Bad Air Experience

[joe8mofo]

So I never thought I would be posting a thread here but apparently it happened to me.

My friend picked up a setup of double LP95s from North Carolina which were recently (1 month ago) hydro'd and VIS'd which means they come with a fill of air. Well we got to the dive site, geared up and the first breath of air on land had a taste to it, I thought it was strange but maybe had something to do with my new 7 ft hose. So I did a quick shallow dive to see what was really going wrong. It tasted 10 times worse in the water, I switched to my secondary underneath my chin and the taste was still there, so I immediately called it as it was clearly NOT my new hose.

The VIS sticker says NADCO scuba; so the assumption is that they filled the set, and either the fill was contaminated or the VIS wasn't done so well and there is something in the tanks.

I will post an update when they are taken apart for O2 cleaning, it will be interesting to see what is in them.

 

[DandyDon]

Damn, can you get a Carbon Monoxide test done before you lose the fill...?!

 

[joe8mofo]

The smell was oily, and CO is odorless; but the fill has already been drained.

 

[DandyDon]

The smell was oily, and CO is odorless...

I know but they sometimes are found together.

... but the fill has already been drained.

Evidence gone - damn!

thanks​

 

[Seahuntjerry]

Warning on Bauer jr ,and utilus air compressors gas powered.
A few years ago my friend used the plastic air intake for a carrying handle and cracked it.
I just happened to do a lawrence factor co test and it was 20PPM.My hand held test read the same.We drained all tanks.The Hopcalite in the filter did not reduce the CO level down enough to be safe in my opinion.
Nice a piece of life support with a plastic air intake cover.
Jl

 

[cpwomer]

Compressors use oil to keep cool, sounds like the compressor that filled your tank had a faulty ring and the oil bypassed to the cylinder thru the separator cleaner and got into your tank. This can cause all sorts or breathing problems including p-monia in the lungs its a good thing you didn't use it in a deep dive. Tell the shop what happened so they can address the problem with the compressor and get another vip and cleaning. The shop will probably do it for free once they check their compressor out for leaks. Ask other divers if they had same problem from this shop...

 

[Seahuntjerry]

Hi,
The cracked housing was the problem, air is Co free.
JL

 

[IyaDiver]

Warning on Bauer jr ,and utilus air compressors gas powered.
A few years ago my friend used the plastic air intake for a carrying handle and cracked it.
I just happened to do a lawrence factor co test and it was 20PPM.My hand held test read the same.We drained all tanks.The Hopcalite in the filter did not reduce the CO level down enough to be safe in my opinion.
Nice a piece of life support with a plastic air intake cover.
Jl

Unless the filter number is 059183 and not 057679, then there is Hopcalite in that P Zero filter. P Zero is so small, to make it CO removal effective is a challenge.

I been testing Bauer Mariner with gasoline Honda last week, unless the location has air path smooth 4 ways north,south, east, west and no wall close by or whatsoever to create turbulence, the CO fume from the Honda is just massive and can get sucked in with or without elevated snorkle at compressor intake.

Any compressor having excessive piston blow by aka worn out rings or liners will ruin the activated carbon so fast with oily air. That the air can be dry by the molecular sieve adsorbtion but since activated carbon is only a low percentage of total content of a filter cartridge and the only one adsorbing the VOCs, bad smelling air can happen in less tank fill as per compressor already COMPENSATED ambient temperature filter life calculation.

Compressor manufacturer will surely calculate media content based on properly working and maintained compressor.

Some VOC baddies can't saturate the activated carbon to its full capacity due to some characteristic of the VOC, that make everything worse. Add more activated carbon and advertised life of filter cartridge reduced........not good for business. I will go for a filter with higher ratio of activated carbon than what Bauer practice if I have the choice. Something like this kind of ratio will be nice :
Filter Cartridge for MAKO PD-1803


Attached a P41 Filter Cut Open.
This is how shallow the bed of activated carbon in a Bauer P41 filter. Left black is activated carbon and middle black is Hopcalite and the white ones is 13X.

IYA

 

[ScubaSteve]

Warning on Bauer jr ,and utilus air compressors gas powered.
A few years ago my friend used the plastic air intake for a carrying handle and cracked it.
I just happened to do a lawrence factor co test and it was 20PPM.My hand held test read the same.We drained all tanks.The Hopcalite in the filter did not reduce the CO level down enough to be safe in my opinion.
Nice a piece of life support with a plastic air intake cover.
Jl

Hi,
The cracked housing was the problem, air is Co free.
JL

What is your relation to the company that filled the OP's tanks?

 

[101recon]

Just found this thread the other day after doing a Google search for NADCO. It was one of the top results. It is also the top result of a search on Scubaboard. I also found a later post by the OP suggesting that it was indeed his new hose causing the bad taste and NOT due to any fault by NADCO.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/regulators/397551-bad-taste-coming-hose.html#post6062036
I dive out of this shop and can assure you that NADCO is a top notch LDS and I have never heard of anyone getting a bad fill or less than excellent service. I'm sure there are many other divers that will back me up on this.
I think this thread could unfairly influence anyone doing a search for NADCO and wanted to stand up for them. Randy at NADCO also asked that I reply. It's the least I could do after the years of fine service they have given me and other divers.