4 hydros; NO refill...

[Gone for diving]

I often find experts that should know better, not so much,

All the more reason to fill my own tanks,
I hate dealing with dive stores,

 

[boulderjohn]

Every human being on the face of this Earth is incorrectly certain of many things. I cannot begin to estimate the number of times in my lifetime I have been corrected on something I had been sure was true.

I have been thinking of starting a thread on the most common myths in scuba. This could find a place on that list.

 

[Nemrod]

"after the next hydro" do you mean when the hydro is out of date? Also, assuming you are talking about AL tanks.

I worked in a very busy shop in SoFlo not too long ago. It was very frustrating to get everyone on the same page, aka knowledge, as sometimes the fill bro was either swamped and needed help or not there. So we instituted a policy on AL tanks...No-go on any older than '90. No more studying tanks and their history, and no more filling tanks that we should not be filling.

It PO'ed a handful of customers, but what are you going to do.

No problems with steelies, well except lp72's. I would fill them, but others would not. There was rumor of a local kaboom of one a while back, so that ended that.

It is a free country, do as your shop tells you but so will ex-customers. Most people just rent tanks these days anyway so shops mostly fill their own tanks, for rent. But, I am not sure why their is difficulty with fill policy? Is the tank in hydro, yes or no? Is the tank in current VIP, yes or no? If the answers are yes, fill it, if no, then do not. Why is this complicated? I have worked in dive shops, it was not that difficult for me to look at the hydro date and the VIP date.

James

 

[SubseaSports]

We filled more customer tanks than our own. Thats a lot considering we had a boat and a pool too. We even filled competitors tanks because we had the capacity when they did not. That happened mostly during mini season. We also had a lot of commercial accounts...20+ at a time on top of whatever else is there.
Not many people walked. I have had more people walk due to generic VIPs. Subject for another time.

Not my business so there is that. I will say there is a driving force to sell, so that is what mostly happens...customer gets new tank and old tank is scrapped.

Out of the game now.
Now, I do self serve in N Fl

 

[boulderjohn]

Is the tank in hydro, yes or no? Is the tank in current VIP, yes or no?

A few years ago I took tanks in for fills at an aforementioned shop in South Florida. The employee looked at the brand new VIP sticker on it and did not recognize it. "Who did this inspection?" he asked with clear doubt about whether he would accept it. If it had said "Joe's Dive Shop" or something like that, it would evidently not have been a problem. But this one said PSI and PCI, names he did not know.

"I did the inspection," I said. "I did it this morning."

He looked at me suspiciously, clearly not sure what to do. People can't VIP their own tanks, after all.

"See the inspector number on the sticker?" I asked. "That's my official PSI inspector number."

He was finally willing to fill the tanks, even though he had clearly never heard of a dive shop called PSI.

Now, anyone can go online and order a lifetime supply of generic VIP stickers, and they would probably be accepted without question.

 

[TMHeimer]

Yeah, I've often wondered about those stickers-- not like the hydros when they bore the date right into the tank. I mean, those visual stickers aren't exactly 21st century high tech.
When I first started diving summers in NYC area and needed fills, the shop called my shop in Canada to verify their visual sticker. Good thing their phone number was on it.

 

[PBcatfish]

...The other is Force E scuba in Florida, a shop with several locations that had just instituted a policy of refusing to fill aluminum tanks over 15 years old. That is the very shop I mentioned above, the shop that today has a very different current written policy and that told one person one thing and told me another.

It is evident that there is a history with this issue, and it is easy to see why people are confused.

Discrepancies certainly do exist.

As for Force E, I just looked over at the nearest AL80 that is sitting across the room from me. It has a 1992 first hydro stamp & also a current VIP from Force E. They are the shop that sent it out for it's last hydro, which was 2020. That would seem to indicate that they are willing to send out a 28 year old aluminum tank for recertification.

That shop did have a tank blow up on them several years back, so they can be a bit touchy about tanks. They WILL refuse to deal with Luxfer tanks that are older than a certain year. I think it was in the 1990's some time, but I don't remember the exact year. Others here probably know it off the top of their heads. It was the last year that Luxfer used the other alloy. Older Catalina tanks are no problem for them, as Cat never used the other alloy, or so I am told.

They are also fussy about hydro stamps. They refused to fill my US DOT tanks that were last hydro's in Spain. When I took those tanks to a local hydro shop to get fresh stamps, the guy there just filled them & told me that they were fine because they had been tested to standards that were on par with the US standards. After I explained that other shops would not fill them because they did not share his policy, he then did hydro them for me. Force E was not the only shop to turn down those tanks. Brownies also told me no. As much as I wanted to argue with them over it. I honestly think that they were technically correct.

I also have one of the old 2015 psi 20cf pony tanks that was made out of the bad alloy. I know people with private compressors who would fill it for me, but I would not do that because I believe that those tanks honestly are dangerous. I sometimes transfill about 150-200 psi into it & then use it as a dunk tank. That is to say that I hook a regulator up to it before I soak the regulator in fresh water after a salt dive. That's all I plan to ever use that tank for going forward. I would not put any serious pressure in that tank ever again.

...but that's just me

My policy is - if it has a legal hydro date & it isn't the bad alloy, I use it.

 

[PBcatfish]

...Now, anyone can go online and order a lifetime supply of generic VIP stickers, and they would probably be accepted without question.

Leisure Pro used to sell blank VIP stickers. The shops around me knew what they were would not accept them.

I had a fun time once in a Florida dive shop with a VIP sticker that was shaped like a cactus. They guy asked - What's this? I said that's from Saguaro Dive shop, out in the Sonoran Desert. I got the "you can't really be serious" look from the guy. I had him call the shop & check. Then he filled that tank. The look on his face was priceless.

 

[PBcatfish]

It is a free country, do as your shop tells you but so will ex-customers....

James

That was the case with a shop in Lantana FL. The guy gave me a totally unreasonable excuse why he wanted me to pay him to VIP my tank because he didn't like the VIP sticker that I already had. I put the items I was going to purchase back on the shelf, had him give me my tank back & I never went back there again. That was probably about 10 years ago. It's a shame. That was the closest shop to my house.

 

[PBcatfish]

I am not bashing on a store, but a "shop" that @boulderjohn mentions has refused many times to fill in fresh hydro aluminum tanks, steel 72s and in one case a BRAND NEW steel Faber LP85 that I had put a vintage Voit decal on. But, I have had some good experiences with this "shop" and will continue to do business with them, aside from tank filling.

James

Where did you find the old Voit decal?