71.2 cuft tanks

[Eric Sedletzky]

I've been an avid airgunner for years, so I already had both a din and a yoke fill adapter for charging airguns. One day it occurred to me that I could string the two of them together and use them to top my tanks off with. I insert my banjo adapter pressure gauge in the yoke fitting to get a more accurate reading.

Most of the shops around here will give you free fills if you're a regular customer. Getting good overfills on old tanks is a lot more hit and miss. By topping them off myself I know I've always got a decent amount of air.

Scubatoys has got a great deal on tank equalizers/transfill whips.
Tank to Tank Equalizer reviews and discounts, IST

$70 bucks for the transfill whip, another $15 for shipping, so we've got $85.
I just paid $65 and some change for an air card worth 10 fills. It wouldn't take long to get my money back bleeding big HP's into LP 72's.
Buying big HP tanks could be some coin, but I have friends that would loan me big HP's to try out this experiment.

I saw somewhere once one of those huge 4300 PSI Beuchat 190's for cheap. Paintballers like them. I might start looking around for a few of those.

 

[elmer fudd]

I can usually top off 3 tanks generously from one HP tank, but that varies greatly depending on the fills in question. If you're just bringing 72's up a couple hundred psi and your HP tank has 4000 psi, then you'll get several times that.

I wouldn't really want to dive with a Beuchat 190, but even when the pressure in an HP119 has been drained down to 2400, they still have about 90 cf of air in them. That's enough for a pretty good dive by itself.

 

[duckbill]

Also, I am going to aquire a set of twin 45's in the near future (I think they are), 1800 psi w/ a USD one piece manifold. The dive shop will charge me 2 fills for these because they're doubles, it doesn't matter that some singles hold more cubic inches, they don't care. As far as they're concerned there are two tanks period.

This is total BS. Twin 72s? O.K. Independent doubles requiring two connections? O.K. But twin 45s (basic 90 cf fill) with a single yoke connection? Tell them to KYA if they can't see the logic.

I once had a shop try to do that to me with my twin 50s, and they acquiesced once I pointed the facts out to them. How couldn't they without making themselves out to be money-grubbing fools? Standard 100 cf fill with a single hookup. So simple even a dive shop owner should be able to figure it out.

 

[halocline]

I'm afraid their "logic" is, oh look, here comes a customer with two tanks, we can charge him for two fills. This is the same logic that results in $8 pony fills at my LDS.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think they should charge by the cubic foot, this would end all the crap with fills.

If they charged $.07 per CF here's what the prices would be and it would be perfectly fair:
13 - 0.91
19 - 1.33
30 - 2.10
40 - 2.80
63 - 4.41
72 - 5.04
80 - 5.60
85 - 5.95
90 - 6.30
95 - 6.65
100 - 7.00
119 - 8.33
120 - 8.40
130 - 9.10
190 - 13.30
Double 130's (260) $18.20

But this makes too much sense so they will never do it
Back to the transfill whip idea I guess

 

[oldmossback]

I think they should charge by the cubic foot, this would end all the crap with fills.

If they charged $.07 per CF here's what the prices would be and it would be perfectly fair:
13 - 0.91
19 - 1.33
30 - 2.10
40 - 2.80
63 - 4.41
72 - 5.04
80 - 5.60
85 - 5.95
90 - 6.30
95 - 6.65
100 - 7.00
119 - 8.33
120 - 8.40
130 - 9.10
190 - 13.30
Double 130's (260) $18.20

But this makes too much sense so they will never do it
Back to the transfill whip idea I guess

Just think, you're paying for something to put into your tanks that God gives us for free.......Buy your own compressor, it'll pay for itself in time..............then air is free free free again......

 

[Selchie in LB]

Thank you all for this informative thread. For those of us with bad backs, the smaller steels with less weight are very nice alternatives to the Al80s. I suppose either way we have to put the weight on, but for trim the taller steel tanks are better. Double 72s gives me something to think about! It's great to get good tips from the board.

 

[mksmith713]

THEY STOPPED MAKING STEEL 72's SOME TIME AGO ?????????........OMG!!!!!!!
I just bought two brand new steel 72's for my wife last year with a born on date of 2008.
Now you're telling me these tanks are a figment of my imagination?........NFW.....LMAO
Wait til my wife finds out she's been diving with imaginary tanks.

 

[duckbill]

THEY STOPPED MAKING STEEL 72's SOME TIME AGO ?????????........OMG!!!!!!!
I just bought two brand new steel 72's for my wife last year with a born on date of 2008.
Now you're telling me these tanks are a figment of my imagination?........NFW.....LMAO
Wait til my wife finds out she's been diving with imaginary tanks.

Ha, ha, ha!!!

While you're still laughing, what is the pressure rating on your tanks? And, their empty buoyancy?

Thanks.:cool2:

 

[halocline]

I just bought two brand new steel 72's for my wife last year with a born on date of 2008.

Elaborate, please. Tank dimensions, pressure, markings, brand, etc...

I see Faber FX-72 listed on the old TDL chart, 21" tall, 6.73 diameter, about 30 lbs, 3442 PSI. Is that what you're talking about?