Do Tanks Have A 5 'hydros' Limit ?

[Rich Keller]

I'd be finding a different hydro facility to take my tanks for hydro, and since Scubatoys supports this by sending clients tanks to them, a new diveshop as well.


Bob

Agreed, this is just an arbitrary limit set by someone with no idea what they are talking about. I would take my business to someone who does know what they are doing instead.

 

[redacted]

So I dropped by Scubatoys this afternoon, to pick up one batch of tanks and drop off a second batch of tanks (for assorted visuals/hydros) and the gentleman at the counter mentions there is a '5 hydros and you're done' limit on the maximum number of hydros tanks can go through. (it's not a Scubatoys enforced limit, but apparently from their hydro services supplier.) I doubt this is a DOT or legal requirement but perhaps this hydro shop has implemented their own strange rule ?

I'd brought by a few recently acquired galvanized steel tanks and the gentleman cautioned me to shop for recent vintage tanks, with the least number of hydros possible, so as to postpone for as many years as possible hitting this '5 hydros' limit.

Anyone else ever heard of such a thing ???

Another possibility is that you managed to hit a nerve on the gentleman at the counter with your parade of tanks not bought there and he took the opportunity to knock some of the air from your sails.

Not that a dive shop would do anything like that.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

Another possibility is that you managed to hit a nerve on the gentleman at the counter with your parade of tanks not bought there and he took the opportunity to knock some of the air from your sails.

That's definitely not Scubatoy's style. Unlike the majority of dive shops, they actually comprehend successful business practices.

 

[redacted]

That's definitely not Scubatoy's style. Unlike the majority of dive shops, they actually comprehend successful business practices.

I know they used to when they first started ( regulator parts sales) but that was quite some time ago.

 

[Nettie-NZ]

Hoop wrapped tanks and hydro testing - that takes me back to my student days (a couple of years ago now...)
I had a job at the local industrial gases supplier which did a lot if the hydro testing of gas tank including dive tanks for much of the South Island of New Zealand.
Some mountain climbers brought in some composite tanks - which was the first time we had seen any. I think they were going to be used for a climbing expedition overseas. The thing was that they were so new (at least in NZ) that the tanks sat around for a couple of weeks so people had time to work out exactly what procedure to use to inspect and hydro them!

 

[DA Aquamaster]

My favorite incident involving tank re-certification took place with a second lieutenant who was the working in the base recreation office. He brought in a couple AL80s that were due for a hydro test and wanted to know what kind of deal he could get on 30 hydro tests as all 30 tanks were coming on the 5 year mark.

The question he was asked was "Are all 30 of them stamped "USAF" just like this one?" He said "yes" and rather proudly explained that he was concerned they could be stolen and he consequently stamped them all "USAF" to discourage theft and make them easier to recover if stolen.

The problem was that he had stamped them with 3/8" high letters in the middle of the tank sidewalls - in essence creating the equivalent of pits that were too deep to allow the tank to pass re-qualification. We explained to him the critical difference between stamping the shoulder of a tank and stamping the sidewall, and what that meant for his now condemned tanks. We also suggested that while stamping the shoulder would be ok, and that we'd in fact do it for free on his new tanks if he wanted, with only two dives shops in town and not too many privately owned compressors marking wasn't really needed as he could just send us the serial numbers on any stolen tanks. The thief or whoever he sold them to would have to get them filled and they'd show up sooner or later in one shop or the other.

However we let him know that the good news is that there was no need to pay for re-qualifying any of them, that since he would be buying at least a pallet of new tanks to replace them, and since he use the old valves and didn't need new ones, we could give him a good deal on the per tank price, although it was still going to be about $3000 for 30 tanks.

He looked kind of pale as he realized his next OER (and his USAF career) probably just went up in smoke (unless he funded the replacement cost himself), and I don't think getting a deal made him feel much better.

The lesson he learned is the one all 2nd lieutenants learn one way or another - ask an NCO before you do something stupid.

 

[ttriton]

I have a lot of tanks hydro tested for the fire dept and haven't seen any limit talked about, except for carbon wrapped tanks. In the last year or so they require an ultrasound on tanks produced before a certain year, think its about 1990.
If they pass ultrasound, they hydro them and all is good. These have all been AL tanks. They also hydro my dive tanks.
I would find a hydro place and just bring my tanks directly to them. Check with a fire service/fire extinguisher company.

 

[scubatoys]

So I dropped by Scubatoys this afternoon, to pick up one batch of tanks and drop off a second batch of tanks (for assorted visuals/hydros) and the gentleman at the counter mentions there is a '5 hydros and you're done' limit on the maximum number of hydros tanks can go through. (it's not a Scubatoys enforced limit, but apparently from their hydro services supplier.) I doubt this is a DOT or legal requirement but perhaps this hydro shop has implemented their own strange rule ?

I'd brought by a few recently acquired galvanized steel tanks and the gentleman cautioned me to shop for recent vintage tanks, with the least number of hydros possible, so as to postpone for as many years as possible hitting this '5 hydros' limit.

Anyone else ever heard of such a thing ???

I am not sure who made the statement that there are only 5 hydro's to a cylinder but I have to assume that our employee was just misinformed somewhere. To my knowledge the standard aluminum scuba cylinders should be able to be hydro statically tested as many times as it passes. There is no exact date on which a scuba cylinder is set to expire. I apologize for the confusion this has caused but there was no harm meant. We have heard of certain facilities only allowing tanks of a certain age to be accepted but there are extenuating circumstances in those cases and I am guessing that is where the confusion must have started.

Further more Scubatoys does not a supporter or non supporter hydro facilities that impose their own limitations. We certainly expect all tanks to be held to the full limitations of the DOT good or bad. if we had ever found that our Hydro company has imposed there own limitations we certainly would have changed who does the Hydro's.

 

[Wookie]

Much ado about nothing. It's hard being a dive store employee and have to sift the BS from the other BS. Like with anything else in life, we do the best we can with the knowledge we have, and correct our mistakes when shown to make them.

 

[scubafanatic]

Another possibility is that you managed to hit a nerve on the gentleman at the counter with your parade of tanks not bought there and he took the opportunity to knock some of the air from your sails.

Not that a dive shop would do anything like that.

Actually, some of the tanks I brought by WERE bought at Scubatoys, but these days they only sell the Fabers for their steel tank lineup, so there was no animosity by either party in me bringing by my 'mixed heritage' tank fleet. The gentleman at the counter was actually trying to be helpful and 'save' me from buying a used tank passed it's shelf life, nothing to do with me buying new tanks from them that day.
I have spent quite a lot of $ there over the years and I'm sure I'll continue to do so.