Air fills in Nitrox Marked Tanks

[AfterDark]

I was wrong I am sorry, no need to be nasty about it ,I did not know thanks for educating me.

Ya need 7MM skin on SB son.

 

[Jay Adams]

I was wrong I am sorry, no need to be nasty about it ,I did not know thanks for educating me.

Ya need 7MM skin on SB son.

I have my drysuit on brother

 

[sea_ledford]

The reality is, you'll get all sorts of goofy things from shops when trying to get a nitrox fill. Sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes out of the need to make money, sometimes for s**ts and giggles.

My favorite example was when I took my O2 clean (yes I know) tank to a shop to get a partial pressure nitrox fill. It was labeled appropriately with a brand new O2 clean VIP sticker, no band. I was told they wouldn't fill the tank because it didn't have a "nitrox clean" sticker in it. I said "You mean O2 clean, like this sticker right here? Or the big nitrox band?"

Nope, she wanted a nitrox clean sticker. I just stated at her. Then I left.

 

[Jcp2]

The reality is, you'll get all sorts of goofy things from shops when trying to get a nitrox fill. Sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes out of the need to make money, sometimes for s**ts and giggles.

My favorite example was when I took my O2 clean (yes I know) tank to a shop to get a partial pressure nitrox fill. It was labeled appropriately with a brand new O2 clean VIP sticker, no band. I was told they wouldn't fill the tank because it didn't have a "nitrox clean" sticker in it. I said "You mean O2 clean, like this sticker right here? Or the big nitrox band?"

Nope, she wanted a nitrox clean sticker. I just stated at her. Then I left.

I have a tank with a VIP sticker with the choice of air, nitrox, or oxygen service. I chose air because that’s what I’m going to use in it locally.

 

[elan]

I honestly want to know, where did you come up with that?
Seriously, did you make it up? If someone told you that, slap them.

You will be hard pressed to find a commercial compressor making non o2 clean air for more than a week. Any normally operating machine will make oxygen compatible air, just because they don't test for it doesn't mean it isn't making it.
A machine with mechanical issues will produce dirty air, it will also fail in short order.
I work on a lot of compressors, I always take air samples with no filtration installed. Testing after filtration tells me nothing about the separators and coalescors. All it tests is the filtration.
Commerical compressors in good operating condition will pass for oxygen compatible with zero filtration installed.

An MCH6, or bauer Jr, no, but those aren't commercial units.

Tracy which part sounds strange ? I guess not O2 mixing “well” with hydrocarbons and producing CO and other byproducts of combustion ? As that’s pretty basic chemistry.
Judging my the response you probably meant the compressor cleanness. I saw it with my eyes when I was doing my inspections. Two stages that I filled at one shop in our area and those were the only stages I took to that shop had walls covered with mist of stuff and some of the drops of a bigger size that was glowing in UV. You can nitpick of cause and say it was not oil but something else and you will have it but it will fail my vip as this matches the criteria for hydrocarbons presence. So my point is that shops that maintain their compressor would likely also do nitrox as they have that clean air, why not? I am not talking about cases like a boat or remote location where o2 storage can be problematic.

Commercial/non-commercial compressors I do not know and do not care as an end user.

Pretty much all the courses that I took that teach nitrox (TDI adv nitrox for example) have this in the books - if you put air on the tank which is o2 cleaned you have to redo the o2 inspection.

To me its a bit of overkill- sort of a blanket statement being on the safe side, which covers cases of a non O2 - compatible compressors.

May be in your neck of the woods they are all nice and clean and modern but here you can find some relics running by shops as I found out myself.

 

[elan]

Where are you people making crap up from and then peddling it as gospel?

Repeat after me:
Oxygen is not flammable
Total hydrocarbon concentration limit for oxygen compatible air is 25 PPM.
Total hydrocarbon limit for breathing air is 25 PPM.
Total hydrocarbon limit for nitrox? That’s right, 25 PPM.

Oil is different.

Most (like 99.9%) of compressors in the first world do not use hydrocarbon oil to lubricate the compressor. The overwhelming majority of compressor owners are using synthetic diesther or triesther oils. If you’re getting your air from a shop using mineral oil in their compressor, you need to find a new shop post-haste.

View attachment 680596

Some of the shops here were established even before Jacque-Cousteau was born and I was lucky to get my fills from one of such shops. sprayed 2 of my tanks. And yes I changed the shop. Not interested to learn what they use but I know they exist and understand now why nitrox courses give that recommendation. If you they do partial pressure they would take care of their compressor. Its a good rule of thumb that has been working for me ever since.

 

[tursiops]

Pretty much all the courses that I took that teach nitrox (TDI adv nitrox for example) have this in the books - if you put air on the tank which is o2 cleaned you have to redo the o2 inspection.

If you check more closely you may find the recommendation is regarding putting unclean air in the tanks; it is not air that is the problem and which causes new O2 cleaning, it is the cleanliness of the air that is put in.

Some of the shops here were established even before Jacque-Cousteau was born

The shops were established before 1910? or is this just another hyperbolic statement?

sprayed 2 of my tanks.

I have no idea what you meant to say.

 

[boulderjohn]

Topping off a Nitrox tank with air is a common practice.

I just want to add that when I and some friends do this more than once, we start calling it "slightrox."

 

[elan]

If you check more closely you may find the recommendation is regarding putting unclean air in the tanks; it is not air that is the problem and which causes new O2 cleaning, it is the cleanliness of the air that is put in.

The shops were established before 1910? or is this just another hyperbolic statement?

I have no idea what you meant to say.

Thats correct - unclear air , and I never meant that the fact the air is added makes the tanks non-clean. If it came as such, sorry.

Yes the comment about Cousteau was a joke

Sprayed with hydrocarbons…

 

[BRT]

LOL

I guess we’re going there ‘again’!

O2 is flammable, low O2 Nitrox (<40%) is not.

Huh? How does their fireplace burn. Oh! The wood is burning not the oxygen in the air.