Failed Hydro

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I have been reading this thread all week and I just have to comment as a current qualified hydro tester. I currently work with two hydro test facilities and have been trained as a scuba VIP inspector numerous times by different organizations. I even ran a facility in the Navy for all the scuba cylinders used by EOD divers back in the 90s. One facility is in a dive shop and the other facility mostly tests fire extinguishers. Both use the water jacket method and both have the ability to test scuba cylinders.

So let me give you a little insight into this industry. At facilities like the fire extinguisher one, the technician is trained mostly on how to run the equipment and how to refill the extinguishers. Even though the technician should be well versed in the CGA's Cylinder inspection guidelines many are not as there is very little formal training out there and it can be very expensive as it is all inclusive and not specific to the cylinders they deal with on a day to day basis. In addition this is not exactly a high paying trade job unless you happen to have some sort of contract with the government and are earning prevailing wages. So there can be a lot of turnover and with that loss of any real expertise.

The dive shop's owner that I work with has a great wealth of knowledge in scuba cylinders, air gun cylinders (fiberglass) and bank cylinders. Since his employees are normally VIP trained, I would say they are better trained than the fire extinguisher personnel. The sad part is they actually may even make less money.

Operating a hydro test test stand is not very difficult to learn. Visually inspecting cylinders correctly and efficiently is an art and skill that takes much more time and experience. I know now that I probably condemned too many steel cylinders during my time in the Navy due to lack of visual inspection training and always erroring on the side of safety. However those cylinders were easily replaced by taxpayer money and in the EOD budget was a minimal expense. Your typical scuba diver has much more attachment to their cylinders due to cost of replacement in respect to their earnings. Which is why I always look for a second opinion or a second set of eyes before condemning a cylinder. As a fellow scuba diver I feel a sense of loss when a cylinder is put out of service as I know there are stories of great dives that that cylinder could tell. Even worse some cylinders are no longer made and are difficult to replace for the owner.

So this is the part that I share what disturbs me about this thread. Why would you take a cylinder that you paid good money for to a hydro tester that can hydrotest it but has very limited experience and training on those cylinders. Most businesses do not want to give up extra work especially in this environment. Do really want to trust your favorite steel cylinder to a brand new hydro tester who has spent all his time hydro testing fire extinguishers and has no idea about the pre stretch requirements of a galvanized cylinder just to save few bucks. Heck I would say you would be lucky to get a plus stamp out of them as they may have learned about it in their initial training but have not seen a cylinder that required one for over a year.

It costs a lot of good money to start a hydrotest facility and as like has been mentioned in the pass, the government penalties can be excessive and a big deterrent for a dive shop. Hence why many dive shops send their cylinders out to other hydro shops. Now once you outsource this work you have less control on the results. I will give the shops the benefit of the doubt and say that if a hydro tester is condemning a lot of cylinders, they would look for another instead of trying to sell more cylinders. However many shops have crazy practices such as not filling cylinders older than a certain date (steel or aluminum) or not making sure a cylinder is properly filled by overfilling it a little to allow the cylinder to cool to the right pressure. So I cannot speak to the mind of all shops.

The bottom line is you get what you pay for. You will be probably be fine taking an aluminum tank to one of these facilities as many extinguishers are similarly constructed. However caveat emptor to anyone who has not interviewed a hydro tester before handing over their precious low pressure galvanized cylinders. Trust me the dive shop is not making a ton of money off hydro testing.

If anyone in the New England area needs a recommendation for a good scuba cylinder hydro tester send me a pm. Heck I can help you get an aluminum cylinder with the bad alloy hydro tested but good luck getting it filled!
 
I have been reading this thread all week and I just have to comment as a current qualified hydro tester. I currently work with two hydro test facilities and have been trained as a scuba VIP inspector numerous times by different organizations. I even ran a facility in the Navy for all the scuba cylinders used by EOD divers back in the 90s. One facility is in a dive shop and the other facility mostly tests fire extinguishers. Both use the water jacket method and both have the ability to test scuba cylinders.

