O-Rings

[olkev]

So, I was in my local Harbor Freight store today for something entirely different and ran across a boxed assortment of Nitrile and Viton o-rings.

Anybody ever use o-rings from Harbor Freight for dive equipment or should I seek out another source? My intended use would be for tanks and tank valves (Viton)

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

 

[Mudbug_CSD]

I think of O rings as being yet another piece of equipment in the chain of things keeping you alive under water.

That being said, do you want to trust things you bought at Harbor Freight to keep you alive? Are known sources of dive O rings really that much more expensive?

(no idea of the reliability of the O rings HF is selling, but basing my bias on prior purchases of other things from HF)

 

[Luis H]

Here one good source for O-rings:

O-rings Online Frameset


The price of many O-rings is as low as $0.02 if you buy like 50 of them. You can get a lifetime supply of tank O-rings for what you would pay for the little pack of 5 O-rings at some LDS.

 

[olkev]

I was really leaning toward the more "traditional" sources for dive applications but, I didn't know if someone knew something I didn't about these.

THANKS!

 

[Couv]

Hello Ol' Kev,

Luis posted a great site to buy o-rings, but I know the feeling, when you need an o-ring and do not want to wait or do not want to purchase in bulk...you just want the darn o-ring.

On to your question. Viton is a trade name of Dupont. The material is FKM (fluorocarbon elastomer) so the real question is: are these in fact Viton? If they are genuine Viton and they are of the correct hardness then you are probably safe in buying and using them. Now, as I said, the material is FKM and there are other manufactures who make good FKM o-ring such as Parker, but that is another thread.

couv

 

[Scubakevdm]

Yeah, just because an oring is the same size, and even the same material the durometer, or hardness of the oring is very, very important, generally with harder 90 durometer orings being used in HP prtions of the reg. You don't want to accidentally slip a 75 in there.

 

[Camerone]

So, I was in my local Harbor Freight store today for something entirely different and ran across a boxed assortment of Nitrile and Viton o-rings.

Anybody ever use o-rings from Harbor Freight for dive equipment or should I seek out another source? My intended use would be for tanks and tank valves (Viton)

They're viton, and they're the correct hardness. I have a batch that I've been using to replace ones inside regulators occasionally. The price is right on them.

That said, you'll be disappointed becaue they're mostly not the common scuba sizes... for instance, the kit lacks #003, which is the HP spool o-ring size... or the #214 or tank neck would need.

The kit does have 10 #112 rings, which are the standard DIN regulator o-ring, but the price is a little steep for that.

I tend to order from Industrial Supplies when I need just a couple. It's entirely reasonable, and they have lots of other cool stuff.

A better choice is Oxygen-Compatible O-Rings and Lubricant for SCUBA Applications (Dive Rite Express) which put together a pretty reasonably priced kit, if you consider the time savings for them to do all the work.

 

[perdidochas]

So, I was in my local Harbor Freight store today for something entirely different and ran across a boxed assortment of Nitrile and Viton o-rings.

Anybody ever use o-rings from Harbor Freight for dive equipment or should I seek out another source? My intended use would be for tanks and tank valves (Viton)

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

O-rings are cheap enough even from dive sources. Stick to them.

 

[Hoosier]

So funny,.

There is NO O-ring ONLY for Scuba. As long as you know the spec. including a duro, you can get it from any reputed suppliers, even McMaster.


Some vendors are arguing about a maid-in china O-ring though. As long as you replace O-ring annually, it is more than enough. O-ring is cheap so that there is no reason to skip an annual replacement. I think it is the cheapest part in the scuba industry.

However, 1 cent O-ring is being sold at $1 at LDS.

 

[Waterskier1]

How do I determine what Durometer I need? I have the parts manual for my Sherwood Regulators, and it lists the O-Rings required along with a O-Ring reference chart. It shows G007A, G010A, G011B, G022A, G025A, and G904A.

I am not sure what the "G" before the number or the "A" or "B" after the number mean. I have checked, and the number (007, 010, 011, 022, 025, 904) all seem to be the correct size O-Rings.

For the Sherwood Valve, the numbers are G014L and G214A.

These are Sherwood numbers. I suspect that the "G" might indicate the material (Nitrile, Vinton, Silicon, EDPM) but I am not sure. And even if it does, I'm not sure which material I want?

I can't find a correlation for the "A" and "B" and "L". The only "B" O-ring is the inlet end of hose low pressure port plug. But there are other O-rings in the low pressure side (2nd stage) that are "A".

I am looking to order a supply from the link in post number #3, but need to know the material(s) and duromenter(s). Right now, I'm not O2 cleaning for OCA, but if the OCA parts are not much more, I'll just stock them in case I decide to use OCA in the future. Right now, I plan on using CB Nitrox with I get my compressor, or just using Grade "E" air.