Filling Scuba Tanks

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SoCalAJ

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Sunny SoCal, of course!
I have filled over 3000plus scuba tanks all over LA and Hawaii. The majority of the tanks i have filled have been in a water basin.Or what most people call a "wet fill"

This is my own research with the tanks i have filled....

The majority of the tanks i filled in a basin stayed cooler and came out with the exact working pressure on the tank.

The majority of the tanks i filled out of the basin were a little bit warmer then the ones in the tank. But if you fill them slow they will come out with the exact pressure..

The majority of tank explosions happen at the fill station. Because of this filling in the basin is not very safe, due to the fact that the basin acts like schrapnel similiar to a grenade. The tank explosions that happened in a basin resulted in death. [FONT=Arial]Anybody that believes the basin is designed to protect the air station employee, is completly wrong.[/FONT]Although majority of my tanks filled better in a basin, i have decided to fill the tanks very slow outside the basin to ensure a complete and safe fill.

If you dont believe about the facts on the basin and tank explosions,, take a PSI filling and inspection class which is the only agency recognized bye the DOT for filling and inspecting tanks..

SocalAJ
IDCstaffinstructor.
 
If a tank blows and you're close you're toast...tank or not.

Water does keep things cooler but, in general it's a pain in the butt.

I don't use water but I fill my own tanks in the garage. No customer in a dive shop would ever wait for the length of time it takes me to fill especially when I'm mixing nitrox or trimix. They sure wouldn't want to wait if there were several others in line ahead.
 
They make something called a containment to protect against tank ruptures.

http://www.hypresequip.com/containments.asp

You will live through the experience if you use one and a tank blows on you. Some states require their use when filling tanks. They are not usually filled with water to absorb the heat, so you still need to fill slow so that the heat can dissipate.

Instead of trying to fill tanks in sucession (one after another). Its a better idea to adapt your charging station to fill many tanks at one time. The dive shop I frequent fills a lot of tanks (~100+ per day) and uses multiple whips that can be connected together. They can fill off three whips that connect to 8 tanks at one time - 24 tanks total.
 
Don't all valves have a pressure relief / burst disk?

EDIT: just noticed this post is over 2 years old...lol
 
Wow...dredged up from the past! LOL!
 
batmanvj9.jpg
 
Since SoCalAJ hasn't been on since December 3rd, 2006, I sure hope he is okay.
 
Ohh, I know what you're thinking.....

It was probably an old tank bought off ebay.

RIP SoCalAJ. I hope you went big. :D
 

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