Scuba Tank Explosion - Myth or Reality?

[chicken diver]

I am a nurse. For many years people who depend on oxygen have traveled with all sorts of oxygen tanks. They are stored in the car, in trunks, under seats, on seats. They are secured and not secured. Left in cars all day and night. Left in cars parked in the shade and the blazing sun. The basic oxygen tank is very similar to a scuba tank. More than likely exactly the same except for that stem. All I have ever heard of is the oyxygen leaked out when the tank got too hot. I think the bigger problem is dropping the tank it's self.

 

[captain]

A scuba tank and for that matter any tank's greatest enemy's are fire and in the case of steel tanks, internal rust. Keep fire away from the outside and water away from the inside and stop worrying about explosions.

 

[Mike Newman]

A friend of mine who is an avid cave diver and experienced technical Instructor was in a Station wagon with a collection of tanks in the back. It was a hot summer day in North Florida and he and another diver were on their way to a site. While they were having lunch at a nearby restaurant they thought they heard an explosion and glass breaking nearby. It was one of the tanks in the car. They thought first that it had exploded because of the damage it did. Upon closer examination it was a burst disc that had let go. The back windsheid was shattered. A back side window also and a large outward dent on the inside of the car where the tank rammed into it. If either of the two guys had been in the car they would likely have been seriously injured or killed.

My thought is even a burst disc letting go is not somewhere you want to be!

The only cases I have heard of tanks actually exploding appeared to be casued by cracks or some other failure in the structure if the tank. Tanks that should not have been in service anyway most likely.

Great discussion by the way!

I'm sure that it wasn't the case with the cave divers concerned here, but one issue that hasn't been mentioned is over-filling and over-pressuring tanks (sometimes repeatedly). There is a section of of our dive community that does this consistently to extend range and bottom time. If that's done to a tank, it will alter it metallurgically - and the same goes for any burst disk in use. BTW - divers from this same section of the community have been known to replace their burst disks with those of a higher value..

 

[captain]

I'm sure that it wasn't the case with the cave divers concerned here, but one issue that hasn't been mentioned is over-filling and over-pressuring tanks (sometimes repeatedly). There is a section of of our dive community that does this consistently to extend range and bottom time. If that's done to a tank, it will alter it metallurgically - and the same goes for any burst disk in use. BTW - divers from this same section of the community have been known to replace their burst disks with those of a higher value..

Considering that a tank is designed to a 10,000 hydro cycle even if over filling to the hydro pressure every time the tank is filled I dough any diver will make 10,000 dives with the same tank. And EU tanks do not have burst discs so how unsafe are they.

 

[izimm]

As has been stated many times throughout this thread....A tank just being heated from the sun/car, etc will likely NOT explode but can made a loud noise and do a bunch of damage if it gets to the point of the burst disk failing. HOWEVER....a real possibility of explosion can happen if a tank that has NOT been properly O2 cleaned is filled with pure Oxygen. The Oxygen reacts with the impurities (hydro carbons) which in turn causes rapid heating and mini-cumbustions ...which can and HAS lead to tanks going BOOM!!!! I realize this might be a bit beyond the scope of the original thread....but thought might me worth adding some additional info on 'why' tanks do sometimes explode.