1 year old Worthington tank has pitting/rust - is it normal?

[Walter]

Always blow dry your valves before you get them filled. With the regulator off, open the tank valve to blast air out of the tank. If you'll pay attention, you'll often see water being blasted out of the valve. If you don't blast them dry, all that water will be forced into the tank. The culprit is not likely bad filters, or bad tanks, but bad filling technique.

 

[D1v1n]

I just had the same thing happen to me with 2 PST E8-119's. I always blow dry my valves, but who knows. Both of the valves are pro valves, I normally dive din and get them filled without the inserts, my dive buddy told me that I should put the valve inserts back in for fills, and just do yoke fills. I am not really sure if this would make a difference. I was also told at one shop that if filling with din valves, put your finger in the valve, and then blast the air out of the tank to ensure that all the water is forced out of the valve. Sometimes it is possible for water to be trapped in the valve.... Is there any merit to this? Also some shops like to use a water barrel to help cool down the tank during the fill process. I am thinking that either water got in from the barrel or there was condensation in the fill line somewhere. Fortunately there was no standing water inside either tank, and the tanks have never been below 500 psi. I should be getting them back in a week, but everything has to be redone on the tanks, o2 cleaned, etc, oh well..... I also think that like Walter said, it was more than likely caused by bad filling technique....

 

[ONESPEED]

I have seven steel Worthingtons and two steel PST's. All between one and four years old and none have ever needed tumbling. As others have stated, I would look at the source of your fills.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Filling in water tubs can be one source of rust. Dumping tanks for partial pressure blending can also cause condensation to form all over the inside walls of the tank. This is exasperated with nitrox fills by the high O2 concentrations, typically 100% in the first step, with an ending mixture of 32 or 36% (or Whatever %) in the mix that sits in the tank.

 

[deepstops]

The reason I blamed the tank (actually tanks, both PST HP120's) is that although one was filled almost exclusively on the dive boat, the other one was filled exclusively on land. Can't blame the first failure on wet boat fills as it was dry filled at land-based facilities.

Whether it's poor fill station maintenance or poor fill technique, I can't say but regardless, rust results from moisture entering your tank.