Air strategy for 4-5 tank dive days?

[BazzaB]

Edit: read it wrong

 

[EireDiver606]

I completely apologise for the misinformation that i shared in my previous post. What i said was rubbish.

I think i was woozy headed myself!

 

[AZTinman]

Interesting to read all of the different strategies posted here. Maybe my thinking isn't complicated enough, but I think I'd dive EAN 32, simply dive my computer, and watch my depths, dive times and surface intervals. Of course, I've always liked to keep things simple. Complicated is, well, too complicated. (LOL)

-AZTinman

 

[ChuckP]

Best mix, least amount of nitrogen makes me a happier, safer man.

 

[Illini_Fan]

If the Nitrox were free or cheaper, then I'd say 32% the whole time. I do that on live-aboards, but the cost per tank is typically in the $4 range (i.e. $100 flat fee, roughly 25 dives for the week). In CZM, the tanks run $10 extra for Nitrox so I'm budget conscious and if I'm doing four dives a day, I'll do two air / two Nitrox. Over a four day trip that saves me $80, which is getting really close to getting a "free day" of diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

I think the cost of nitrox is a problem everywhere. Yes, you typically pay about $10 extra per tank almost everywhere. It can be more. One of the people I dive with would have to pay $25 for a nitrox fill in his home town. There is no reason for that.

Here in Colorado, we don't have enough local depth to justify nitrox, so only a few shops offer it, and they charge those same standard rates. I make my own, and I make it for a local shop as well. I make it the most expensive way, through partial pressure blending, because I don't have my own compressor and can't make a permanent setup. I have to drive 60 miles (round trip) to rent oxygen supply bottles, pay rent on them while I have them, and drive 60 miles (round trip) to return them. I could save a lot of money if I were operating out of a permanent shop.

There are additional costs, like oxygen cleaning the tanks, but that is not a big deal. It takes very little time and money to add such cleaning to a regular inspection process.

I charge the people I dive with roughly the amount of money it takes me to break even. I charge by the cubic foot, because we normally use it for trimix and decompression gas, not 32% fills. I charge them 25 cents per cubic foot. That would be about $3 or so for your average nitrox fill. That would be in addition to what it costs to fill the tanks the rest of the way with air.

 

[Charred]

This is strange thread to me. Kind of like debating whether to wear a helmet when you bike.

Some people will say always and other's will say I've never needed one.

 

[horn34]

This is strange thread to me. Kind of like debating whether to wear a helmet when you bike.

Some people will say always and other's will say I've never needed one.

Not really similar at all.

There are a dozen different strategies represented here.

 

[Johnoly]

... That would be about $3 or so for your average nitrox fill..

That's a great price for your area. Do you boost your O2 or do the tanks get drained down if someone was diving thirds as an example.

 

[boulderjohn]

That's a great price for your area. Do you boost your O2 or do the tanks get drained down if someone was diving thirds as an example.

I boost.