Brian and Adam,
Be careful, you have been receiving a lot of bad and potentially dangerous information in this thread.
It is true that many regs (including the Z1) and consoles are compatible with Nitrox up to 40%. The Dacor Enduro is not compatible with Nitrox according to its user manual.
As stated by Diver0001,
Titanium and lubricants in your 1st stage are extremely dangerous.
Another very real danger is the
presence of hydrocarbon particles in your first stage, high pressure hose(s) or console. When in contact with Nitrox these can result in spontaneous combustion. Hydrocarbons (read: solvents) are present in normal compressed air and therefore in your regs, hoses and console if you have dived with standard air.
If you want to do both air
and Nitrox diving you have 3 choices:
- get a separate reg/hose/console set for standard air and Nitrox and mark them clearly so you never mix them up!
- have your reg/hose/console oxygen cleaned before switching from standard air to Nitrox. Oxygen cleaning is a proces that removes hydrocarbons from your first stage. Many dive centers that sell nitrox offer this service, but it becomes a little expensive if you switch very often.
- utilize only oxygen-compatible or hyper-filtered air (in which hydrocarbons do not exceed 0.1 mg/m3). Normal compressed air (often called Grade E) does not meat this criteria and oxygen compatible air may be unavailable in many locations.
So here's what you should do.
- Brian, contact Dacor and find out if your set is really incompatible with nitrox. It could be that the warning in the manual was more meant at other gas mixes. But only Dacor can tell you. If it turns out that is is compatible you need to have it oxygen cleaned before using it for nitrox diving.
- Adam, yes you need to have your regulator and your hose and your console oxygen cleaned.
ScubaRon
