I picked up my tank rental and the guy says, "don't freak out, it's at 4000 psi" with a grin. Umm, ok... According to my dive logs, 3900 psi was the highest pressure I've ever started a dive with and I didn't have any problems. I figured, what's another 100 psi?
We were doing a shore dive at Blue Heron Bridge and I got there early so I could hook up my reg since I was trying out a new configuration. I wanted to make sure I didn't have any leaks and if I did, I had the tools to reverse the config. Once I hooked it up, I left the tank open after checking my gear (which was good to go) so as to not confuse whether it was open or closed. I remember checking the o-ring at the dive shop and it looked pretty good and I definitely had seen worse. My dive buddies showed up while I was playing with my gear. We got to talking and about 20 minutes later I hear a loud pop and hissing noise. I immediately ran over and shut off the tank. The o-ring was visibly not in the groove of the yoke valve. It still looked usable, but to play it safe I replaced it anyways. Now my tank is at 3700 psi which is the pressure I started my dive at.
But this got me thinking, when is the air pressure just too high? So I looked up the specs on my 1st stage regulator and the number was much lower than 4000. I have a Cressi MC9 and according to Cressi:
- Service pressure: 300 bar (4350 psi) DIN version, 232 bar (3365 psi) Yoke version
What do you do when your air pressure is high, dive it or drain it?
We were doing a shore dive at Blue Heron Bridge and I got there early so I could hook up my reg since I was trying out a new configuration. I wanted to make sure I didn't have any leaks and if I did, I had the tools to reverse the config. Once I hooked it up, I left the tank open after checking my gear (which was good to go) so as to not confuse whether it was open or closed. I remember checking the o-ring at the dive shop and it looked pretty good and I definitely had seen worse. My dive buddies showed up while I was playing with my gear. We got to talking and about 20 minutes later I hear a loud pop and hissing noise. I immediately ran over and shut off the tank. The o-ring was visibly not in the groove of the yoke valve. It still looked usable, but to play it safe I replaced it anyways. Now my tank is at 3700 psi which is the pressure I started my dive at.
But this got me thinking, when is the air pressure just too high? So I looked up the specs on my 1st stage regulator and the number was much lower than 4000. I have a Cressi MC9 and according to Cressi:
- Service pressure: 300 bar (4350 psi) DIN version, 232 bar (3365 psi) Yoke version
What do you do when your air pressure is high, dive it or drain it?