Getting Back in the Water, but have an important question

[TequilaBrad]

Sorry to drop in with a question right off the bat, but here goes. Though I am new to the forum, I am not new to diving, been certified over 20 years. Family, kids in school, then college, then marriage, stopped my diving. Now, three friends and myself are wanting to get back in the water.
On June 29th, we took our 12 old (that word is important) tanks in to Burleson Scuba, and Doug Tracey, for Hyrdo, VIP, and Eddy Current testing. We picked them up on June 30th, and they had all passed with flying colors.
The following Saturday, we all went to Clear Springs Scuba Park, and did a few dives.
On Sunday, July 8th, two of us went to Athens, to dive there. That is when things started to go badly. We paid admission, and went to fill our tanks, as they were empty from the day before. They carried them in, but the young man doing the fill looked at our tank numbers, and ran for his boss. An older man came out, and started giving us the riot act, for bringing the tanks in for a fill. He was telling us that he could believe we let his guy carry such dangerous tanks. We were shocked, our tanks had just undergone a thorough testing a week prior. He said he didn't care, those tanks were too dangerous, and we needed to either bleed them off RIGHT NOW, or leave the property, RIGHT NOW. We bled them off, and ended up renting tanks for the dive. He even gave us a list of tanks that are supposed to dangerous. If they pass, are they still dangerous?

We go back to talk to Doug Tracey. He tells us that if they passed ALL the tests, they should be safe to dive with. As I told Doug, he doesn't have a scuba park, and his store is a long drive back, each time we want a fill.

NOW MY QUESTION. There are four of us, we want to dive. We have old tanks. CERTIFIED SAFE, old tanks. We are just south of the Dallas/Ft Worth area. We are looking to do diving trips anywhere from 4 to 5 hours away from home.
I want to know if there are any scuba parks that are willing to let us dive with our old tanks, THEY PASSED. AND, if you will also be willing to fill our tanks when we need a fill.
I already know that Athens is now off our list of dive spots, using our tanks. Is anyone out there, that we can put ON our list?


Should we choose to do lake or river diving, are there any dive shops that will be willing to fill our tanks? Again, THEY PASSED!!!
I have spoken with The Dive Shop in San Marcos, and they are now on our list of" go to" shops. Is there anyone else?
I am posting this to both the scubaboard forum, and the scubatoys forum, so if some of you see it twice, I am sorry. I just want to get to the widest audience possible

Thank you,
Brad

 

[dwaters]

Welcome aboard!!!!

Sorry, can't answer your questions....but I'm sure if you drop on down to your local forum here: Texas Swamp Divers
you should be able to get some local input. BTW, what tanks do you have....there are some old AL80s that are on the "do not fill" list. Check out this:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ta...66-my-cylinder-made-bad-alloy-aka-al6351.html

Glad to see you back into the water...now go get wet

 

[stairman]

IMO its ignorance on the shops part. To my knowledge, only the luxfer 6351 tanks had the bad alloy. Its his shop though and he can do what he wants I suppose, like rent or sell you new tanks sounds like. Its probably best to get newer tanks soon since this guys not alone in his feeling towards all older tanks and the hassle isnt worth it.

 

[herman]

Complete ignorance on the shops part. You can do a search on the board but the short story is Luxfer made some tanks out of 6351 aluminum up until late 88. That alloy has some potential to stress crack around the neck but with proper testing they are not a problem. These tanks need to have an eddy current test in addition to a hydro but other than that they are fine. Some dive shops will not fill any tank older than 90- steel or alum, some will not fill any alum tank older than 90 but the well informed will fill them all as long as they have the proper test done. Are your tanks even aluminum?.....on the neck are they 3AAxxxxx, 3ALxxxxx or some SP-xxxx-xxxxx number? There are a few tanks that can no longer be certified but I would not imagine that a hydro shop would hydro them. This refusal to fill older tanks seems to be worse in Fla and Texas for some reason.

 

[sgl308]

The bad alloy mentioned above is the root of this problem. It is only the aluminum tanks that are affected by this. Luxfer stopped using that alloy in '88 or '89 so most competent dive shops won't fill those tanks if they were manufactured before 1990. All the other shops won't fill ANY aluminum tank if it's manufactured before 1990 simply because every employee is not taught or is unable to determine the type of aluminum the tank is made from. Shops like Divers Direct, where diving experience is NOT necessary to get a job there, won't be able to tell if the alloy used is safe or not.

As far as steel tanks go, there was never a bad alloy as far as I know. I still use steel tanks that were made in the early 70's and they still pass hydro.

So the big question is, were your tanks aluminum and if so, were they made before 1990 (that would be the first hydro stamp on the tank)? If they were, you should plan on getting new tanks since the general consensus with the dive shops is they will not fill aluminum tanks older than 1990.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Or if you plan to dive a great deal from this point on get your own compressor and tell the uninformed to take a hike. If I did not have three shops I can get fills from that are not so ignorant as the one you ran into I'd consider selling some excess gear and buy my own. And just in case I have some steels that I take with me when traveling out of my area where I still want to have my own. Never had an issue with them. Although I am aware of a shop in West Virgina that won't fill lp 72 steels. And they claim to be tech friendly. Talk about stupid.
Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[socaljohn]

Looked at this when I got back into diving and decided to scrap my old AL 80 (1975 tank) as even if it passed hydro and eddy, it was likely the only place I would be able to get a fill without a lot of hoopla was from whoever did the testing...I always say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. There is so much more to this than most folks know. It is hard to bitch too much if someone errs on the side of caution though in the absence of competence.

 

[beaverdivers]

What are the specific markings on your tanks?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

He even gave us a list of tanks that are supposed to dangerous.

Would you be willing to reproduce the list here? And could you tell us which of the tanks on the list are yours? It'd add some context to the conversation.

There's been some misinformation spread around over the years about this issue ... and different shops tend to take different positions. It boils down to shop policy, which is hard to know before actually visiting the shop.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[cbrich]

When I took my PSI/PCI Inspector course, the instructor tried to drive into us; "any Aluminum cylinder over 15 years old should not be allowed in the shop." This was regardless of the alloy type. I have seen old 6351 Luxfer tanks pass time and time again with hydro and Eddie current test. Sounds like the shop/scuba park has a policy against filling these old tanks, whether it's written or not, it's their policy at the moment. The best thing you can do is find another shop that can fill those tanks, or get newer tanks.

It does suck, but there is no pill to fix stupid.

---------- Post Merged at 08:45 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:41 AM ----------

NOW MY QUESTION. There are four of us, we want to dive. We have old tanks. CERTIFIED SAFE, old tanks. We are just south of the Dallas/Ft Worth area. We are looking to do diving trips anywhere from 4 to 5 hours away from home.
I want to know if there are any scuba parks that are willing to let us dive with our old tanks, THEY PASSED. AND, if you will also be willing to fill our tanks when we need a fill.
I already know that Athens is now off our list of dive spots, using our tanks. Is anyone out there, that we can put ON our list?


Should we choose to do lake or river diving, are there any dive shops that will be willing to fill our tanks? Again, THEY PASSED!!!
I have spoken with The Dive Shop in San Marcos, and they are now on our list of" go to" shops. Is there anyone else?
I am posting this to both the scubaboard forum, and the scubatoys forum, so if some of you see it twice, I am sorry. I just want to get to the widest audience possible

Thank you,
Brad

Windy Point at Lake Travis, will fill those tanks, as long as they are in VIP, but don't expect a Good fill. If you want a "Good" fill, a couple of scuba shops are about 15 minutes away.