Nitrox and Air Tanks

[a22shady]

You can still do Air fills, Just make sure the place you are getting them filled is using "clean" air. I use back fourth between air/Nitrox.

 

[fnfalman]

Find a local shop that fills Nitrox with a membrane system and no problems at all.

There is one shop in SoCal that uses the old blending system and they require O2 clean. I am not a patron of that shop.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Guys, the OP's question was simple:

"...can our existing tanks just be filled with Nitrox and we put stickers on them to track what tank has what"?

Lets not turn it into a discussion of Nitrox v. Air.

1. No, you don't need new tanks.
2. Yes, fill your tanks with Nitrox and mark what is in the tank.

Yes, you may need your steel tanks O2 cleaned by the dive shop to have them filled with Nitrox - so if they tell you this, thats on the level. Steel tanks are more of a PITA to O2 clean than aluminum tanks, even if you do it yourself, so they may cost a bit more. Afterwards, if you fill your tanks with Air, you'll need to ensure that it's 'nitrox-grade air' - but I'm at a loss as to why you would fill your tanks with air.

But if your shop insists that you buy separate tanks for Nitrox, what you need is a new shop.

Regards,

Doc

 

[joe rock]

Keep in mind though a nitrox tank is a tank dedicated soley to nitrox. Going back and forth can get very expensive

This is not correct. As long as the air is "clean" it's fine to fill a tank with 21%. There are many that will say 21% is Nitrox too! Any Nitrox fill that is blended must add air. This was explained in an earlier post.

 

[vjanelle]

You only need to get your tanks O2 cleaned (and slap a nitrox sticker on there to warn others if you're into that sort of thing). After that point only the tanks with either nitrox, or Modified Grade-E air(which they'd be using anyways if doing partial pressure fills).

 

[Mike Boswell]

Every year, my wife and I take our steel HP-100's and board a commercial dive boat for three days of diving the Channel Islands off the California coast. We do up to 5 dives per day. For the rest of the year we fill these tanks with air, but on the boat we ask for and get EAN32 Nitrox without any problem. Our tanks are not specially cleaned, are not marked with "Nitrox" labels, and can be filled with either air or Nitrox. The only difference is that with Nitrox we are required to measure and record our O2 levels in the boat's log.

 

[H2O 70]

There was a thread about this a couple of days ago. You're getting some good info in here.

There is a real good written resource out there by Vance Harlow called the OxyHacker Guide. You can find it at his site. www.airspeedpress.com/newoxyhacker.html

It is a very good $25 investment.

And what Doc Intrepid said. If you LDS insists on dedicated Nitrox tanks, look for a new LDS.

 

[TSandM]

Mike, a lot of boats use membrane systems so they can fill directly with 32%, and not handle pure O2. That's why they don't care if your tanks are O2 clean or not.

My LDS banks 32%, but it's so popular they don't always have any and they have to PP blend. So our tanks are O2 clean, but the only places they are ever filled are places that pump nitrox (and sometimes trimix) so it's not an issue.

 

[Tigerman]

My wife and I have all our own equipment we use when we dive. We each have two tanks with Air in them so we can do two tank dives without refilling. These are brand new and less than 3 months old since we just got certified. We are going to be taking Nitrox classes in the next 6 months after we get more comfortable since we are Newbies. Our LDS is telling us we need to get seperate tanks for Nitrox. Is this truely the case and we will have to purchase third and possibly fourth tanks, or can our existing tanks just be filled with Nitrox and we put stickers on them to track what tank has what. Our Steel tanks were not cheap and I hate to think in the next 6 months we have to purchase more.

This will be covered in your nitrox course, but basically "no you dont need new tanks". You just need to be aware of how they are filled and wether they need to be and stay o2 clean.
pp blending require o2 cleaned tanks and they need to stay o2 cleaned, but you can still fill them without o2 compatible air without cleaning them again. Youll basically have to know what the tank is filled with and how.

 

[JKPAO]

You have all the info you need to make a reasonable choice! I would ask your shop one more time about what is required and maybe what grade air they are giving you!
See you topside! John