How old is to old to have a tank filled ???
i have a tank with original stamp date of 4/78 it was last hydroed 2/12. my lds says no one will fill a tank that old
This is a hot topic. A lot of people have strong feelings about this. Different dive shops will treat this tank differently.
- Some shops will not fill ANY tank as old as 1978
- Some shops will not fill an ALUMINUM tank as old as 1978
- Some shops will not fill an aluminum tank as old as 1978, unless they did the visual inspection
- Some shops will fill it so long as it has a current sticker
The #1 shops are just being paranoid in my opinion. There haven't been any wide spread complaints about steel tanks. So to refuse all old tanks is just being a little too cautious.
The #2 shops are either being paranoid or ignorant. Some believe that all aluminum tanks as old as 1978 are ticking time bombs. There is a problem with tanks older than 1990 but with proper testing, you can detect the tanks are about to fail and pull them out of service. No different than a poorly maintained modern tank.
The #3 shops are being distrustful. There is a higher probability that a tank from 1978 is going to fail. If you work in the industry you have heard at least one story of shops passing a tank without properly testing it, either by ignorance or laziness. So having a sticker on the tank doesn't always mean it passed a PROPER inspection. I heard of one shop who, when they are busy, will just slap a new sticker on a tank and top it up. They don't even pull the valve. If I did the inspection, I know it was inspected properly and I'll, literally, guarantee that with my life.
The #4 shops just trust it has a proper sticker so it should be safe and they treat it like any other tank.
If you search for "Sustained Load Cracking" (either here or Google) you'll find a lot about the old aluminum tanks and their known issue.
