SSI Nitrox Course

[PhilD]

I'm a newly qualified diver and recently completed my ANDI CSU course and was required to do two Nitrox dives, although I actually ended up doing three.

While I agree that diving with Nitrox itself offers no real advantage to the learning process, apart from more diving experience, I found that everything surrounding it, from planning the best mix to analyzing the O2, pre-dive planning to post-dive analysis, etc, for real dives was very helpful and supplemented the 8 hrs of classroom work very well.

So I would say that doing the two Nitrox qual dives was worth it, for me at least, as it gave me an opportunity to work through everything I had learned and see it in practice, and allowed me the opportunity to discuss elements of it with my instructor.

 

[iflyprops]

As usual, thanks for the wonderful information! I was under the impression that anytime you used nitrox your reg's had to be cleaned...thank you for the clarification!

-Adam

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
If you go on, to advanced technical nitrox, where you would be using EANx fills of 50% on up, THEN you would need to get your 2nd stage regulators cleaned.

I should have typed "THEN you would need to get your 1st stage regulators cleaned."

Hit the wrong number key, sorry. Too late to edit it out now.

 

[plsdiver4377]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...


Last time I checked my NAUI instructor standards, there was no choice regarding the required dives for the basic nitrox class.

Where did you get your information?

From the class I just took about 9 months ago and the card I got which is a Nitrox card not a Nitrox Diver card. My instructor gave us the option of which way we wanted to do it. Also the NAUI website does list how a Nitrox vs. Nitrox Diver card can be obtained, and since it doesn't make any difference when getting fills which one you have and the course content is the same I didn't see the point in paying more.

 

[ScubaRon]

I don't understand why you need to do a poll on this. Every equipment manufacturer and agency clearly states that before switching from non-oxygen compatibe air to Nitrox of any percentage, you must have your regulator, your hoses and your SPG oxygen cleaned.

If you do not do this you risk combustion of the hydrocarbons, which results in extreme temperatures in your system and weakens the internal parts. What that could lead to at 100' you can imagine...

If a manufacturer states that a regulator is nitrox compatible, it simply means that the regulator can work with nitrox: it still needs to be oxygen clean.

Another common misconception is that Grade E air (which is what most dive centers use) is oxygen compatibe. It is not: grade E air may contain 50x the amount of condensed hydrocarbons and 5x the amount of carbon monoxide as allowed in oxygen clean air.


So you can be ignorant and follow MechDivers advice or be safe and follow the advice of the people who make the equipment:
- ...Atomic Aquatics user manual
- ...Aqualung nitrox statement
It's your life.
ScubaRon

 

[Genesis]

I don't understand why you need to do a poll on this. Every equipment manufacturer and agency clearly states that before switching from non-oxygen compatibe air to Nitrox of any percentage, you must have your regulator, your hoses and your SPG oxygen cleaned.

I sometimes dive EANx21.

Need to have my reg cleaned, eh?

 

[MechDiver]

ScubaRon once bubbled...
I don't understand why you need to do a poll on this. Every equipment manufacturer and agency clearly states that before switching from non-oxygen compatibe air to Nitrox of any percentage, you must have your regulator, your hoses and your SPG oxygen cleaned.

If you do not do this you risk combustion of the hydrocarbons, which results in extreme temperatures in your system and weakens the internal parts. What that could lead to at 100' you can imagine...

If a manufacturer states that a regulator is nitrox compatible, it simply means that the regulator can work with nitrox: it still needs to be oxygen clean.

Another common misconception is that Grade E air (which is what most dive centers use) is oxygen compatibe. It is not: grade E air may contain 50x the amount of condensed hydrocarbons and 5x the amount of carbon monoxide as allowed in oxygen clean air.


So you can be ignorant and follow MechDivers advice or be safe and follow the advice of the people who make the equipment:
- ...Atomic Aquatics user manual
- ...Aqualung nitrox statement
It's your life.
ScubaRon

Some people never learn huh? The only meaningful statement you make is that Grade E is not nitrox compatible. But Grade E Nitrox IS. Your information is outdated and incorrect.

And this advice is hardly mine alone. You might bother to search the hundreds of threads here on this subject and see what the consensus is. I am hardly alone in my opinion.

MD

 

[plsdiver4377]

ScubaRon once bubbled...
I don't understand why you need to do a poll on this. Every equipment manufacturer and agency clearly states that before switching from non-oxygen compatibe air to Nitrox of any percentage, you must have your regulator, your hoses and your SPG oxygen cleaned.

If you do not do this you risk combustion of the hydrocarbons, which results in extreme temperatures in your system and weakens the internal parts. What that could lead to at 100' you can imagine...

If a manufacturer states that a regulator is nitrox compatible, it simply means that the regulator can work with nitrox: it still needs to be oxygen clean.

Another common misconception is that Grade E air (which is what most dive centers use) is oxygen compatibe. It is not: grade E air may contain 50x the amount of condensed hydrocarbons and 5x the amount of carbon monoxide as allowed in oxygen clean air.


So you can be ignorant and follow MechDivers advice or be safe and follow the advice of the people who make the equipment:
- ...Atomic Aquatics user manual
- ...Aqualung nitrox statement
It's your life.
ScubaRon

All new regs are compatible with EAN up to 40% and need not be dedicated unless for use above that amount. This is stated in the information you provided for the Atomics M-1 (the M-1 info also states that it need not be recleaned unless "GROSSLY" contaminated. Also another one I can think of off the top of my head is DiveRite. Anything else they might say in regards to EAN up to 40% is just a case of CYA.:mean:

 

[100days-a-year]

Before we go scarin' the poor folks let's have some verified,bonafide documented cases where a component of a single piece of scuba gear has combusted due to being used with <40% EAN.With all the rhetoric it should be easy to find.A trick I was shown in a blending classs a few years ago .My instructor took a mason jar turned it upside down ,filled it with 02 and stuck a viton o-ring in it and lit it on fire with a match.Guess that means viton isn't safe with 02?=-) Even with PP blending being the norm here very few valves or neck o-rings are viton.I took the SSI couse so I wouln't have to take the dives,the shops around here were starting not to fill EAN unless you had a EAN cert.It was easier to pay the $100 than argue about it.BTW NAUI's class and material seems to be the most thorough to me.

 

[ScubaRon]

plsdiver4377 once bubbled...
... This is stated in the information you provided for the Atomics M-1 (the M-1 info also states that it need not be recleaned unless "GROSSLY" contaminated. ...

The paragraph you quote on page 10 pertains to using Nitrox after Nitrox. For using Nitrox after Standard Air page 9 states
"Do not switch between EAN and standard compressed air, as compressed air may contain traces of hydrocarbons which could contaminate your regulator system with potentially flammable residues incompatible with EAN. If you use or test this regulator with compressed air, it must be re-cleaned before EAN use."

If it is CYA, there must be a reason for it...
ScubaRon