Steel tanks and Hydro?

[nikko]

I have done most of my diving on Guam (83 degree water year round). The prominent tanks here are aluminums. I currently dive an AL67 but I am considering picking up some steel tanks because I am moving to Monterey, CA. Where as here I do not wear any kind of wetsuit, I will be wearing a 7mil at least there. I was think of picking up a steel to help compensate for the added weight I will need to wear. My concern is that the rumor going around the island is that steels don't hydro well. I have noticed that a lot of you dive steels so I thought you could let me know what your experience is. I tried looking in the previous threads, but didn't see anything. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks all,
Nikko

 

[elan]

LP steels do well. I have Lp72s from 68 and 64 and they did just fine last year.

 

[ajduplessis]

Don't concern yourself with rumours, no issues with hydro-ing steel lp or hp cylinders.

 

[--tom--]

Funny. I hear that about aluminum tanks.

I have steel tanks that are in hydro that are more than 40 years old.

 

[nikko]

Fantastic. Thanks. With steels being nearly double in price I wanted to make sure they would last more than 5 years.

 

[PfcAJ]

There's a partial truth to what you've heard.

Some of the newer 3442psi cylinders WILL fail a hydro if the facility doesn't to the 'pre-hydro' routine. I think Worthington and maybe XS Scuba issued instructions for this procedure. You can find it pretty easily and just tape it to the tanks before they go to hydro to gently remind the operator to do it.

I've hydro'd older steels (1970s) and newer ones (early 2000s), but I made sure that the facility new about the prehydro thing.

 

[cmburch]

Someways to reduce weight on the belt.

1. Use a stainless steel backplate.
2. use an 8 or 9mm one piece instead of a 7mm Farmer John.
3. Use an HP100. Check buoyancy empty http://www.xsscuba.com/tank_steel_specs.html

I use HP100 and HP130. No problems.