Although I have only dealt with a position of "good through the end of the month indicated on the sticker", it is truly a case of "their compressor, their rules".....
Question Visual Inspection Expiration Date
- Thread starter Kensei
- Start date
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I have NEVER filled a tank for customer when the VCI sticker indicated that it has been more than 12 months. If it said that the inspection was done in October of 2020, then the last day of September is the last day I'll fill it, no exceptions. I also never had a customer make any issues out of this matter. They are usually receptive to the program and will ask to have their tank vci'ed. My dive center was in a suburb of NYC.
If the customer, a regular customer, and they need to go diving immediately and their tank is out of VCI, I'll rent them a tank for a reduced rate (fill cost) and I'll do the VCI and it will be ready for them after their dive. From a potential liability point of view, I prefer to take the more conservative approach AND be consistant in following the rules.
If the customer, a regular customer, and they need to go diving immediately and their tank is out of VCI, I'll rent them a tank for a reduced rate (fill cost) and I'll do the VCI and it will be ready for them after their dive. From a potential liability point of view, I prefer to take the more conservative approach AND be consistant in following the rules.
Your shop, your compressor, your rules ... but that interpretation is definitely out of alignment with how literally everyone else interprets the VIP date on the sticker. I'm open to being proven wrong (although I don't believe I am), but in my experience, I've not run into a single shop or fill operator that interprets the VIP date this way. You can do what you wish given that the entire VCI program is voluntary.
And it isn't a problem until it is a problem.
Why not 5 weeks? What about 8, 9 or 14? Where does it stop?
We fill based on the end of the month. Why? Because we inspect all month long. Someone who gets theirs done on the 31st is going to be pretty pissed if we short him an entire month based on some completely undefined industry guideline that is not an enforceable rule or law. If you want to get pissy about it, then put the day on there along with the month and year. Then you can justify it. The visual is BS anyway and just a cover your ass thing. No safety issue. Someone can shove a dead mouse in a tank or fill it with a few ounces of oil the day after the inspection. But you don't know that. The visual is a certification good for the 1st fill. Even that may be questionable if the shop's compressor develops a problem that is not caught for that fill. Anything after the 1st fill renders the vis invalid in a technical sense. Even more so if the diver is using several sources to get fills.
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