How Much More Would You Pay for Nitrox?

[Vegan Shark]

There's no questions about nitrox being better than air--but how much is it worth to you? Only shop near me charges $6 for air, but $15 for nitrox, so I can't justify it no matter how much I prefer it. $10 is okay, but $15...Doing 3 dives twice a week would come out to almost $400 a month just in fills.

What's everyone else's dividing line for choosing between air and nitrox?

 

[rivers]

It depends what I'm doing. If I'm just doing a quarry dive, and I'm not assisting on classes, I will just go for an air fill as I can't be asked to spend the extra. Sea dives, especially in the 20-30m range, it will be always be nitrox. Air fills tend to be around £5-£7 for twin 12s (equivalent to double HP100s) and £10-£20 for 32%.
So my dividing line is what am I actually diving, not the cost.

 

[Searcaigh]

30 meter dive, Nitrox or Air, easy decision EAN32 gives me 30 min bottom time and Air gives me 20 min bottom time, mind you I only pay $5 for Nitrox fills irrespective of tank size or mix. 30cu ft of EAN50 is the same as 100 cu ft of EAN32, but my doubles I pay for each tank

Usually 16M and shallower I will stick with Air, 20M and deeper, I go with Nitrox.

Currently I only have one dive site locally where it it deeper than 32M, (wreck 57-72M) so I am now using Trimix, and I pay per cu ft for Helium. To fill my doubles I am looking at around $100 to dive this particular site, not something I do every week though.

 

[Divescape]

What do your dive profiles look like? For me even if i am diving 3 days 5 dives in warm water I do not see the benefit in diving nitrox. The only time i dive nitrox is to extend my no deco time on deep cold wrecks locally. Here again it would only be for the first dive of the day 35m not second 20-6m. I find on repetitive shallow dives to 20m the only benefit to me would be feeling less tired at the end of the diving day., which to me is not worth the extra $5. You have to bear in mind that I also pay an equivalent of $50 a year for my air fills and $7 per tank for Nitrox.

 

[Steve_C]

I dive a couple times a month and do not know whether it will be ocean or quarry due to varying weather and I get fills ahead of time so I always get Nitrox. Thus tanks are always ready. (Note that second ocean dive is almost always NDL and not air limited). If I knew 100% I would be doing several quarry dives before any chance of an ocean dive I would probably save the money and fill on air. If I were diving more frequently, I might change my practice.

 

[tbone1004]

the complex solution is just get an O2 bottle and take an AN/DP class, that way worst thing you're doing is fighting a bit of more narc at depth, but you can just deco.

I always get air fills and take an O2 bottle with me if it's local stuff, and then will just top off with nitrox in cave country as I go, same on the coast.

 

[alewar]

I don't pay for air, so I rarely use Nitrox.

 

[Kharon]

On Bonaire I get free Nitrox and I don't use it. It's not worth the hassle of doing the analysis and logging the tanks. I can dive as much as I want (4-5 dives a day) without Nitrox. Why bother?

 

[Doc]

There's no questions about nitrox being better than air--

A question then based on what I would see as a faulty premise.

.... so I can't justify it no matter how much I prefer it.

Prefer or Need? If it is needed for a specific dive profile, it is worth whatever they charge you for it.

The deep Oki wrecks (IIRC) were beyond EAN32 limits. Everything else worth seeing, calculated off against a repetitive dive schedule (3 a day, even on contiguous days), didn't seem that I personally "needed" it with my depth profiles and SI.

$10 is okay, but $15...Doing 3 dives twice a week would come out to almost $400 a month just in fills.

6 dives scheduled in a week? This is from your home base in Okinawa at your "local LDS". If a weeklong visitor came to an AI in the Southern Pacific, yes, he would certainly be offered a "weekly rate". I understand that your situation is individual and different.

You do have an advantage, though. Most of your local dive shop's retail customers do not make 6 dives in a week. Not even close. Look at their "package" prices, usually based on a one or two tank equation. Ask them for a bulk purchase price, then make them a counter-offer on a multi tank package deal. (Negotiations 101) this will work even better if they see you as a long term customer.

Until recently, only your local Okinawan US Military (recreational) concessions could offer nitrox due to Oki governmental red tape. I believe that now a very few of retail civilian "dive shop" operations are currently set up and licensed to do so. This means: it's a seller's market. But, I do see that Bluefield Dive is offering it for $10. (not your choke point of $15) Refer back to "negotiations", as above.

What's everyone else's dividing line for choosing between air and nitrox?

In final sum, you have very little algebraic choice. Decide if, for whatever reason, that if you "need" nitrox, then shop around for the best pricing. If, in this equation, you come up with factor one being "No, I don't need nitrox", the formula results in:
0 x $ = _____.

Pretty easy.

If the dive profile and the repetitive dive schedule requires nitrox, it is worth paying whatever for. Otherwise, breathe the cheap stuff.

 

[tbone1004]

yeah, I'm in the I get free air fills camp so that's why I get air fills unless I'm at a destination. Nitrox has benefits if you are bound by NDL's or you are prone to getting narc'd easily, other than that, for those of us planning deco dives, it just shortens up the deco stop. I'd rather sit for an extra 5-10 minutes on O2 that is generally cheaper than some shops nitrox, than pay for gas that I'm not getting benefit from. With it as cheap as it is in cave country or on the NC coast it's an entirely different issue, but for local dive shops not around those, I'd just as soon grab my O2 bottle and do a few extra minutes on deco