Portable CO monitor

[DandyDon]

Since the bump kit is "exempt from HAZMAT shipping requirements," won't it be able to fly in luggage. I suspect the packaging is similar to a hair spray can - but then I've never flown one of those. She did say "leave the bump gas at home."

Edit: excerpting from http://www.airsafe.com/danger.htm

Items That Are Completely Banned

Gases and Pressure Containers: Aerosols (with the exception of personal care items or toiletries in limited quantities in containers sized three ounces or smaller), carbon dioxide cartridges, oxygen tanks (scuba or medical), mace, tear gas, pepper spray, self-inflating rafts, and deeply refrigerated gases such as liquid nitrogen.

 

[Patti Analox]

Hey swamp diver,

Yes, exactly. Even though we were able to exempt the HAZMAT shipping designation (we ship under ORM-D), TSA does forbid the transport of dangerous gases. We will be taking orders at DEMA and shipping ground from our office for the Bump Kits. To be fair, the small size and low pressure of our BumpIt kit "could" make it through checked baggage, but why take the chance? For divers going on trips, I recommend Bumping the EIICO at home and leaving your Bump Kit behind.

 

[swamp diver]

I have looked into this previously and there were three factors which had to be satisfied apparently in order to ship a bump gas container by passenger aircraft.

1) Container type: it had to be aerosol and below a certain volume.
2) Pressure: no more than 25 psig and labeled as such.
3) Contents: it could contain compressed air if it satisfied the above two requirements but it had to be officially labeled as such (think compressed air for camera cleaning). Our compressed air would just happen to have 10 ppm of CO in it, but those bump kits at 50 ppm CO would not pass as compressed air.

If there is good uptake of the new Analox CO unit by the dive community, and I truly hope that is the case, what would be beneficial is to have a local business in each of the major dive destinations, for example Cozumel or the Red Sea, have a bump and calibration kit on hand. This could be shipped by ground to the destination and then divers would be able to bump check units for a fee if staying longer than a week or two.

The air shipping issue had come up previously with some scientific divers who needed calgas in a location they were to be posted at for a month and getting it there by ground was going to be to lengthy a process.

 

[jcroy66]

I noticed this issue of the DAN Safety Stop Newsletter has an article titled "When Gas Goes Bad". If you are a DAN member, you can read the article at Alert Diver Online

 

[DandyDon]

You actually don't have to be a member to read it.

 

[Patti Analox]

Hey Divers, thanks for the link to the DAN Alert Diver article. Did anyone notice the EXTREMELY handsome O2EII Nitrox Analyzer ?

Divers, please do NOT rely on the "sniff" test... CO is odorless and tasteless.

 

[DandyDon]

Hey Divers, thanks for the link to the DAN Alert Diver article. Did anyone notice the EXTREMELY handsome O2EII Nitrox Analyzer ?

Divers, please do NOT rely on the "sniff" test... CO is odorless and tasteless.

That old sniff test is hardly worth mentioning; virtually worthless when you consider that activated carbon filters give false negatives and then the false positives from breakfasts eaten in foreign destinations. :silly: He did add "However, since carbon monoxide (CO) is both colorless and odorless, breathing gas can pass the sniff test and still be contaminated by CO. A more accurate solution to analyzing is the use of a portable sensor," at least.

Really, the article was poorly written compared to the author's previous publications on the subject. There basically are no metal oxide monitors for sale these days and those were predominantly used in the residential detector markets, but most of those manufacturers such as Kiddie have switched to electrochemical sensors. Maybe he had to meet a deadline and didn't have time to look around?

Yes, I recognized my trusty Nitrox analyzer in the pic. Hope to see the CO portable in that magazine someday soon.

 

[Scared Silly]

Hey DD, I have a spiffy new EIICO. THANKS Patti and everyone else at Analox

I will post up more latter in a separate thread.

 

[DandyDon]

Hey DD, I have a spiffy new EIICO. THANKS Patti and everyone else at Analox

I will post up more latter in a separate thread.

Great, link the thread here - ok?

I'm waiting to order mine next month, just so the sensor date will match my reg service date and both good a month later.

I hope it went over well at Dema. So many of the old school pros are just not open to the needed update and someone has to lead the way. Bully for Analox...!! :medal:

 

[Scared Silly]

Patti said they were pleased with the response (i.e. units sold at DEMA). I also noticed another mfg from Italy that had a CO unit for sale. I think the Analoz is a better unit from the form factor and technological view point.