Industrial Tank Fills for Air

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

There appears to be a company called Airgas in town that does industrial tank fills including different grades of air. I’ll go there tomorrow and see if any of it is SCUBA quality. I’ll post an update if anyone else is in a similar situation and may be wondering if such an option exists.
If it's being used for breathing air and has been certified as such then it is of "Scuba quality" . Doesn't matter where it comes from. Airgas shouldn't be a problem.
 
...I could theoretically get a tank if I had a place nearby for fills.
We all have been down that 'slippery slope' >>How many tanks to own ? I keep 4 in constant rotation and my LDS is 30 mins away. But I own 10 tanks in total. More tanks is less driving to the LDS.

Others here own WAY MORE personal tanks and can post their tank farm pictures.
(These four going down for VIP and fills)

VIP_labeling2025-GroupPict.jpg
 
The industrial source doesn't do tank fills. You have to buy their tank.
 
If it's being used for breathing air and has been certified as such then it is of "Scuba quality" . Doesn't matter where it comes from. Airgas shouldn't be a problem.
Not sure I agree with this as a general statement. A source can say they have breathing air with contamination below maximum allowable levels. But at 5 ATMs of pressure, those same contamination levels would be 5 times higher, and may no longer be within tolerance. That's what I meant by SCUBA quality air. Effectively, whatever air they have would have to have contamination that's <20% maximum allowable levels if going to maximum recreational depths.
 
I used to use the local fire extinguisher store who also filled tanks for fire departments. Might check around.

Erik
 
The breathing air cylinders available from industrial gas suppliers are often Grade D as that is the OSHA required standard for work at atmospheric pressures. SCUBA is typically Grade E at a minimum.

You can get Grade D & E air and pre-blended Nitrox from Airgas or Linde, but you're not going to like the price - typically more than $0.50 / cu ft, and you'd want a booster to get it out of the cylinder and into your dive cylinder. Tack on the cylinder rental, hazmat fees, etc. and you'll quickly be at $1.00 a cubic foot.
 
The industrial source doesn't do tank fills. You have to buy their tank.
Please explain: They require you to purchase their tank? Or will they also do a long-term rental--say, a year-long contract--and you pay an additional fee each time you drive it over to them for a fill (or each time you call them to have them both pick it up from you and drop off a full one)?

If the latter, then a couple of large rental tanks can serve as a mini cascade system that will provide "many" fills of a LP scuba cylinder (say, an old-school 2,250 psig PST 72). All you would need to make this work is a fill whip. (The large tanks don't actually need to be connected.) And, maybe a two-hand cart (a.k.a., a "hand truck") to facilitate moving these cylinders from your car/truck to your garage and to the business. You'll probably need to have only one of these large cylinders refilled at a time.

rx7diver
 
I have 3 local Fire departments that are willing to fill tanks. It's nice to have a backup. Offering food got my foot in the door.
 

Back
Top Bottom