2 Steel 120's or 4 Al 80's?

[Snake101]

Long story short I am getting some store credit and need to decide on what to get. Tanks are a must since they are the last pieces missing from my dive kit. I have narrowed it down to getting either 4 Aluminum 80's or only 2 HP Steel 120's. I do a lot of spring/ cavern diving but am trying to expand to ocean diving more. I like the idea of having more time for a single dive but I would loose the ability to dive multiple tanks/ sites and would be loosing some cubic footage if I went with the steel. Both options cost the same so I am just trying to figure out which one would be best. What do you guys think?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[cephasiii]

Are you certified as a tech diver? If you are, might want to look at steel 119 and 1 or 2 40cuft for deco gas. If you are not, steel 120s would extend your bottom time greatly, especially I'd you use enriched air. But honestly, it all depends on the type of diving you will be doing and what your buddies will be carrying. No one tank is perfect for every dive.


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[Paladin]

Long story short I am getting some store credit and need to decide on what to get. Tanks are a must since they are the last pieces missing from my dive kit. I have narrowed it down to getting either 4 Aluminum 80's or only 2 HP Steel 120's. I do a lot of spring/ cavern diving but am trying to expand to ocean diving more. I like the idea of having more time for a single dive but I would lose the ability to dive multiple tanks/ sites and would be losing some cubic footage if I went with the steel. Both options cost the same so I am just trying to figure out which one would be best. What do you guys think?

Thanks for the advice.

Fixed that for you!

Personally, I think I would go with four AL80s. Some places I like to dive do not have air fill stations close by. I like having enough tanks on hand for a weekend of diving without long drives to a dive shop. My sons and I have 15 tanks of varying sizes to choose from, including two sets of doubles, so we can load up what we will need and go diving.

We were in your neighborhood the week after Christmas. We stayed at the Gainesville Red Roof Inn next to I-75 and did some diving at Ginnie Springs. It's a nice place. The water was like twenty degrees warmer than the air temp.

 

[Snake101]

Are you certified as a tech diver? If you are, might want to look at steel 119 and 1 or 2 40cuft for deco gas. If you are not, steel 120s would extend your bottom time greatly, especially I'd you use enriched air. But honestly, it all depends on the type of diving you will be doing and what your buddies will be carrying. No one tank is perfect for every dive.


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Not a tech diver but I do cavern and deep dives- I am not interested in more than that though. This would be a tank for me and a tank for my husband/ buddy or 2 tanks each if I went with the AL 80's.

Fixed that for you!

Personally, I think I would go with four AL80s. Some places I like to dive do not have air fill stations close by. I like having enough tanks on hand for a weekend of diving without long drives to a dive shop. My sons and I have 15 tanks of varying sizes to choose from, including two sets of doubles, so we can load up what we will need and go diving.

We were in your neighborhood the week after Christmas. We stayed at the Gainesville Red Roof Inn next to I-75 and did some diving at Ginnie Springs. It's a nice place. The water was like twenty degrees warmer than the air temp.

Thanks- it's late so I apologize for the spelling. Everywhere that I dive pretty much has fill stations within 10 minutes. I literally live next door to a huge cave dive shop which is where I will likely get my fills when I am not out and about. I was thinking with the added air of a 120 and the time saved from ascending to swap tanks/ descending again that it would give me roughly the same bottom time as a pair of 80's. Am I wrong?

Yeah the red roof is 2 blocks and 2 exits down from me. I do Ginnie a lot but I like to canoe in and gear up in the shallows to avoid paying the entrance fee because I am broke. I guess that means that I would not be able to get a tank refill if I wanted though...

 

[Montana Diver]

I currently dive an HP119, which when diving dry gives me less lead needed to compensate for the drysuit. I like the 119 since it is shorter than the 120 by several inches. The 119 is 8" in diameter. It weighs about 10# more than the AL80 however it has lots of gas. The AL80 is actually 77 cuft while the 119 is 123 cuft. I am a follower of NWGratefulDiver who states that to best manage gas reserves, you need 1 cuft of tank for every 1 of depth. This makes good sense to me, therefore I opted for a larger tank.

The only error I made was in not using oxygen compatible air for all my fills. I had to have my tank and valve cleaned this winter to start diving nitrox.