So let me give you a little insight into this industry. At facilities like the fire extinguisher one, the technician is trained mostly on how to run the equipment and how to refill the extinguishers. Even though the technician should be well versed in the CGA's Cylinder inspection guidelines many are not as there is very little formal training out there and it can be very expensive as it is all inclusive and not specific to the cylinders they deal with on a day to day basis. In addition this is not exactly a high paying trade job unless you happen to have some sort of contract with the government and are earning prevailing wages. So there can be a lot of turnover and with that loss of any real expertise.

The dive shop's owner that I work with has a great wealth of knowledge in scuba cylinders, air gun cylinders (fiberglass) and bank cylinders. Since his employees are normally VIP trained, I would say they are better trained than the fire extinguisher personnel. The sad part is they actually may even make less money.

Operating a hydro test test stand is not very difficult to learn. Visually inspecting cylinders correctly and efficiently is an art and skill that takes much more time and experience. I know now that I probably condemned too many steel cylinders during my time in the Navy due to lack of visual inspection training and always erroring on the side of safety. However those cylinders were easily replaced by taxpayer money and in the EOD budget was a minimal expense. Your typical scuba diver has much more attachment to their cylinders due to cost of replacement in respect to their earnings. Which is why I always look for a second opinion or a second set of eyes before condemning a cylinder. As a fellow scuba diver I feel a sense of loss when a cylinder is put out of service as I know there are stories of great dives that that cylinder could tell. Even worse some cylinders are no longer made and are difficult to replace for the owner.

So this is the part that I share what disturbs me about this thread. Why would you take a cylinder that you paid good money for to a hydro tester that can hydrotest it but has very limited experience and training on those cylinders. Most businesses do not want to give up extra work especially in this environment. Do really want to trust your favorite steel cylinder to a brand new hydro tester who has spent all his time hydro testing fire extinguishers and has no idea about the pre stretch requirements of a galvanized cylinder just to save few bucks. Heck I would say you would be lucky to get a plus stamp out of them as they may have learned about it in their initial training but have not seen a cylinder that required one for over a year.

It costs a lot of good money to start a hydrotest facility and as like has been mentioned in the pass, the government penalties can be excessive and a big deterrent for a dive shop. Hence why many dive shops send their cylinders out to other hydro shops. Now once you outsource this work you have less control on the results. I will give the shops the benefit of the doubt and say that if a hydro tester is condemning a lot of cylinders, they would look for another instead of trying to sell more cylinders. However many shops have crazy practices such as not filling cylinders older than a certain date (steel or aluminum) or not making sure a cylinder is properly filled by overfilling it a little to allow the cylinder to cool to the right pressure. So I cannot speak to the mind of all shops.

The bottom line is you get what you pay for. You will be probably be fine taking an aluminum tank to one of these facilities as many extinguishers are similarly constructed. However caveat emptor to anyone who has not interviewed a hydro tester before handing over their precious low pressure galvanized cylinders. Trust me the dive shop is not making a ton of money off hydro testing.

If anyone in the New England area needs a recommendation for a good scuba cylinder hydro tester send me a pm. Heck I can help you get an aluminum cylinder with the bad alloy hydro tested but good luck getting filled!

I'm going to like your post because it's got a lot of great information in it.....even though you were a little hostile and a bit condescending:D (not to mention it's obvious you really didn't read the whole thread). But like I said, lots of great information and I don't really read through all the threads myself....

The tank that failed was an HP80. It was one of 4 tanks tested at that time (2 HP80's, 2 LP85's). The other tanks all passed with flying colors. The shop that I took it to was the same hydro shop that at least 2 LDS in the area use, possibly more, but 2 confirmed 100%.... I honestly thought it was a safe move. Even when I dropped off the tanks there were other scuba tanks to be hydro'd so it wasn't their first rodeo. What's arming is that the other shop that I would have used anyway said "We get tanks that fail time to time, it's from being overfilled, guaranteed". That statement scares me because it sounds like they get more fails than the norm.

