Analyzing your own nitrox tanks

[krawlings]

Do any of you have experience with the Nuvair analyzer? Please share with me. TIA

PM me with all your question that you want to know I will do my best to answer them

 

[Scared Silly]

I would avoid used analyzers as you will not save any money. The sensor will be used and need replacing soon after you get it. Better to just get a new one and be done with it.

In general this statement is true. However, I would not hesitate to pay $100 for a used Analox O2EII. Sure a new sensor will be a $100 or so but in the end will be less expensive than a new one. The other to remember is that O2 sensors are consumable so check the mfg date.

 

[Peter69_56]

In general this statement is true. However, I would not hesitate to pay $100 for a used Analox O2EII. Sure a new sensor will be a $100 or so but in the end will be less expensive than a new one. The other to remember is that O2 sensors are consumable so check the mfg date.

It depends on the analyser, if its a throw away type after the sensor/battery dies then probably a good idea to stay away from them unless a bargain basement price with some life left. As posted above, any analyser with replaceable sensor/battery is OK second hand at the right price.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Every Nitrox tank I have ever dived has been analyzed -- even in Quintana Roo, where sometimes the max expected depth is 15 feet. If the mix is way off, what else could be wrong?

But I think the OP has asked a question which has direct implications for a lot more than Nitrox. What we are taught to do for safety is often jettisoned as soon as the class is over. I can remember diving with my OW instructor and being somewhat baffled that we did not do a buddy check, since he was the one who taught me that you are always supposed to do that. I've been on boats in various places where my husband and I were the ONLY people doing any kind of dive plan or pre-dive check. There is an enormous amount of casualness in many people's approach to diving, and the scary part is that we all get away with it, until we don't.

The list of people from whom I would accept a Nitrox tank and trust the analysis they put on it is very short, and doesn't include anyone from a shop or a dive op.

I trust no one. Not even Jen. I look at the display and I expect her to look at the display.

---------- Post added February 15th, 2014 at 10:06 PM ----------

Our cylinders, unless marked as Nitrox or Trimix are air. I teach them to read a label. Pretty simple. No need to split hairs. Other shops They need to ask....

How do you know? Does the shop rent tanks? Do they completely drain the tanks when they're returned? If not, then how do you know someone didn't get a prebanked nitrox fill while they were renting the tank? Even air needs to be analyzed.

 

[tstormdiver]

How do you know? Does the shop rent tanks? Do they completely drain the tanks when they're returned? If not, then how do you know someone didn't get a prebanked nitrox fill while they were renting the tank? Even air needs to be analyzed.

It is a matter of elimination. We keep tight control over who uses the cylinder & they have been primarily used for OW classes. There is only 1 other shop within a 100 mi. radius that provides Nitrox (the local quarry). We work closely with them & they WILL NOT fill a cylinder with Nitrox without proper markings & preparations. Heck, I'm even a part time instructor for them, I caught hell for having a Vis inspection sticker that had been partially ripped off due to being drug over gravel. Can it be taken out of the area? Yes,... but they never have been. Most who take cylinder out of the area have their own. We will not rent a Nitrox cylinder without knowing that the renter is Nitrox trained through our shop or without a card. Our nitrox controls are separate from the air controls, so no cross contamination. Only properly prepared & marked cylinders are allowed to be filled. Only shop staff & a few technical divers are allowed to use the air fill system & they know what is to be filled with nitrox & what is not. Is it perfect? No. The world is not perfect. But, every reasonable, thing has been done to reduce the possibility.

 

[scadreau]

Another good example is that a "friend of mine" was blending for a deep deco dive. Two tanks were the same size. One was blended to 21% O2 and 35% HE. The other was just 50% Nitrox. Because there were many tanks for all of the divers on the dive, things got confused. The 21/35 was labeled as 50 and the 50 was labeled as 21/35. Had the tanks not been analyzed, the switch at 170' to 50% could have been deadly.

 

[The Kraken]

Without fail.

 

[Ste Wart]

Out of the guys I dive with, I would trust a select few to do it for me.

However apart from sudden onset explosive diarrhoea I couldn't think of a reason why I would get them to do it.

 

[maniago]

The El Cheapo II is a good analyzer and its a no brainer to build. Id even go so far as to say that if you can't build it, youre in the wrong hobby - scuba gear is way more labor intensive than the elcheapo is to build.

But I have found that few know HOW to use an analyser properly. I saw one person just about blast the thing over board while trying to get a reading. And then kept on doing it. Ack! Use some common sense please.

 

[MrChen]

I think it happens because you learn lots of rules in your training, then you get in a boat and find that nobody is following them. You assume the people there are more experienced than you and know what they are doing, so you go with the flow. I'm. not defending that behavior but it is tough for a newly-certified student to make that stand. I think I've been on enough dives now to see that this is a real problem.


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Syn, did this happen while you were down here in FL?

---------- Post added February 17th, 2014 at 02:03 PM ----------

I've been to a couple of shops which seem to not care if you analyze or not and others expect a signature on their clipboard. Even those that didn't care had tape, marker, and an analyzer for use. But each shop I've been to in the area has analyzers and when I dove and rented tanks with Abernathy, they had one on the boat.