Scalding hot tanks

[kelemvor]

I'm curious, what kind of problems? I see shops do it both ways in my area. In fact, one shop has a pretty elaborate setup where all tanks are submerged whereas another just has large plastic bins and another has nothing.

One of the shops I get fills at puts chlorine (bleach) in their bath water. I left my sidemount rigging on the tanks on when I dropped them off once and the rigging got significantly bleached.


The guys up at cave country told me that filling in water was basically a "wives tale" type thing. Other shops have told me it's important to cool the tanks as has been mentioned in this thread. I'm not sure what to believe really. The shop doing the fill makes that decision, so I guess it doesn't matter much what I think. I'm unlikely to take my tanks somewhere else over the question of fill bath or no.

 

[DogDiver]

Amigos Dive Center. Ft White Florida.
Note the water bath.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Peter_C]

The OP never mentioned whether these were high pressure or an AL80, so what the desired end pressure should be is unknown.

I have a personal fill station and have never used water to cool the tanks. Then again I never fill fast enough to cause much heat gain in the tanks. No problem with water intrusion since there isn't any

How much you overfill to end up with the correct end pressures has a lot to do with external temperatures, internal temperatures (Directly related to fill rate), and what kind of end pressure you are looking to achieve.

I would be asking the dive op whether they have a CO meter installed on their compressor and how often the filters get changed along with the last air sample analysis. Far more important than how they fill.

 

[scoobert]

The OP never mentioned whether these were high pressure or an AL80, so what the desired end pressure should be is unknown.

Your right, it was dumb of me. I have two AL80's I use for bottom cleaning.

I do use almost all the air. When I am 10' below the surface, running out of air is not a big deal

Its curious to read about all the viewpoints. Have there been no tests done on this subject?

As far as safety I would say a tank in water is more safe. Water may not compress much, but just like lead plates, it can slow down shrapnel.
I know this because I am a physical chemist, not because I am an old time diver

 

[shoredivr]

Nobody fills tanks in water baths up here in Ontario that I've noticed over 16 years of diving.

 

[Tom Winters]

There was a dive shop in Hawaii decades ago that had a sub-chilled water bath for tank fills. You could not keep your hand in that water for very long, and fills only took a couple of minutes. That seemed to work pretty well. At the Sub Base Pearl Harbor, we had a 4500 psi fill line that could theoretically fill an AL 80 in about 30 seconds, but no one ever did it that way. It was a dry station, so you just kept your hand on the cylinder and didn't get too carried away.

I worked for a while in Kaneohe in a shop that wet-filled tanks. I thought it was sheer nonsense, especially as noted above about how filthy and salty the water quickly became. Changing the "cooling" tank a couple of times per day was a PITA.

If a shop owner wants to wet fill, well, it's his or her shop. They're still a dumbass, but it's their shop.

 

[Belmont]

No mentioning having to haul up those heavy things in and out all day long.

 

[Tigerman]

Your right, it was dumb of me. I have two AL80's I use for bottom cleaning.

I do use almost all the air. When I am 10' below the surface, running out of air is not a big deal

Its curious to read about all the viewpoints. Have there been no tests done on this subject?

As far as safety I would say a tank in water is more safe. Water may not compress much, but just like lead plates, it can slow down shrapnel.
I know this because I am a physical chemist, not because I am an old time diver

It might not be a big deal for your safety to run out of air at 10 ft, but it might be somewhat of a big deal for your tank, as breathing it dry means things can get into it...

 

[scoobert]

It might not be a big deal for your safety to run out of air at 10 ft, but it might be somewhat of a big deal for your tank, as breathing it dry means things can get into it...

My regulator will be hard to breathe from when the tank is almost out, right? If that is the case, it will be easy to have something left in the tank. ran the last one to 300psi.

 

[Tigerman]

My regulator will be hard to breathe from when the tank is almost out, right? If that is the case, it will be easy to have something left in the tank. ran the last one to 300psi.

Not really.. You'll have MAYBE two breaths when it start breathing hard.
300 psi is more than plenty to keep things from getting into the tank though