Diving nitrox when you don't own an analyzer

[Chocula]

My wife an I were certified for nitrox many years ago, but have seldom dove anything other than air. There were several reasons for this, including the expense of the fills, having to rent or dedicate a tank, seldom doing more than two dives in a day, not owning an analyzer, etc. In the past decade and a half, things have changed a bit, such as banked nitrox and membrane compressors are much more common so you can get fills without dedicated equipment, and less expensive fills. When I have dove nitrox, I was always able to either borrow the shops analyzer or have them test the tanks in my presence.

My question is this, is it practical to dive nitrox without having your own analyzer? I would like to start using nitrox more, and we have a boat trip scheduled for the end of the month which has EAN32 available. I am not sure how practical this would be without having our own analyzer. What does everyone else who do not have an analyzer do, just fall back to using air? At this point, I don't think we would use an analyzer often enough to justify the cost and maintenance.

 

[j_b78]

If the ean32 is supplied on the boat, the chances are that they will have an analyser you can use. Boats like to have a nitrox fill log hence an onboard analyser. Its worth giving them a call to find out though.

Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Searcaigh]

Always analyse your tank before use, if the boat does not have an analyser on board, then dive air. Worse case scenario, treat as air but do not go beyond the MOD for the labeled mix (i.e. EAN 32 stay above 32M)

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[NAM001]

Searcaigh has the best solution for those that do not have a analyzer. Idealy you should have your own. Nothing says that the one in the shop is working corretly.

Also in your nitrox training the benifits were covered. You either get longer NDL's or shorter SI's. With searcaigh's advice you would be using teh shorter SI's as your derived benifit. Itas a win win for a multi dive day.

 

[mala]

Always analyse your tank before use, if the boat does not have an analyser on board, then dive air. Worse case scenario, treat as air but do not go beyond the MOD for the labeled mix (i.e. EAN 32 stay above 32M)

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how can you dive a gas that cant be analysed?

 

[DevonDiver]

My question is this, is it practical to dive nitrox without having your own analyzer?

I used to have my own analyzer. I used it so infrequently that I gave it away. If you are buying nitrox fills, or rental nitrox tanks, from any dive operation then they should provide an analyzer at the point of purchase for you to confirm the mix (and mark your tanks).

Unless you get ambitious enough to start blending your own gases, you would probably never need one as a recreational diver.

---------- Post added November 17th, 2013 at 06:24 PM ----------

Idealy you should have your own. Nothing says that the one in the shop is working corretly.

Nothing says that a personal one would be working correctly either. Given the liability issue effecting the shop, there's a strong case to make sure that their analyzer worked properly - especially so within the USA. In contrast, an infrequently used personal analyzer is more likely to drift from calibration, get lower on batteries... or be pushed further towards cell degradation before a replacement is swapped in.

Also in your nitrox training the benifits were covered. You either get longer NDL's or shorter SI's. With searcaigh's advice you would be using teh shorter SI's as your derived benifit. Itas a win win for a multi dive day.

Most nitrox training courses/agencies would recommend a minimum 1 hour S.I. when using nitrox. For most divers, that does little to permit 'reduced S.I.' becoming a tangible benefit.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Always analyse your tank before use, if the boat does not have an analyser on board, then dive air. Worse case scenario, treat as air but do not go beyond the MOD for the labeled mix (i.e. EAN 32 stay above 32M)

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So you assume the label is correct for the MOD? I don't think this is such a genius idea. You analyze gas to make sure it is what you think it is. If you can't analyze it and the 28% turns out to be, say 50%, and you dive the MOD for 28%, you're likely to find the experience unenjoyable.

I've personally never seen anyplace that provided nitrox that didn't also have one or more analyzers available, if you don't have one of your own.

 

[AfterDark]

The shops I've dealt with all had analyzers and a bottle of 21%. With the analyzer mounted on the bottle of 21% check the reading if it's close 20.? - 21.?% the analyzer can be adjusted to 21.0%. Known standards is the way to make sure any analyzer is accurate.

 

[Colliam7]

is it practical to dive nitrox without having your own analyzer?

Yes. I have been diving nitrox for 12 years, in the US and in the Caribbean, and have never owned an analyzer, nor found a place where the fill station, boat, or dive op didn't have one available for use.

What does everyone else who do not have an analyzer do, just fall back to using air?

Yes. Worst case scenario, air is fine.

There are plenty of things to spend money on in diving. I would probably own an analyzer if all of my other desired gear had already been purchased.

 

[kelemvor]

I'm a noob compared to others who have contributed in this thread, but... what's wrong with using the shop analyzer? Part of using an analyzer is calibrating it each time, right? I used the shop analyzer for most of this year until I bought my own.