AL Doubles: Catalina or Luxfer
- Thread starter ringmod65
- Start date
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
After a bit of a hiatus, Luxfer is back in the scuba business.
Either will be fine as long as you don't get the "neutrally buoyant" cylinders - their extra weight defeats the purpose of aluminum doubles (having a balanced rig).
As an aside, the Catalinas are a smidge more butt-heavy than the Luxfers, so this may affect your trim a bit - this is a small difference when they're on your back, not as big as the difference when slung, and to be honest I have not noticed.
All the best, James
Either will be fine as long as you don't get the "neutrally buoyant" cylinders - their extra weight defeats the purpose of aluminum doubles (having a balanced rig).
As an aside, the Catalinas are a smidge more butt-heavy than the Luxfers, so this may affect your trim a bit - this is a small difference when they're on your back, not as big as the difference when slung, and to be honest I have not noticed.
All the best, James
brucet
Contributor
I would say Catalina, I seem to recall an issue with Luxfer tanks some time ago, which the dive shops will not do air fills on certain models of their tanks. I'd just prefer not to buy any. Me personally, I prefer steel.
Having owned both, I'd go with Luxfer.
The issue with the Luxfer alloy was resolved years ago. Modern Luxfer alloys are not prone to neck cracks.
As fdog stated, their bouyancy characteristics are IMHO superior. I also had finish issues with a set of Catalinas I owned.
The issue with the Luxfer alloy was resolved years ago. Modern Luxfer alloys are not prone to neck cracks.
As fdog stated, their bouyancy characteristics are IMHO superior. I also had finish issues with a set of Catalinas I owned.
As stated, the buoyancy is nearly the same but they trim quite differently. That being said, I find Catalinas make better back gas cylinders (especially doubled) and Luxfers make better stage bottles.
Don't worry about paint the chipping just get unpainted tanks.
The worst offenders were the clear coated Catalinas.
I've seen allot of new ColtriSub Marked Catalina (M4002) tanks around lately.....there must be a sale going on.
The worst offenders were the clear coated Catalinas.
I've seen allot of new ColtriSub Marked Catalina (M4002) tanks around lately.....there must be a sale going on.
Similar threads
