Diving on nitrox and air with the same regs?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

joey46987

Registered
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Location
Key West, FL
Question about going back and forth from diving on nitrox to air. Is it an acceptable practice to use the same equipment (regs) for both? for example, can i do 2 dives in a day, first with nitrox and the second with air on the same reg? I have 2 80ci tanks and was going to have one of them converted for use with nitrox. Would it be worth it to convert one tank to nitrox or leave both as regular air? Thanks for your help.
 
Howdy

No problem for mine...Mares V32 1st stage and all metal proton 2nd stage. Good to 50 EANx. No corrosion after 3 years. That's straigh out of the box.

I think you'll find the same to be true for other regs as well.

Dane
 
Question about going back and forth from diving on nitrox to air. Is it an acceptable practice to use the same equipment (regs) for both? for example, can i do 2 dives in a day, first with nitrox and the second with air on the same reg? I have 2 80ci tanks and was going to have one of them converted for use with nitrox. Would it be worth it to convert one tank to nitrox or leave both as regular air? Thanks for your help.

Your regulator is probably rated for up to 40% O2 without needing to maintain O2 clean status. You would need to check the owner's manual to find out for certain. It probably doesn't need any special cleaning or maintenance to do this (again, check the specs).

For mixes below 40%, the only thing that needs special attention (O2 cleaning and O2 compatible parts) is your tank & valve, and then only if you plan on getting fills from a shop that does "Partial Pressure Blending". This involves dumping 100% O2 into the tank, then filling with hyperfiltered air. If your shop does this, you need to get the tank and valve O2 cleaned and serviced and keep it that way.

If the shop uses any of the various methods that produce EAN directly at the desired F02 (32%,36%, etc.) you don't need to do anything special to the tanks at all.

Terry
 
Thank you all for the information. I tried looking it up on this board, but couldnt find my answer. Now the only potential issue is my reg is a GS2000... That is a whole other situation from what i have read on this site before. hehe, now ill go to my LDS and schedule the class. i cant wait to do some diving here in key west as soon as the weather clears! My LDS told me that i would have to have my tank cleaned... i am not sure how they fill nitrox. They are the same shop that hydro tested and VIP'd my 2 tanks for $96 total (i bought both tanks for $20 totalfrom a friend of mine). Im glad to give them my business.
 
Thank you all for the information. I tried looking it up on this board, but couldnt find my answer. Now the only potential issue is my reg is a GS2000.

I can't imagine it's not good to at least 36%. What does the manual say specifically?

Terry
 
The limitation to 40% of O2 has nothing to do with the properties of regulators but has everything to do with the properties of oxygen.

I fail to see how the brand of the regulator can change anything.

The brand of the oxygen, though... look carefully at the stamps on the molecules!

Cheers!
 
The limitation to 40% of O2 has nothing to do with the properties of regulators but has everything to do with the properties of oxygen.

I fail to see how the brand of the regulator can change anything.
It also has to do with the properties of the material used to build the regulators.

Atomics is an interesting example. They have some regs that specifically say it is OK to go back and forth between air and nitrox. They also have some regs where they specifically say that you should not go back and forth.

The regs that have titanium in the first stage have the restrictions on going back and forth. Titanium will burn fiercely if ignited. The potential problem is that a bit of hydrocarbon (oil) contamination on the 1st stage will be ignited by the heat of rapid pressurization of the 1st stage, and that the spot/flash fire of the specks of oil is enough to ignite the titanium.

Fortunately, not many 1st stages are made out of titanium. On a normal reg, the flashing of the oil residue just puts a tiny bit of combustion products into your air without causing any serious problems.

The brand of the oxygen, though... look carefully at the stamps on the molecules!
I look more carefully at the stamps on the titanium molecules. :D
 
watch out, there may be laws concerning this. for instance in some countrys everything over 21%O2 has to be treated (by law) as 100% O2!


regards
DeepB
 
Titanium will burn fiercely if ignited. The potential problem is that a bit of hydrocarbon (oil) contamination on the 1st stage will be ignited by the heat of rapid pressurization of the 1st stage, and that the spot/flash fire of the specks of oil is enough to ignite the titanium.

I sure wish I could get Mythbusters to try to make this happen. The odds of this seem astronomical to me.

1) The fill has to be fast enough to generate enough heat to flash the oil.

2) The oil and EAN have to be right there together.

3) Neither of them can be underwater (Some places still dunk the entire rig underwater while filling).

I get that there's the "potential" here, but it sure seems remote.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom