Faber Steel 100 sale

[Don Wray]

Diver's Direct just sent me the August newsletter and they have the Faber Steel 100 for $259.99 again this year. I didn't see a discount code yet but there most likely will be. http://www.diversdirect.com/scripts/ecatalogisapi.dll/Group?Group=128&Template=9990000096000999

 

[mike_s]

FYI to everyone, just expect these tanks to be a year or so into their hydro.

not a big deal as the price more than makes up for the hydro date.


I'd suggest to everyone to check the inside of their tanks to make sure they are clean. The ones that several of us got had a powder residue on the inside and had to be replaced. no one wants to breath power into their regulator do they?

I didn't see a discount code yet but there most likely will be.

Try SB10 or SB15 or SB20. Those have worked in the past.

 

[Don Wray]

Hmmm, neither of mine were a year into hydro, mine ordered last August were 05/07 and 06/07. I had both of mine O2 cleaned anyway and had not heard about the powder. Thanks, Mike...also, how was Madison? I went to ABWA for the first time and it's alot better than Norfork or Ouachita for classes. Real nice setup.

 

[mike_s]

Hmmm, neither of mine were a year into hydro, mine ordered last August were 05/07 and 06/07. I had both of mine O2 cleaned anyway and had not heard about the powder. Thanks, Mike...also, how was Madison? I went to ABWA for the first time and it's alot better than Norfork or Ouachita for classes. Real nice setup.

Mine came with a hydro that was a year old. But I expected this and also asked the hydro dates when I ordered them, so I knew they would come this way.

Divers Direct just doesn't bother to advertise this.....

However, we ordered 4 tanks and they all came with powder residue in them.

I found a couple other instances of powder residue in the search engine on here and on the Deco Stop. I contacted Blue Steel (Faber's US Distributor) and they contacted me back quickly and offered to replace the tanks. They had heard of this happening but hadn't been able to get anyone to send the tanks to them. It was a residue that if you stuck your finger in the tank and ran it around the inside of the rim that it came out coated in this powder.

A few other people who posted they had bought some said via PM that they had the problem too and got theirs replaced. So I'm not the only one who ran into this. Others did here also..... Most however said they didn't have that problem. So it's wasn't on the "full production run".

Although Faber/Blue Steel was quick to react to offer replacement tanks, I couldn't get them to respond to any emails or phone calls asking if they found what the issue was as they promised to investigate (I have all the emails archived). I thought that was petty of them, but it didn't matter that much since I got my tanks replaced with ones that were clean. I still had my LDS clean them to make sure though as they promised they were clean the first time. My LDS found that the threads had a grease residue in them, so they definately weren't o2 clean as promised by the manufacturer.

These are still good tanks and I don't want to scare anyone. I haven't heard of any reports of this in the past year so hopefully they have corrected this problem.


Madison was good. Great temps (80f bottom temp) and decent vis. Britt will have the place open until the end of october and he's repaired the docks, etc. A couple threads on it open in Deep Dixie Divers (at least 3 threads).

-Mike

 

[Puffer Fish]

Interesting.... not sure if they are zinc phosphating or using one of several other forms of Zinc salts, but the process of doing that is very similar with any of them...the problem is, if you don't control the process chemistry/temperature or you leave them in too long, it will leave a powder residue..either slightly off white or greyish white. Not such a big deal when it is on the outside, but inside a tank would be difficult to clean off...other than it would not be good to breath (ok, that is sort of what the tank is for), it is fairly harmless. Well, as long as you are not coating your lungs with it.

 

[mike_s]

Interesting.... not sure if they are zinc phosphating or using one of several other forms of Zinc salts, but the process of doing that is very similar with any of them...the problem is, if you don't control the process chemistry/temperature or you leave them in too long, it will leave a powder residue..either slightly off white or greyish white. Not such a big deal when it is on the outside, but inside a tank would be difficult to clean off...other than it would not be good to breath (ok, that is sort of what the tank is for), it is fairly harmless. Well, as long as you are not coating your lungs with it.

Interesting indeed.... thanks for posting this usefull information, as we couldn't get an answer out of Blue Steel (after the replaced them).

Yes this was inside the tank. And it was difficult to clean. In fact we couldn't get it all cleaned off, which is why we opted to let Blue Steel replace them.

I'm sure any powder in your air mixture wouldn't be good to breath but I don't know how much would have gotten into our lungs, but I saw it as not worth risking for even a small amount. The tanks were dirty enough with this off-white/tan substance that it coated my finger. I took a pic of my finger with my call camera, but since it was about the same color as my finger and cell cameras are pretty cheap quality, it's hard to tell it in the camera pic. but it was definately enough to coat the underside of my finger.

But now at least we know what it was....

also like I said, I think they have fixed this issue as I've seen no recent reports.

thanks. Mike

 

[Puffer Fish]

Interesting indeed.... thanks for posting this usefull information, as we couldn't get an answer out of Blue Steel (after the replaced them).

Yes this was inside the tank. And it was difficult to clean. In fact we couldn't get it all cleaned off, which is why we opted to let Blue Steel replace them.

I'm sure any powder in your air mixture wouldn't be good to breath but I don't know how much would have gotten into our lungs, but I saw it as not worth risking for even a small amount. The tanks were dirty enough with this off-white/tan substance that it coated my finger. I took a pic of my finger with my call camera, but since it was about the same color as my finger and cell cameras are pretty cheap quality, it's hard to tell it in the camera pic. but it was definately enough to coat the underside of my finger.

But now at least we know what it was....

also like I said, I think they have fixed this issue as I've seen no recent reports.

thanks. Mike

Mike, Tan colored... that makes a very big difference. The coating by itself would be grey-white, so too much of that is, well grey white.

Tan is usually the result of chemistry...and it has been a while since I ran one, but I believe that is the result of high ph...where some of the disolved iron is deposited...grey white + iron oxide red = tan.

The chemistry removed iron when the coating is applied...too low results in it just being an etch bath... well it least that is how I remember it, but I could be backwards.

 

[stairman]

Ive been told that the Faber steel 100's are good as single tanks,but you dont want to double them up.Something about them being too negative.I have two Faber steel 95's doubled up and they are fine.

 

[mike_s]

Ive been told that the Faber steel 100's are good as single tanks,but you dont want to double them up.Something about them being too negative.I have two Faber steel 95's doubled up and they are fine.

that's not 100% true. It all depends on which "model" faber tank you're looking at.

The "older" Faber HP tanks were VERY negative and doubling them might not be the best idea.

The new FX series are not very negative (when empty).

For example, the Faber HP100 (3180psi + 10%) is -7.26 empty and -14.76 full.
Doubling these would get you -29.5 pounds negative.

Compare that to the Faber FX100 (3442psi) that is -0.59 empty -8.41 full.
That's only about 5-7 pounds more negative than your standard AL80 ( 4.4 empty -1.4 full. ) or about the same as your Faber LP98 (-1.2 empty and -8.325 full)


I think most folks would prefer not to have -29.5 pounds negative (unless they've got a drysuit with lots of bouyancy.) But I see no problem doubling the other tanks (FX or LP). I think they are fairly popular to double (as you point out).

 

[Puffer Fish]

Only thing I could add to Mike's post, is that Faber FX are actually better than Worthington's on that score.