Argon?

How do you use Argon?


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Dive Bug Bit Me

Contributor
Messages
409
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Location
Cape Town
# of dives
200 - 499
Driving to my dive this morning, I got thinking; I have read a number of books and course manuals over the years stating that the thermal properties of Argon are best for filling your drysuit. Heck, I even have an "ARGON DO NOT BREATH" sticker that came with my drysuit inflation setup.

Thing is, I have never used Argon, I have never seen it used and only know of one dive about 10 years ago where somebody actually filled with Argon. My drysuit runs on Nitrox.

Is there anybody out there that uses it? Or are we all just saving our $$$ for breathing gas fills?
 
I use it almost all the time when I dive dry. It doesn't take much.
 
Uncontrolled observations from the "technical" diving community claim superior thermal comfort when replacing air with argon as dry suit inflation gas during diving. The objective of the present experiment was to evaluate the effectiveness of argon compared to air during cold water diving. Body weight, urinary output, and rectal and skin temperatures were measured in six naval divers during two dives to approximately 10 m for 60 min. Level of thermal comfort was reported. Dry suit gas was either argon or air, divers and scientists were blinded for gas identity. Urinary output was approximately 200 ml less (P < 0.05) during the air than the argon dives. Rectal and all skin temperatures decreased significantly in both groups during the dive but no difference was measured between argon and air dives. Thermal comfort was not different between the groups. Replacing air with argon neither improves subjective impression of thermal comfort nor attenuates core or skin cooling during cold water diving to 10 meters of sea water for 60 min.

Thermal insulation properties of argon u... [Undersea Hyperb Med. 2001] - PubMed - NCBI
 
I don't even wanna know how they did rectal temps during the dives. Those Military divers sure get the short end of the stick....in this case literally.
 
I worked at a shop in SoCal for a couple of years. This was a tech heavy shop and in dry suit territory. We sold very few argon systems and even fewer argon fills. Only one instructor said she was a wus and all about the argon. We did sell plenty of drysuits. The long time divers (ok old timers) had gone back to air...convenience? cost? I don't know...and yes this is all anecdotal.
OTOH, why not ask some of the PNW & Alaska divers?

Max...urine outputs & rectal temps? :homealone:
 
If your going to do deep and/or prolonged dives, especially long deco's, it makes a lot of difference in your comfort level......
 
Note that argon is more common in mix divers. Helium is considerably thinner than air (or argon) and has very little heat retaining properties. In this situation an ancillary system to feed your suit with something other than backgas is advisable. Most people using argon systems do so because of this. Most that I know just fill their systems with air. The concept is useless unless you flush and dump your suit a few times with argon, as you really aren't going to have any considerable benefit of argon being dumped on the mass quantity of air trapped when you zipped up.
 
OTOH, why not ask some of the PNW & Alaska divers?

Not PNW, but Atlantic NE, water was 33/34 degrees all winter. No one here touches Argon, everyone Ive spoken too that is a mix diver sees no benefit in it. Some do run 13cu bottles for drysuit, but they just want the redundant gas for their suit.
 
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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