Tanks in HOT cars and wrecks

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OK, this one here.

This feels old wives tail-ish to me. The statement as an absolute seems fine, my problem is: Is this a realistic concern? Is this a holdover from the days of getting fills with wet air? The same concern as opening the tank valve wide open to drain it would cause condensation inside the tank? Recent comments here suggest that is just not a thing anymore. Should this one also be deemed obsolete thinking?
The air going into a scuba tank should be too dry to support condensation inside the tank...and the condensation that happens on the outside of the tank when it cools from rapid decompression in warmer humid conditions has no effect on the inside.

Getting an air fill should not introduce moisture into the cylinder as long as the compressor is properly maintained and bled.
 
This will be food for thought although I'm not sure you should bring it up because you might have to get rid of a shop compressor.

You are much more likely to experience an explosion in your home shop compressor than you will a scuba tank.

Home shop compressors like you buy at Lowe's, Walmart, and Harbor Freight don't have auto condensate drains. Moisture is introduced into the receiver tank every time it is used and that's why all the owners manuals day to open the drain at the bottom of the receiver after every use.

How many people actually do that?

I've seen a shop compressor let go at 115 psi. It was not an enjoyable experience. The inside of the receiver was very rusted from condensation that was pumped into the tank. And yes, your wife is right about one thing... 200psi CAN cause allot of damage.

Moisture being pumped into a tank is the reason the annual visual inspection came about in the scuba industry.

Again, a properly maintained scuba tank, used in the manner it was intended, within it's design specification, will not blow up, destroy your house, and kill you.
 
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Read the first page only.

Air temps here are frequently almost touching 50C in the summer and I've had tanks in the car for several days without incident. As someone already mentioned, burst discs are installed, and they will fail before you have any issues with exploding tanks.
 
I regularly drive across FL for diving weekends with 4-5 tanks in the back of my Subaru. Summer temps are 90-95 with high humidity. Zero issues & I have zero concerns.

I also store 10 tanks in my garage in SWFL year round.

It simply is not an issue. Well within the ooerating range for scuba cylinders.

Most dive shops in FL store their bank cylinders outside. High temps & high humidity year round.

Your wife’s fears are simply misguided & not grounded in facts, but convincing her is another story. Good luck!
 
I’ve got 3 sets of doubles that live in my car. Routinely filled to over 3800psi. I’ve seen them in the low 4s when they get hot in the summer. The safety margin at 250psi is insanely high they hydro pressure is 5000psi for Aluminum
 
OK, this one here.

This feels old wives tail-ish to me. The statement as an absolute seems fine, my problem is: Is this a realistic concern? Is this a holdover from the days of getting fills with wet air? The same concern as opening the tank valve wide open to drain it would cause condensation inside the tank? Recent comments here suggest that is just not a thing anymore. Should this one also be deemed obsolete thinking?
This is not a safety (at home) concern. However, if any moisture gets in the tank, it will fail hydo much sooner.
 
Unfortunately you're trying to counter an irrational argument with rational data. It's like trying to explain to someone that has a fear of snakes that snakes aren't lying in wait to attack them every time they step outside. Same with sharks.

I'd be interested to hear about her experience with 200 psi failures in manufacturing. What caused it? Was the equipment inspected? Was the equipment being used correctly and designed for the application it was being used in? Sometimes in manufacturing products haven't completed the testing stage and fail during that testing. Other times there are equipment failures because of improper maintenance or unintended use. Nothing designed and tested for an operation just "fails" without reason. Remove the reason you remove the failure. This includes scuba tanks. Someone with a background in manufacturing should understand that.

Your tanks have passed the testing and inspections. Multiple times I would guess. The fact that they passed should prove them safe from about everything but stupidity. They are safe to be filled, stored, transported, and used as dictated by their design parameters. Again, if she has a background in manufacturing she should understand that.

Honestly, at this point, I'd just fill the tank and store it safely as planned and deal with the repercussions. Either that or get rid of of the tank and accept, and thereby, reinforce her irrational argument.
Bingo. I'm not a clinical psychologist, but I am a psych prof who studies emotion: this is an anxiety issue.

When we feel anxious, we can reduce that anxiety in a number of ways. But for many people the easiest most obvious way is just to avoid whatever it is that makes us anxious. Anxious about elevators? Take the stairs. Anxious about planes? Don't fly. Anxious about scuba tanks? Don't let your partner bring them in the house/the car/etc. You get the drift...

The problem is that the very WORST thing you can do when anxious is avoidance. Because avoiding the source of anxiety does work as a sort-of (temporary unsustainable) stop gap - but it doesn't actually make you less anxious. It just prevents you from having to deal with your anxiety. And, in the meantime, because you are avoiding whatever it is that makes you anxious, you have no opportunity have positive or even neutral experiences with it, which means that over time the anxiety gets worse.

This is why exposure therapy is the gold standard treatment for specific anxieties and phobias. I'm not suggesting scuba tank exposure therapy for your partner - but I do agree with others that facilitating her avoidance (by keeping tanks out of the car, house, etc) is unlikely to reduce her anxiety, and indeed likely to make it worse in the long run. At the same time, arguing facts with her isn't going to do a thing; anxieties like this - by definition - aren't rational.

If there's a way to involve her in the scuba tanks - having her go with you to get fills etc - that would be ideal, as long as those repeated experiences are positive or least neutral. Even just the experience of riding with them half-filled in the car, or sitting in the house with nothing happening. It's not going to happen overnight but repeated "testing" of her anxiety where she can see through personal experience "see the scary tanks were here and nothing bad happened" is ultimately how anxieties like this subside.
 
OK, this one here.

This feels old wives tail-ish to me. The statement as an absolute seems fine, my problem is: Is this a realistic concern? Is this a holdover from the days of getting fills with wet air? The same concern as opening the tank valve wide open to drain it would cause condensation inside the tank? Recent comments here suggest that is just not a thing anymore. Should this one also be deemed obsolete thinking?
@BackAfter30,

I recently (06/2022) had two of my OMS (Faber) LP45's re-hydro'd. My LDS found a couple of small spots of rust inside, on the bottom of both cylinders. The spots had cross sections the size of small drops of water. I had seldom used these cylinders for the preceding 20 or so years, and during that time whenever they had been filled, it was either by this LDS or by me transfilling from another of my cylinders that had been filled by this LDS.

I "store" my cylinders standing. This LDS takes fastidious care of his compressor. And whenever I drain or transfill my cylinders, I do so very slowly. Previous hydro was 06/2015.

Okay. I don't know how the water drops got there. But they got there, nevertheless, and I was glad to have had the rust form on the bottom of the cylinders rather than on the cylinders' sides.

rx7diver

P.S. My LDS removed the rust. There was no significant pitting in either cylinder.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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