I spoke with the hydro guy beforehand and he said he was aware of the "pre stretch" procedure. When I picked them up he was even nice enough to take me in the back and show me the program and how they ramp up to ~ 90% for 30 seconds and then let off, then hydro test. As @rhwestfall pointed out, the 30 seconds is the bare minimum required to do the pre stretch and may not have been enough time to "settle".

He was even nice enough to not charge for the failed test, which is admirable because he didn't have to do that.

Here's where I'm at. I've contacted another LDS that's farther away but they do their own in-house hydro. It's a little more expensive ($10 more per tank), but if they do it 100% right then well worth it. I'm supposed to call the owner on Tuesday to discuss. I'm hoping that he's willing to retest the 80 that failed just out of curiosity. I know that once it's "XXX" it's done, but I'd still like to know if the hydro place did a good job. And who knows, maybe that shop owner can give me some recommendations from there.

So to sum it up... this is a great learning experience for myself and really anyone in the greater Baltimore, MD area or anyone reading this thread. Stay tuned for the outcome, I'm happy to post so more people can learn and hopefully not make the same mistakes that I did (if in fact I did make a mistake using that shop).
 
I'm going to like your post because it's got a lot of great information in it.....even though you were a little hostile and a bit condescending:D (not to mention it's obvious you really didn't read the whole thread). But like I said, lots of great information and I don't really read through all the threads myself....

Sorry I may have been a little hostile and condescending but as a past business owner I do get a little irate when people automatically assume things and theorize without understanding all the facts. Most businesses are not out to take advantage of people. Also many small businesses take on work that they shouldn't because their people are not properly trained. An example would be a residential electrician deciding they can install a high dollar security system. They have the license to do it but not the experience and expertise. When you hire someone it is up to you the buyer to make sure they know what they are doing. I am not saying you did not do this but let's just say I would never trust my steel galvanized tanks to anyone who is not a fellow serious scuba diver.

The tank that failed was an HP80. It was one of 4 tanks tested at that time (2 HP80's, 2 LP85's). The other tanks all passed with flying colors. The shop that I took it to was the same hydro shop that at least 2 LDS in the area use, possibly more, but 2 confirmed 100%.... I honestly thought it was a safe move. Even when I dropped off the tanks there were other scuba tanks to be hydro'd so it wasn't their first rodeo. What's arming is that the other shop that I would have used anyway said "We get tanks that fail time to time, it's from being overfilled, guaranteed". That statement scares me because it sounds like they get more fails than the norm.

I spoke with the hydro guy beforehand and he said he was aware of the "pre stretch" procedure. When I picked them up he was even nice enough to take me in the back and show me the program and how they ramp up to ~ 90% for 30 seconds and then let off, then hydro test. As @rhwestfall pointed out, the 30 seconds is the bare minimum required to do the pre stretch and may not have been enough time to "settle".

Unfortunately many shops are not doing their own hydro's so these other hydro tester's are getting the work. Like I said in my above quote, since they are not in the industry they are not being properly trained.

He was even nice enough to not charge for the failed test, which is admirable because he didn't have to do that.

I am not sure how "admirable" it was but if the business was confident in its expertise it would have made sure you understood that they need to be paid no matter the outcome. My mechanic does not not bill me when they diagnose my transmission is shot.

Here's where I'm at. I've contacted another LDS that's farther away but they do their own in-house hydro. It's a little more expensive ($10 more per tank), but if they do it 100% right then well worth it. I'm supposed to call the owner on Tuesday to discuss. I'm hoping that he's willing to retest the 80 that failed just out of curiosity. I know that once it's "XXX" it's done, but I'd still like to know if the hydro place did a good job. And who knows, maybe that shop owner can give me some recommendations from there.

