Any recent failures of "cave filled" tanks?

[Lobzilla]

I asked at my local LDS to let me know if anyone is selling LP104s.

LDS: Why do you want to dive THESE tanks". (Don't we love how every LDS is concerned about our salvation).
Me: "Because they trim out lovely on me and they hold a lot of gas in cave country"
LDS: "Janno, someone just got killed from an overfilled tank.....steel weakens (in the elastic range only after several million load cycles)....illegal (yes)......"

So, aside from the fact that every law abiding citizen should obey the rated fill pressure of DOT approved tanks, did someone get recently killed from a "cave filled" steel tank? Yes, or No?

 

[boulderjohn]

Not that this is by any means perfect, but I tried several search engines and several different key words searches and got nothing.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

No one that I know of has been killed by an overfilled steel.

 

[manni-yunk]

I think a tank exploded and early media speculation was that a POTENTIAL cause was overfilling. There is a prenty lengthy discussion in the accidents forum. Pretty sure that it wasnt the end cause and there was no evidence to suggest overfilling was the reason. But - I stopped folliwing it a while ago.

 

[Some X Dry]

Not that I have heard. Recent loss of life was from a AL. Investigation is on-going as to cause.

 

[captain]

Define failure, is it an failure to pass hydro or a catastrophic failure with injury or death.

Cave fills may result in a shortened tank life in regard to time before failure to pass hydro. In the case of a catastrophic failure I would say extremely unlikely.

 

[Superlyte27]

Define failure, is it an failure to pass hydro or a catastrophic failure with injury or death.

Cave fills may result in a shortened tank life in regard to time before failure to pass hydro. In the case of a catastrophic failure I would say extremely unlikely.

I have two sets of LP95's that are from 1970's that have always been filled 3600-4000psi. They pass hydro everytime. Overfilling does not shorten LP tank life. Failure to use LP tanks, or failure to take care of LP tanks might. Don't forget, before DOT got upset. OMS used to claim in their marketing, "guaranteed for 10,000 Fills at 4000PSI". And I believe it.

I've been in the diving industry for coming up on 20 years. My partner has been in the diving industry for 40+ years. Neither one of us can ever recall a fatality from a cave filled steel tank explosion.

 

[w ripley]

Qualifier: All LDS gas monkeys are not uninformed. Having said that:

Many of us who have made our own fill stations (compressor, storage tanks, haskel, O2, He, etc.) have done so in some part due to the uninformed hassles we've received over the years from our LDSs. It wasn't that long ago that many of them were calling Nitrox "Voodoo" gas, and refusing to fill. Try getting your O2 tank filled to 3,300 psi today, outside of cave country, and see the reaction you get from your LDS. I'm sure if we tried we could come up with a pretty good list of similar examples that could be cited here.

If you're going to dive, then you need to find out the facts about tanks and fills for yourself, and not depend on the LDS to be your source of information. If you don't, then we're domed to repeating the myths being espoused by them about gases, tanks, rebreathers, etc.

 

[Leadking]

You will find, when the DOT report comes out, that the recent cylinder explosion in Florida was due to a "cave fill" and virtually every safety protocol was violated.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

You will find, when the DOT report comes out, that the recent cylinder explosion OF AN ALUMINUM CYLINDER in Florida was due to a "cave fill" and virtually every safety protocol was violated.

Fixed that for ya'

People always say that more steel tanks have exploded worldwide than aluminum tanks, but I've never seen one. I have seen lots of exploded aluminum tanks, though.