tanks and nitrox stickers

[Rick Inman]

... They start quoting a well known training agency telling me that if the tanks were empty even for a moment, the VIPs were void and they had to be reinspected so they couldn't put stickers on them...

Which is why I always tell the shop, "No, I never empty the tanks. I always leave a good 14.7PSI in them."

 

[SparticleBrane]

is it the ones who do the backyard gas blending off the homemade systems, that we the dive shops have to be worried about.

like pearldiver said, if it does not match what the log they have says, they didnt fill it. it is a big safety issue that you just dont seem to understand. if we didnt adhear to these guidelines that the cga has, and big brother steped in, it would be a lot different.

so before you start to whine and cry about how the dive shops treat the customers like s**t, stop and think for a minute about this. you can continue to go to leisure pro, scubatoys and the such, but if they dont do all of the filling that normal shops do, they dont have that insurance liability to pay for.

so take from this what you like. i am not on here to make friends, and if you dont like being informed on the issues that you complain about, go find another sport to get into. otherwise suck it up and understand that we do this as safety measures, not as a revenue generator.

and you know if i only influance one person with this info then it is worth all the hassel.

Unfortunately it is attitudes such as yours that send divers away from dive shops in droves.

I've had different dive shops try to require that I put Nitrox bands on my tanks. My response is always, "That's okay, don't worry about it. If you can't fill them, I'll take them somewhere else." They've always backed down and filled them. But, you have to mean it because they might call you on it. However, I'm not bluffing and really would walk.

About two years ago I had a local shop refuse to fill my doubles with nitrox because they didn't have the wraps on them. I had already set down my doubles, ready for filling. Due to school obligations I was unfortunately getting my cylinders filled at the last moment (the dive was the next day and the boat left at 7am).

I picked my doubles back up and walked straight out of the store. Then I called my favorite dive shop an hour and a half in the opposite direction of the dive and drove straight there.

My dive buddy needed some rental tanks, so I asked about getting those as well.

When we arrived it was almost closing time but they had the rental tanks sitting there ready to go (filled with 32%, and all I did was ask over the phone if they have any).

They stayed late to fill my doubles, we paid less than we would have at the original shop, and then drove 4 hours to the beach.


They filled my tanks to exactly the pressure I wanted, with exactly the mix I wanted, without any hassle over nitrox bands or any other ridiculous shop policies.


If you want that kind of customer loyalty, Davidstealey3, maybe you should start re-evaluating your policies and how you treat your customers.

I vowed never to patronize the original shop in question again. Thankfully after a bit I spoke with the owner, and we have since reconciled -- they are now going to fill tanks without nitrox bands if you sign a waiver which they'll keep on hand (it isn't perfect but it is a start).

 

[Chugwhump]

I am constantly amazed by the snarling, disagreements, and gnashing of teeth regarding Nitrox/Voodoo/Not Your Tank/Whatever stickers on tanks.
I was breathing 21% Nitrox safely long before anyone demanded that I mark my tanks.
I have not to my knowledge huffed anything but "greater than 21% O2" gas for over 8 years.
I guess I am just blessed to live really close to a "techie" kinda LDS in Pompano Beach Florida that has canned premix at 32% ,36%, and 40% along with several other dive shops that do PP fills and not do demand the "Official" (whatever that means)
"other than air" stickers on the O2 service rated tanks that they fill.
I went through some aggravation in the Florida Keys a few years ago regarding "Other than Air" fills in the Florida Keys on my "unmarked" tanks, and after a short time found some shops that were agreeable to my style of tank and gas management throughout the Keys.
I absolutely respect and understand that there are Dive shops that do not want to fill tanks they regard as a danger or liability. I support their decision to run their businesses in a manner they think safe, prudent and profitable.
No worries here.
I also absolutely respect and understand some Divers that will not shop with these businesses because they do not agree with the way that these businesses do things.
No worries here.
Everybody does it a little different in a lot of different little ways.

I am good with that.

All this being said, I am seriously glad that I can afford to have a truck, and a garage that I have 11 tanks and can bring my gas with me, anywhere I would choose to go diving to this point.
Chug

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Which is why I always tell the shop, "No, I never empty the tanks. I always leave a good 14.7PSI in them."

That's good...

 

[WD8CDH]

so you dont use a nitrox sticker. but in a way you are still changing the markings on the cylinder by relabeling its contents. so in effect you are adhearing to these recomondations.

is it the ones who do the backyard gas blending off the homemade systems, that we the dive shops have to be worried about.
<snip>

I don't use a Nitrox sticker. I don't use a Trimix sticker either. I just use a contents label and the O2clean/VIP sticker. I don't use a MOD sticker either because the dive plan may call for a PPO2 of 1.4 rather than 1.6.

.....and I have a backyard homemade gas blending and analysis system that is far better than any that I have ever seen at a dive shop and better than most expedition systems (NIST tracable).

And I still check the PPO2 at the dive site before each dive.

 

[redacted]

David, I am curious about the name of the shop(s) you represent.


All the best, James

I think he may have smelled a trap.

 

[HowardE]

Ok, so you O2 clean my tanks, then fill them. I then go diving for the next two months and fill my tanks with regular air from my home compressor. I tend to be suicidal though so I use a gas compressor, with no venting and just use an old oily rag as my intake filter. Now I decide to bring my tanks back to you because I want some good ole O2. You cleaned them, but you have no idea what I put in them.

It's not the shop that's going to have the problem - it's the guy breathing the potential mixture that would suffer. The due diligence is on the end user to be responsible for their own health.