Cave Fills on LP tanks

[ucfdiver]

I'm asking you, do you really only fill to 3000? I usually fill to 3400. Haven't scrapped any of my 6 AL's yet

As far as trimming a cave rig... I've got more dives in a transpac than you have underwater. I liked it. But, sitting on my butt for half a decade I gained some weight and transpac didn't work for me anymore. It was time to move on. No matter what happened, new rig and LP95's didn't work without adding 3lbs to the tail of the rig. Adding weight is dumb. I swapped out for LP104's and my trim is exactly spot on. Lets go diving one day, we can compare notes, and either one of two things will happen, we'll become friends or we'll fight, either way i'm good with it. Let me know.

Appreciate the offer. I'll get back to you when I have some free time. Right now I have a few diving related obligations and until it floods I don't really have much time to do dives outside of what we have planned

 

[ScubaFeenD]

Overfilling steel tanks is pretty common practice. Among our tech group we have a saying that "when your tanks are full it's time to turn the dive" ...

... you can do the math ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I admit that when i see an Al80 filled to 3500 i cringe, but when i see an lp tank at 3500 im delighted with the extra gas--call it inherent trust in steel over aluminum. Its good to hear how common overfilling is compared to how uncommon tanks bursting is. It gives me confidence in the idea.

Based on some comments in the thread lp85s are looking mighty nice. Similar to hp100s in dimension and weight but easily carries more gas even at 3000psi. The only problem is diving unbalanced when wet, which i might be for a bit longer.

 

[Superlyte27]

I had a burst disk blow a few months ago in the trough while filling and the tank fell over in the water. Freaked me out and flooded the shop.

I saw the remnants of the tank that blew in Key Largo last and the dent it made into the Diesel Tank for the boats after it removed the victims legs was pretty aweful.

 

[LiteHedded]

LiteHedded:

I got a full scholarship to both schools I applied to. UF was one, and Stetson University was the other. Being married with 3 children I opted for the cheaper route as Stetson would suck up every penny of money and UF only sucked up 25%. If I had it to do all over again I would have went to Stetson. I hate UF

screw the hatters too!

 

[kramynot2000]

I had a set of LP95's before and since I had a good relationship with a shop, was able to get good fills when I needed. However, whenever I went out of town the only time I got a good fill was when the shop/boat mistakenly thought they were 3000psi tanks. So, I sold that set and will probably replace them with a set of 119's, which I have a singles now.

However, I'm now putting together a set of LP72's for shallower dives. I figure that if I need to overfill a bit, I can just top them off using a whip from my 119's. We'll see if it works....

 

[LiteHedded]

if I had a choice I'd buy the hp equivalent ie: hp130s vs lp104s etc.

 

[ucfdiver]

I admit that when i see an Al80 filled to 3500 i cringe, but when i see an lp tank at 3500 im delighted with the extra gas--call it inherent trust in steel over aluminum. Its good to hear how common overfilling is compared to how uncommon tanks bursting is. It gives me confidence in the idea.

Based on some comments in the thread lp85s are looking mighty nice. Similar to hp100s in dimension and weight but easily carries more gas even at 3000psi. The only problem is diving unbalanced when wet, which i might be for a bit longer.

The only thing I'll warn you of is that when you start cave diving, at basic cave, you'll be limited by 85's since you can't take a stage and you're diving 1/6ths. The LP85's really only get you further once you drop the stage and start swimming/scootering (but I'm hesitant to scooter with smaller tanks).

The cave instructor you're thinking of going with has a variety of tanks and I'm sure would be glad to discuss the pro/cons and let you try both.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I had a burst disk blow a few months ago in the trough while filling and the tank fell over in the water. Freaked me out and flooded the shop.

Blew a disk on an LP95 once ... the tank break-danced across the room, blowing tiles off the floor and removing everything off the walls. It was quite entertaining ... once I got used to the idea that I'd be spending the night cleaning up the mess ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ScubaFeenD]

The only thing I'll warn you of is that when you start cave diving, at basic cave, you'll be limited by 85's since you can't take a stage and you're diving 1/6ths. The LP85's really only get you further once you drop the stage and start swimming/scootering (but I'm hesitant to scooter with smaller tanks).

The cave instructor you're thinking of going with has a variety of tanks and I'm sure would be glad to discuss the pro/cons and let you try both.

It's a good point. However, right now its a toss up between Al80s and some sort of lp steel tank. I am seriously considering lp85s now (after researching them based on your comments in your post), because they seem to be almost exactly the same size as al80s while being able to hold more gas even at a low overfill of 3000psi. That, plus a stage, might serve me well for the time being (ie boat dives, shore dives and not necessarily cave dives until the end of next summer).

Thoughts?

 

[rjack321]

In Maryland? Get hp100s, you'll get better fills more consistently. They are the universal good starter doubles.

You never know if someone will or won't fill lp85s "properly" (i.e somewhere between 3000 and 3600psi). They are annoyingly small with only 2640 or even (shudder) 2500psi in them.

I loaned out my lp85s (filled to 3200) and lp95s (also filled to 3200) today. So I dove my wife's al80s, 2 al80 bottom stages, and an al40 O2 bottle which I had on a leash. That's alot of junk in the trunk and its way overcomplicating to the point of dangerous if you're just beginning technical or cave diving.