Looking For Hydro Testing Company

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tbone-
"@Rred the shops don't usually put VIP stickers on "
Uh, save the ampersand, that only works on what, Twitter?
If you mean the hydro shops don't put on VIP stickers, THEY DON'T HAVE TO. They put the metal stamp on your tank, and that stamp proves a complete hydro--including a VIP--was done. No additional sticker is necessary, under DOT regulation. The o-ring is nice, yes, but paying an extra $22 for a fifty cent o-ring....Thanks, I can change my own.
Scuba spuds? I hate to tell you how many five star shops have just taken a hammer and whacked the valve handle to spin it out on every tank I've seen. Most don't even look to see if an old valve has the flats that let you use a plain crow's foot wrench on it. Hammering sideways on a valve handle...OUCH.

rh-
Yeah, the + stamp is another good industry scam. There's a DOT formal reply letter online someplace, and I've communicated with them directly last year, and would urge you to do the same. Basically? If a tank originally had a + stamp, and it has a "REE" number stamped on the tank neck as well, then any hydro shop can retest the cylinder, and if that residual expansion (REE) number comes out right, they can RESTAMP IT with a plus rating for the next hundred years. Many shops don't want to bother looking up numbers, many don't know how to train the monkeys, and the SCUBA shops...I'm sorry, I don't know of any that even ASK "Would you like that retested for a + stamp?" because then they'd have two price levels and more confusion.
FUD. Easier for the shops to almost all say "Oh no, that's not legal" which is a flat-out lie. And then they can try to upsell you on a NEW tank which still is + rated.

I wasn't always a cynic, but after many years of hard work by many fine trainers, I got made into one.
 
@Rred : so the REE number stamped on my XS/Worthington LP85 is the number relevant to maintaining the "+" ?
 
Resq, check with your local fire department. They have SCBA packs that are used every day and locally VIP'd and hydro tested. Often the shop doing their business will hydro a divers tank for $25. No pickup, no delivery, no fill, but it will be a hydro that's good enough for your local first responders, and that's good enough for me
I didn't even think of using the FD I work for. Duh! Or at least find out who they use.
 
@Rred I didn't put an ampersand in any of my posts...

and yes I am aware that they don't have to, but tell that to the tank monkeys filling your tanks who are looking for it.

The spud is the adapter that they need to attach the tank to the test machine. If the hydro shop only does industrial and fire bottles, they may well not have the adapters for the scuba tanks, so you do have to call. I know several in my area that don't have them.

@rhwestfall yes, the REE numbers stamped on the tanks are there specifically to make the hydro testers job easier when it comes to putting the + back on there. Most of the PST's don't have them, most of the lp72's don't, and the older Fabers don't either so that's why a lot don't come back. I know finding the REE's for the PST's in particular is a right PITA. You still usually have to ask for them to test for the + though as most shops don't do it as standard which is why having a good relationship with your hydro guy is a good idea if you have a bunch of tanks.

@Resqdivemedic it's usually the same people that do your compressor service and that should be on the service stickers on the SCBA fill station. Also fun fact, if you have a Cootwo and don't want to send it back for calibration, the bump gas is usually inside the compressor housings with the regulator. All the new Bauer compressors *if you have a 6k psi fill station, it's in there*. It's on the right side near the compressor itself. Fun fact
 
Bob-
Yes, the REE number on the tank. You might contact XS and thank them for putting it there. When there's none stamped, a shop has to go look them up, if they have official records anyplace. If they have no records, there's a fairly involved procedure that can be done with measuring actual wall thickness in the tank, but even with that the DOT wants three tanks from the same alloy lot to be measured and an average taken across those....making it effectively impossible to "just" measure one tank and get one number, since that number can change with each production group of tanks, apparently.
Some companies like PST apparently never widely published them, and literally threw out their data when they stopped making tanks, so there may be no way to recover it. Oddly enough the DOT never made any provision for central record keeping on this, there's no DOT repository of official REE numbers kept either.
I did get one verbal comment from someone at DOT that "Uh, gee, yeah, we really had to go back to dig up this stuff...it really is time to re-examine all the rules for SCUBA tanks." But that won't happen unless they get repeated letters from the public asking for it to happen, so the budget expense can be justified.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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