Question Regarding Thermo Valves O2 Policy

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!

tlavino

New
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Greetings, Rick, a followup regarding Thermo's O2 policy. From your web site:

"Thermo scuba valves and scuba valve parts are for either breathing air service or for EAN ready service. The service is shown with the description of each valve or part.

A valve or part intended for breathing air service is designed for Grade E breathing air (21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen by volume) and may not be used for any other purpose.

A valve or part intended for EAN ready service may be used for either oxygen enriched breathing air with a maximum oxygen content of 40% OR Grade E breathing air. However, once a valve or part intended for EAN ready service is used for Grade E breathing air or any other gas other than EAN, that valve or part must then be dedicated to Grade E breathing air service. IF AT ANY TIME AN EAN READY VALVE OR PART IS USED WITH GRADE E BREATHING AIR OR ANY GAS OTHER THAN OXYGEN ENRICHED BREATHING AIR, DO NOT USE THE VALVE OR PART FOR OXYGEN ENRICHED BREATHING AIR THEREAFTER!"

I take this to mean that:

1. Thermo does not recognize "O2 compatible" air, i.e. having the same hydrocarbon, etc. limits that EAN does, in terms of support for switching back and forth between EAN and air, and

2. If your EAN ready valves are used with air (any grade), that they can never again be used with EAN even if they have been cleaned and inspected for O2 service.

Am I correct in my understanding? If so could you explain the reasoning behind these positions?

Thanks, TL
 
I'm pretty sure it was discussed here on SB. Basically if there is an " E " stamped with the number then it's O2 ready. If not, you'll have to clean and prep it for O2 use.

I hope someone who knows more will chime in. But maybe do a search trying to find the thread talking about it.
 
Randy,

Thanks for your comments. The reasoning for our position is that we are trying to state a policy that can be applied to a large variety of instances. While “O2 compatible” air may have the cleanliness to be considered as clean as oxygen enriched air (we are not making any comments about O2 compatible air since we don’t have enough knowledge about it to make a comment), we believe that some breathing air does not have the cleanliness that would keep a valve in an EAN ready condition. With that in mind, we do not think it is appropriate to take a valve that is EAN ready and assume that it is still EAN ready if a gas with an unknown cleanliness level is passed through it. We do not try to define all the exceptions because there are too many to address. We would rather take the safe conservative position and state that you either have an EAN ready valve or a breathing air valve – but not both.

I apologize if it’s not the answer you were hoping for.

Thanks again,

Rick
 

Back
Top Bottom