Scuba tank valve handle color
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Nathan Doty
Contributor
Is there any reason you couldn't but a$4 can of whatever color you want and just paint them?
They mean nothing to anybody except you. If you wanna use them to identify your tanks, go for it.
Anybody who says it means anything else is smokin' the good stuff. There is a tendency for green to mean O2 when it comes to things like rebreather bottles, but I would never trust anybody who says, "oh that handle is a mottled chartreuse, that means it's 21/35!"
Anybody who says it means anything else is smokin' the good stuff. There is a tendency for green to mean O2 when it comes to things like rebreather bottles, but I would never trust anybody who says, "oh that handle is a mottled chartreuse, that means it's 21/35!"
W W Meixner
Banned
F...
Now you've got hand wheels indicating air...bands indicating NITROX...what do your VIP stickers indicate...
22% to 40%...O2 Service...or what???...if the shop does partial pressure NITROX fills...the cylinders will need to be 100% O2 cleaned...if the shop banks...lets say 30%...or they use a blend stick with no hyper-clean filters...then your 100% O2 cleaned cylinders are not 100% O2 clean any-more...
A lot of un-necessary confusion that may result in you not getting your cylinders filled...or contaminated if they're 100% O2 cleaned...
On a charter boat...unless it's an expedition...your cylinders are on the seat directly behind you...how hard can it be to find them...
Keep your original black hand wheels...you may need to do a quick switch...especially if you're away from your local area...
JohnnyC is right to a point...unforunately...he not the shop tech filling your cylinders...
W...
The replacement handles are 4$ and they don't peel off and leave flakes of paint around.
I use Blue handles for my predominantly blue rig and regs and fins etc.
My wife uses Red for her valve handles and all her gear.
We use Green for deco stages but that is totally unnecessary.
Mostly we just want to keep our gear sorted at a glance when we dive together.
I use Blue handles for my predominantly blue rig and regs and fins etc.
My wife uses Red for her valve handles and all her gear.
We use Green for deco stages but that is totally unnecessary.
Mostly we just want to keep our gear sorted at a glance when we dive together.
TheGraveyardDiver
Registered
There is no "law" or "regulation", at least in the U.S. I've VIP'd and O2 cleaned many cylinders that just have the standard black knob on them. I don't require any of my customers to change to a green knob just because they're O2 cleaning a cylinder for oxygen use.
Do whatever you want. The techie divers reserve green for oxygen on their deco bottles a lot of the time, but that's a techie diver "recommendation" not a statute.
I got reamed by a fellow techie diver one time when I joked that I was going to put green knobs on my cylinders. He went off ranting about "green means oxygen", and "I was gonna get somebody kilt by doing that" etc etc. My response was the common industry standard, "Then keep your paws off my cylinders and the color of my cylinder knobs won't affect you. Why would you just grab my cylinder and use it without me telling you to?"
My thinking is, they are MY cylinders, so I should be the only one using them, and I know whats in them. If I "loan" you one, and I do do that sometimes, then I'll tell you whats inside.
If another diver is dumb enough to just grab any random tank and use it without analyzing it, then I'm OK with Darwin "thinning the herd" like that so to speak.
I've never seen anyone grab a scuba cylinder in a injured diver scenario just because it has a green knob on it thinking it was 100% O2. We have special dedicated bottles for that with oxygen specific valves on them.
I also use the yellow tape that has a place to write date/mix/MOD on them, and I stick them on the crown of all my cylinders when they
are analyzed, so the obvious label should supersede any "color designation" scheme in my simple way of thinking.
Do whatever you want. The techie divers reserve green for oxygen on their deco bottles a lot of the time, but that's a techie diver "recommendation" not a statute.
I got reamed by a fellow techie diver one time when I joked that I was going to put green knobs on my cylinders. He went off ranting about "green means oxygen", and "I was gonna get somebody kilt by doing that" etc etc. My response was the common industry standard, "Then keep your paws off my cylinders and the color of my cylinder knobs won't affect you. Why would you just grab my cylinder and use it without me telling you to?"
My thinking is, they are MY cylinders, so I should be the only one using them, and I know whats in them. If I "loan" you one, and I do do that sometimes, then I'll tell you whats inside.
If another diver is dumb enough to just grab any random tank and use it without analyzing it, then I'm OK with Darwin "thinning the herd" like that so to speak.
I've never seen anyone grab a scuba cylinder in a injured diver scenario just because it has a green knob on it thinking it was 100% O2. We have special dedicated bottles for that with oxygen specific valves on them.
I also use the yellow tape that has a place to write date/mix/MOD on them, and I stick them on the crown of all my cylinders when they
are analyzed, so the obvious label should supersede any "color designation" scheme in my simple way of thinking.
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