Safe to store in the garage?

[Sabanist]

I live in florida and just bought a tank. Is it ok to store it in the garage. temps typically exceed 100 degrees in there. Can that kind of heat damage the tank?

Not much info on the internet regarding this topic

 

[DMDavid]

I try to store all my dive gear in a cool, dry and dark place.

Scuba tank should be ok in the garage but it really doesn't take up much space in the corner of the closet.


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- Worst day out on the water is better than the best day at work.

 

[Scared Silly]

The cylinder will be fine but your neighbors might get their panties in bunches:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sc...-home-owners-association-going-ballistic.html

 

[reefugee]

Short answer: it will be fine assuming your burst disk is not old and worn out.

Long answer. If you use the ideal gas law, you can come up with the equation P2/P1 = T2/T1 where P is the pressure (in ATM) and T is temperature (in Kelvin). Lucky for us, to convert PSI to ATM, we just need to diving PSI by 14.3. As a result, we can use PSI instead of ATM. Unfortunately, we can't do the same with temperature. We actually have to convert Fahrenheit to Kelvin. The equation for converting F to K is:

K = (F-32) x 5/9 + 273

Or you can use many of the conversion website or calculator to do it for you.

So lets assume your tank is at 3000PSI at 80F (which is 300K). So P1 = 3000 psi and T1 = 300K. Let assume your burst disk is designed to "fail" at 125% of the working pressure (or 3750 psi in our case). So P2 = 3750 psi. With that info, we can find out what temperature the disk will fail.

So using the equation above p2/p1 = t2/t1 and rearranging it, we get t2 = t1 * p2 / p1 .

t2 = 300K * 3750 psi / 3000 psi = 375K

375 K = 215 F. At sea level, water boils at 212F. So you have to get it pretty damn hot to burst those disk (unless the disk is already prone to failure due to metal fatigue).

 

[captain]

The short and sweet answer is NO, a thousands times NO it will not hurt it. Does it harm a steel car or bicycle or lawnmower or plastic items or you. Now if the garage burns down that is a different situation.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Far more important to keep the tank standing upright so ,corrosion occurs on the bottom rather than the sides.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

That amount of heat is not a problem, my garage has been over a 100F all summer long, it sometimes hits 115F. The biggest danger you probably have is your wife/kids knocking them over with the park-by-braille technique. Some of the manufactures quote 150F as the threshold you need to be concerned about, even this is probably a bit conservative.

 

[fdarden]

I live in South Florida and have stored both HP100's and AL80's in my garage for years with no issues.. Although 100 degrees in the garage? Mines usually 85 or so in the heat of the day.

 

[halocline]

Far more important to keep the tank standing upright so ,corrosion occurs on the bottom rather than the sides.

I assume this is a joke, right?

 

[tadawson]

No - this is solid. The bottom of a tank is thicker and stronger than the sides, so storing upright will ensure that any internal moisture falls to the bottom and any resultant corrosion is on the strongest part of the tank. The same goes for any corrosion due to surface contact externally.