a 1976 71 steel, which the LDS hydroed and it is my favourite. They said the age was OK. Maybe it's different for steel.

Totally different. The sad thing about the older AL tank scare is that 99%+ of them would be fine, they just need hydro and the right kind of VIS and they're good to go. The problem is that you can't force a scuba shop to fill a tank, no matter what inspection sticker is on it. Many shops will simply not fill a pre 1988 AL tank.

Looking at it from the point of view of the shop, it does only take one tank to cause a disaster.

 

[Gary D.]

We just had a couple of 30 year old tanks fail. But for around $20 and a shade they make nice lamps.

Gary D.