SCBA fill station SCUBA

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!

HenryG

Registered
Messages
50
Reaction score
0
Location
Connecticut
# of dives
200 - 499
Does anyone know of any problem with using a Fire Service SCBA cascade system for filling SCUBA tanks. Our SCBA tanks fill to 4500 psi and the scuba is to 3000 psi. Seems to me like it should work with an adabtor that I have purchased, but some question if it can be done. I say if I can use the air in there to go into a fire I can use it to go underwater ... but, just in case, I figured I'd ask the forum.
 
I used to get mine filled at the fire department all the time the only problem you should have is the the valves are different you will have to buy an adapter or a fill whip for SCUBA
 
We've been doing it for over 20 years. Just make sure the system is installed , filtered and maintained properly. We get less than 5% of our air through dive shops.

Gary D.
 
We do too.

One thing you need to double check is the air purity standards. Make sure that the values meet scuba. Some of the partial pressures which may be OK for ambient (or fire) may not be good for depth (or scuba). Especially mositure content and CO2
 
I used to get mine filled off an SCBA setup for a while and I'm still alive to talk about it. I've since learned that more filtration might have been needed, but its to late to look back then and see.
 
As someone else stated, the filtration for diving air is greater than fire service air. I am going from memory (whichi is dangerous for me), but I believe diving air is Grade E and fire service is Grade D. Our compressor system had been check for air quality and was inspected to dive quality air.

Dan
 
As someone else stated, the filtration for diving air is greater than fire service air. I am going from memory (whichi is dangerous for me), but I believe diving air is Grade E and fire service is Grade D.

I don't know about the uses of Grade D, but dive grade air appears most often (but not universally) to be somewhere between E and 'E+'. The standards for diving air (or other gasses) aren't all that definitive and how a particuar compressor is operated is subject to individual decisions on the part of the operating organisation.

Here's a link with some background that I copied down from another SB discussion, although it's oriented a bit towards the LDS providing the gas: Fill Express -- Quality of Breathing Gases
 
We use our system to fill both scba and scuba tanks. We just updated (thanks to homeland security grant) to 4500 psi scba bottles but the compressor fills to 6000psi for the air bank. The tech that installed the system said that because of the hepa fillters we will have no problem with scuba.

Semper Fi
 
Grade D for SCBA/fire fighting is right out of OSHA 29 1910 134 as is testing to certify air purity every 6 months. What I cannot find in OSHA is Grade E for SCUBA. Maybe that is just a NFPA requirement. I know that your compressor must have a certificate visible on the compressor from a qualified company that shows your breathing air quality test and grade as well as the date of your last inspection. This is a requirment for either SCBA or SCUBA.

Mark D.
 
As long as your SCBA compressor meets the air purity standards for SCUBA you should be okay. Remember that firefighting takes place at ambient pressures while diving involves increased partial pressures. Hence the different standards in air quality. A benign contaminate at ambient pressure may be catastrophic at depth.
 

Back
Top Bottom