It's your money and you can do whatever your conscience tells you to do but since the tank is condemned, knowing for sure is not going to bring back the tank but just hang a cloud over that business and its current hydro tester. Unless he is the owner he may not even be there in a year. Who knows the guy you just confronted may become a better hydro tester over the confrontation.

So to sum it up... this is a great learning experience for myself and really anyone in the greater Baltimore, MD area or anyone reading this thread. Stay tuned for the outcome, I'm happy to post so more people can learn and hopefully not make the same mistakes that I did (if in fact I did make a mistake using that shop).

I applaud you for posting and sharing your story. Again sorry about my attitude. Just so much misinformation in the diving industry and unfortunately it sometimes it even shows up here on ScubaBoard. Lesson learned are why we all read the posts!
 
I'm going to like your post because it's got a lot of great information in it.....even though you were a little hostile and a bit condescending:D (not to mention it's obvious you really didn't read the whole thread). But like I said, lots of great information and I don't really read through all the threads myself....

Sorry I may have been a little hostile and condescending but as a past business owner I do get a little irate when people automatically assume things and theorize without understanding all the facts. Most businesses are not out to take advantage of people. Also many small businesses take on work that they shouldn't because their people are not properly trained. An example would be a residential electrician deciding they can install a high dollar security system. They have the license to do it but not the experience and expertise. When you hire someone it is up to you the buyer to make sure they know what they are doing. I am not saying you did not do this but let's just say I would never trust my steel galvanized tanks to anyone who is not a fellow serious scuba diver.

The tank that failed was an HP80. It was one of 4 tanks tested at that time (2 HP80's, 2 LP85's). The other tanks all passed with flying colors. The shop that I took it to was the same hydro shop that at least 2 LDS in the area use, possibly more, but 2 confirmed 100%.... I honestly thought it was a safe move. Even when I dropped off the tanks there were other scuba tanks to be hydro'd so it wasn't their first rodeo. What's arming is that the other shop that I would have used anyway said "We get tanks that fail time to time, it's from being overfilled, guaranteed". That statement scares me because it sounds like they get more fails than the norm.

I spoke with the hydro guy beforehand and he said he was aware of the "pre stretch" procedure. When I picked them up he was even nice enough to take me in the back and show me the program and how they ramp up to ~ 90% for 30 seconds and then let off, then hydro test. As @rhwestfall pointed out, the 30 seconds is the bare minimum required to do the pre stretch and may not have been enough time to "settle".

Unfortunately many shops are not doing their own hydro's so these other hydro tester's are getting the work. Like I said in my above quote, since they are not in the industry they are not being properly trained.

He was even nice enough to not charge for the failed test, which is admirable because he didn't have to do that.

I am not sure how "admirable" it was but if the business was confident in its expertise it would have made sure you understood that they need to be paid no matter the outcome. My mechanic does not not bill me when they diagnose my transmission is shot.


Here's where I'm at. I've contacted another LDS that's farther away but they do their own in-house hydro. It's a little more expensive ($10 more per tank), but if they do it 100% right then well worth it. I'm supposed to call the owner on Tuesday to discuss. I'm hoping that he's willing to retest the 80 that failed just out of curiosity. I know that once it's "XXX" it's done, but I'd still like to know if the hydro place did a good job. And who knows, maybe that shop owner can give me some recommendations from there.

It's your money and you can do whatever your conscience tells you to do but since the tank is condemned, knowing for sure is not going to bring back the tank but just hang a cloud over that business and its current hydro tester. Unless he is the owner he may not even be there in a year. Who knows the guy you just confronted may become a better hydro tester over the confrontation.

So to sum it up... this is a great learning experience for myself and really anyone in the greater Baltimore, MD area or anyone reading this thread. Stay tuned for the outcome, I'm happy to post so more people can learn and hopefully not make the same mistakes that I did (if in fact I did make a mistake using that shop).

