Use your CO analyzers

[Jax]

I was in Mexico over the long weekend.

After owning a CO analyzer for five years, it finally paid off. Analyzed three tanks above 10ppm CO. The OP did the right things, so they will find out what happened. Just know that at any time, you can get CO in your gas.

 

[cvchief]

I was in Mexico over the long weekend.

After owning a CO analyzer for five years, it finally paid off. Analyzed three tanks above 10ppm CO. The OP did the right things, so they will find out what happened. Just know that at any time, you can get CO in your gas.

Yikes. Who filled them and where?

 

[Hatul]

Can you cite a source for that information?

You can do your own research, but I remember reading the threads and the reports on this and this was the final conclusion.

 

[jfcl01]

I was in Mexico over the long weekend.

After owning a CO analyzer for five years, it finally paid off. Analyzed three tanks above 10ppm CO. The OP did the right things, so they will find out what happened. Just know that at any time, you can get CO in your gas.

Thanks for posting that. Where were the tanks filled?

 

[Murky NZ]

As someone who sells, services and calibrates gas detection equipment and the "analyzers" you are talking about I would be interested to know what gear you are using to test your air. I always test mine but that is because I am lucky enough to have loan/hire gear at my workshop at is very accurate (unfortunately its worth around 50k so not everyone will have one in the car).

Most of the equipment I suspect you are using is built to be a leak detector (even when sold as an analyzer) and will never be particularly accurate at the levels you are looking at. I have tested many different brands around the $500-$1000 mark and found that the spec sheets that say things like 10% variance with humidity/temperature etc are a good indication that they are not particularly accurate.

You're out in a hot day with your meter and you put dry cold air from your bottle onto it and you may see that 10% of range (100ppm range = 10ppm drift).

I measure my air for CO, CO2, H2S, O2% & LEL. If I only had a basic hand held CO detector available I would probably use it but I would be wanting some real lab grade testing done before I went back to my filling station and made a song and dance about CO levels less than 10ppm

Food for thought..

 

[DandyDon]

As someone who sells, services and calibrates gas detection equipment and the "analyzers" you are talking about I would be interested to know what gear you are using to test your air. I always test mine but that is because I am lucky enough to have loan/hire gear at my workshop at is very accurate (unfortunately its worth around 50k so not everyone will have one in the car).

Most of the equipment I suspect you are using is built to be a leak detector (even when sold as an analyzer) and will never be particularly accurate at the levels you are looking at. I have tested many different brands around the $500-$1000 mark and found that the spec sheets that say things like 10% variance with humidity/temperature etc are a good indication that they are not particularly accurate.

You're out in a hot day with your meter and you put dry cold air from your bottle onto it and you may see that 10% of range (100ppm range = 10ppm drift).

I measure my air for CO, CO2, H2S, O2% & LEL. If I only had a basic hand held CO detector available I would probably use it but I would be wanting some real lab grade testing done before I went back to my filling station and made a song and dance about CO levels less than 10ppm

Food for thought..

Blah, blah, blah. The problem starts with the tank fillers not doing the safe job they should, and we can't change them all - not even many of them, and I still wouldn't trust their quality control anyway.

The most popular CO analyzer for the traveling diver is the EII CO Carbon Monoxide Analyzer which does require a bump test before each use to ensure that it'll read some CO, even in a non-smoker's exhale. That's pretty good actually. You may well have better, but if mine says poison, I'm going to believe it unless the dive shop has a better analyzer to show otherwise - but most have none.

Expert labs that use the best analyzer to test air samples sent in by the few who still send have found a failure rate greater than 3%. Not a big number until it hits home.

Thanks, tho.

 

[Murky NZ]

"Bla bla bla" - sorry if I went on a bit, I am not trying to come across as a know it all as I certainly do not. I'm just interested.

What makes you test for CO and only CO? In the testing I've done it is often the other gases that are different to what they should be- something like h2s is far more toxic than CO and CO2 is a huge risk

 

[mstevens]

I measure my air for CO, CO2, H2S, O2% & LEL.

How do you do that on the boat in Cozumel?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

"Bla bla bla" - sorry if I went on a bit, I am not trying to come across as a know it all as I certainly do not. I'm just interested.

What makes you test for CO and only CO? In the testing I've done it is often the other gases that are different to what they should be- something like h2s is far more toxic than CO and CO2 is a huge risk

Why don't you tell us where in the chain from air/O2 tank/He tank to bottle we're going to get CO2? I'll agree that CO2 is nasty, nasty stuff…but if you have enough of it in there to give you a hit, you're going to know fast. Enough CO and you'll think everything's fine until the ascent's dropping PO2 + reduced O2 capacity in your RBCs turns you off like a light.

 

[WheelsUSN]

What makes you test for CO and only CO? In the testing I've done it is often the other gases that are different to what they should be- something like h2s is far more toxic than CO and CO2 is a huge risk

CO can easily be introduced into a tank if any kind of engine exhaust is near the air intake for the compressor. How do you foresee dangerous levels of H2S or CO2 being introduced into your tanks?