Bought an air compressor...21% fills for now...concerns?

[v101]

years ago, I had been hauling my tanks to dive shops to get fills, some could do it right on spot, others Id have to drop off and come back and pickup later on, for me TIME == MONEY... also some dive spots we travel to give crap fills and charge crazy prices.. One which will remain nameless located in OHIO, charges $10.00 and even though you might have a HP tank, you seem to only have 2800-2900 when you get the tank in the water. for 2 SM tanks, that 20.00! that can add up especially if you are doing deep dives.....

I had a smaller compressor for a few seasons, and it worked great, now that I am filling for more divers, I have upgraded to a larger/faster compressor. It was a lot of work to get it all setup, lot of evenings, and week-ends in the garage. we blend EAN for our dive trips, and bank EAN in our cascade banks. Testing the AIR is something that we do before filter changes, and air tests have always passed.

From a stand-point of not having take tanks to get filled its great,

 

[kelemvor]

Did you ever hear of anybody who got a bad fill from a dive shop? How do you mitigate that?

To quote @DandyDon who I adopted the approach from "You can test the tanks you breathe, or you can dive on hope. Testing is safer". You can either buy a standalone CO analyzer or a combined gas analyzer such as a cootwo from @DiveNav . I used to use an analox CO tester, but I sold it and bought a cootwo because it's easier to test once and get results on both CO and O2 content at the same time. The cootwo is a newish product, but at this point they've worked out all the kinks that I ever complained about via a software update.

Bottom line, I wouldn't trust the analysis sheet on some dive shop's wall unless they filled the container that was being analyzed right before they filled my tank. It's easy to test the gas you're planning to breathe (for co and o2 content anyway).

You can get a cootwo analyzer here: DiveNav - Products - cootwo

IMO it's a failure of all dive certification agencies to not include gas analysis in open water classes. Most (all?) wait until you pay for the nitrox "upgrade". Even then, they don't typically cover CO testing, only O2.

 

[SentinelAce]

Mine is working great. Has anyone done the nitox stik?

 

[SentinelAce]

years ago, I had been hauling my tanks to dive shops to get fills, some could do it right on spot, others Id have to drop off and come back and pickup later on, for me TIME == MONEY... also some dive spots we travel to give crap fills and charge crazy prices.. One which will remain nameless located in OHIO, charges $10.00 and even though you might have a HP tank, you seem to only have 2800-2900 when you get the tank in the water. for 2 SM tanks, that 20.00! that can add up especially if you are doing deep dives.....

I had a smaller compressor for a few seasons, and it worked great, now that I am filling for more divers, I have upgraded to a larger/faster compressor. It was a lot of work to get it all setup, lot of evenings, and week-ends in the garage. we blend EAN for our dive trips, and bank EAN in our cascade banks. Testing the AIR is something that we do before filter changes, and air tests have always passed.

From a stand-point of not having take tanks to get filled its great,

I'll name Gilboa for you....rip off! My fills are all 3200 now baby

 

[BRT]

Mine is working great. Has anyone done the nitox stik?

I only pump 32% for diving fills. Homemade a stick and it works great.

 

[SentinelAce]

I only pump 32% for diving fills. Homemade a stick and it works great.

yeah that's what I want to do next. What guide did you use?

 

[BRT]

yeah that's what I want to do next. What guide did you use?

Oxyhacker

 

[captain]

In 1968 I bought a compressor, I am still using that same compressor today. Never used hopcalite in my filtration system.
You will love your compressor. Disregard the you are going to die theatrics.
Clownfishsydney knows of what he speaks.

 

[Wookie]

Oxyhacker

That would be the Oxyhackers Handbook by Vance Harlow published by Airstream Press.

 

[RayfromTX]

Pumping Nitrox - YouTube

• RayfromTX
• Aug 18, 2017

Filling the cascade with 32% while transfilling four scuba tanks

This is a thing of joy. Every tank is 32% and .1ppm co. Banking 1760 cu ft of nitrox so I only run the compressor after every 10th or 20th fill depending. I also have helium and can blend trimix from the banked nitrox and boosted helium. I live 80 minutes from the dive shop. I dive nitrox for a little over a buck a tank in consumables. That doesn't count the cost of the compressor. I'll sell it for what I paid for it if the time ever comes that I don't want it.