I applaud you for posting and sharing your story. Again sorry about my attitude. Just so much misinformation in the diving industry and unfortunately it sometimes it even shows up here on ScubaBoard. Lesson learned are why we all read the posts!

No apology needed. I believe you were sharing valid points.... besides I don't really let online "stuff" bother me, thick skin and all that... I appreciate your post.

I hope to test the tank just for my own personal curiosity. If it pans out that the tank really failed then kudos to the hydro shop. If it passes, then I can sleep better using it for the next couple years and I can start taking my tanks to the LDS that does in-house hydro that's more familiar with galv. scuba tanks... I think I have 2 more tanks that need to be hydro'd anyway coming into possession shortly. It's $35 vs $25, but if it's done right 100% of the time well worth it.

If the tank passes I will have a conversation with the original hydro shop, but I'm not the guy that makes a scene. I would just hope that they wouldn't fail tanks the same way in the future, I'm really not looking for my tank to be replaced, any kind of restitution, or to give the company a bad name. Scuba is probably 2% of their business if that. We all make mistakes, myself included.

In the grand scheme of things the tank cost me $50 or $60 from Craigslist (I bought a set of HP80's and some odds and ends, a semi dry, and some goodies @ $175).... it's really not the end of the world. Now if it had been one of the LP 85's from a set of doubles I acquired I might shed some tears...
 
One important question that hasn’t been brought up yet. HP80s. How the heck do you dive with those things????!!!! Unless you’re 4’9” tall those are crazy short tanks and result in most divers being crazy head-heavy. May explain why you got them for a steal.
 
I will be surprised if the tank is XXX out and another tester (or even him again) will test it. I believe there are standards in place that prevent them from doing that. I know nobody would touch mine after it was (immediately) done at the tester's. They claim that they have to immediately do that...

That is why, no matter what, you are basically out the tank. And, no recourse....
 
One important question that hasn’t been brought up yet. HP80s. How the heck do you dive with those things????!!!! Unless you’re 4’9” tall those are crazy short tanks and result in most divers being crazy head-heavy. May explain why you got them for a steal.

For the kids... I have never dove (dived?) one because that's what I read...head heavy. My kids fidget too much to know if they're head heavy yet:)

I will be surprised if the tank is XXX out and another tester (or even him again) will test it. I believe there are standards in place that prevent them from doing that. I know nobody would touch mine after it was (immediately) done at the tester's. They claim that they have to immediately do that...

That is why, no matter what, you are basically out the tank. And, no recourse....

I agree. Zero recourse for the tank, lesson learned. I'm not looking for a stamp. Worst he can say is no, doesn't hurt. I'll be no different than where I am right now. Shop owner gets in on Tues.
 
So a little update. I have been able to work it out with another hydro shop (LDS that does this in house) to retest the tank. Obviously the tank is still condemned no matter what, but it'll be interesting to get the results.

The owner of the shop said that he's never seen a steel tank fail from hydro, from visual yes, but not hydro. I find that really interesting because the other shop gets some that fail "from time to time".

If my tank passes, it's sickening to think how many tanks have been needlessly thrown away from the other LDS in this area.

If all goes well I guess I'll be driving a little farther to get hydro's done. His shop is going on a 2 week trip and he'll test when he gets back. Probably early April I would think.

Who knows, maybe this is the not so local DS I've been looking for.
 
What's REALLY sickening is to think that the other LDS in the area have just accepted the fact that they have a higher number of steel tanks fail... like it's normal. And these guys have been diving for 20-30-40 years. They pride themselves on being the oldest shop in MD. Maddening.

Makes me want to stand outside the hydro shop and try to save as many as I can:), lol. (All dependent on if my tank passes of course).
 
Steel tanks rarely fail, I had one recently that I purchased, with some other tanks, that had about a 2 cups of saltwater and a bunch of rust flakes come out when I turned it upside down after taking off the valve! Surprisingly after tumbling out the rust it passed hydro!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom