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Have just purchased a hollis 100% oxygen regulator,(got a good price) will mainly be using this with around 40% nitrox at most. Would you recommend purchasing 100% oxygen compatible spg or would a normal one be exceptable?
cheers for your input.
Below 40% O2 - pretty much most regulators and gauges work. O2 cleaning is a waste of money / effort.
Above 40% O2 - Regulator & gauges, etc need to be O2 clean. They get O2 cleaned at each annual service again.
The only thing you can O2 clean on a gauge is the threads. You can't squirt water or cleaning solution into it. And the O2 is going to have to pass through a hose before it gets to the gauge. I am not aware of any gauges that are specifically O2 clean outside of the medical industry and those would attach directly to a regulator. Buy a new gauge and don't worry about it.
As per the previous post, if you use the reg for air as well, you have or will negate using it for Nx above 40% due to the average LDS using air which is not sufficiently clean for high levels of oxygen.
Any regulators I have which are Oxygen clean I only use with mixes about 40% and only from shops I trust. This still does not prevent a dirty fill, but it minimises rhe chance at least. Also your regulator is only oxygen clean when the clean is done. Once its used on a tank, there is no guarantee its still clean, but that's the way it is. Also if you want it to stay clean you have to have it cleaned every service to try and minimise contamination.
All my regs using Nx below 40% are standard Nx regs off the shelf safe to 40% Nx. All above 40% are oxygen clean along with the gauges and secondary regs and only used for deco gas.
I have been using pure oxygen for many years and with dozens of regulators (possibly scores) from three or four different manufacturers. Never had an SPG oxygen cleaned... never seen one for sale reported as oxygen clean. As Jim states above, once the orings (the ones on the spindle and the one where the HP hose connects to the first stage) have been changed to ones for O2 service and lubed with tribolube or something similar, there is little else that can be or needs to be done.
What I find interesting is that we use Viton O rings instead of Nitrile as its dangerous with oxygen (perhaps due to its petroleum based manufacture) and yet rubber hoses have petroleum based manufacture and that's ok?
A lot of the Nx cleaning hype (to me) is clearly vested interest by the dive industry in making money. Lets look at it in perspective. How many welding rigs have their oxygen regs or threads etc cleaned in their lifetime. I would suspect NON. And yet we don't read of people in this industry being hurt on any sort of a regular basis.
That's not to say that if you service your own reg and fill it with grease or oil products that it wont burn/explode when exposed to high levels of oxygen. It does however put it more into perspective. I still however have my regs cleaned at least once before exposing them to high levels of oxygen. the last service and clean for primary/secondary/gauge was $280 AUD. How does that stack up against US or UK pricing?
About double. With return shipping. I don't charge any more for O2 cleaning on the HOG regs. The kits are O2 clean anyway and I clean all regs to factory specs which means they are O2 clean just as they come out of the box new. To 100% @ 2400 psi and 80% @ 3400 psi. I only use christo or tribolube on all regs. I set my service area up this way so that there is no need to charge people extra for "O2 cleaning". Keep my ultrasonic clean, keep the area clean, and you don't need to do anything special. As it's special to begin with.
Agree with Jim... your Aussie price seems very high.
For the record and for those who have not investigated further, many technical divers do not have "oxygen" regs and "air" regs... or tanks or other gear. Regs need to be serviced and cleaned... there's no more work involved with "oxygen cleaning," so we tend to do it as a default.
Everything I use is fit for oxygen service... that's to say that all components and lubs are up to or exceed manufacturer's specs for Oxygen use (see Jim's posting above). It's easier and the same price.
Also for the record, I use components recommended for oxygen service because the standards for the courses I teach and the technical diving community's best practice standards dictate that I do. Is there a difference between an oxygen oring and a non-oxygen one? Price... one is a couple of cents the other is a dime... other than that, I am not a materials engineer so I can't tell you.
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