anybody use the XS HP (3442) galvanized steel tanks?

[mkaug]

I've had tanks from worthington that weren't even the same size as each other, and they were bought at exactly the same time from the same batch.

We had to go through 5 tanks before we found 2 that differed by a small enough amount that they would work for doubles. These were X8-130's

Holy crap, you doubled up 130's!!

And the discrepancy in size wasn't due to the tank boot or the valve was it?

 

[limeyx]

Holy crap, you doubled up 130's!!

And the discrepancy in size wasn't due to the tank boot or the valve was it?

Sometimes you got to do what you got to do -- the gas goes quickly at 190 (which is the next class I am due to take next year)

The discrepancy seemed to be the tank necks were all cut differently.
The dive store owner claimed XS scuba told him that with the larger tanks it was almost impossible to find two the exact same. Sounds odd to me, but there you go.

Some were off by probably 1/2" or so

 

[rongoodman]

So the discrepency was in the lengths, rather than the diameters of the tanks?

 

[limeyx]

So the discrepency was in the lengths, rather than the diameters of the tanks?

yes. The bands seemed to fit all 5 tanks just fine, the tanks were just not level on the bottom, which puts extra stress on the manifold.

For singles, no big deal but if you plan to double them later, definitely a problem.

 

[Leadking]

Tolerances from Worthington are +/- .250" . When selling multiple tanks we ask if they're being doubled and have a set of 36" calipers and sell matched pairs.

 

[oxyhacker]

Interesting, if you do the math the difference between capacity of a + .250" tank is about 14% greater than a - .250" tank - more than the difference provided by the 10% 3AA "+" overfill everyone worries about! So maybe not so dumb to take calipers along when you go tank shopping, to get not just matching tanks, but bigger ones.

Tolerances from Worthington are +/- .250" . When selling multiple tanks we ask if they're being doubled and have a set of 36" calipers and sell matched pairs.

 

[Leadking]

The .250" is only the height tolerance not the diameter. The capacity difference would only be about 1% .

 

[Hoosier]

Tolerances from Worthington are +/- .250" . When selling multiple tanks we ask if they're being doubled and have a set of 36" calipers and sell matched pairs.

So, what happens if I get the tank one by one? For example, I got four W. tanks from one shop to double up 2 sets at the same time. But, I don't think they matched pairs before shipping it out.

 

[limeyx]

So, what happens if I get the tank one by one? For example, I got four W. tanks from one shop to double up 2 sets at the same time. But, I don't think they matched pairs before shipping it out.

You might well be SOL. I ordered 4 at the same time from the same store through XS scuba and had a hard time matching them.

XS told my dive store (or so my dive store told me) that they could not possibly open all the boxes and actually measure the tanks (even though they knew they were being used for doubles) so me and the dive store had to play "mix n match"

Not sure if the old PST's have this issue (not heard of it)

 

[Hoosier]

You might well be SOL. I ordered 4 at the same time from the same store through XS scuba and had a hard time matching them.

XS told my dive store (or so my dive store told me) that they could not possibly open all the boxes and actually measure the tanks (even though they knew they were being used for doubles) so me and the dive store had to play "mix n match"

Not sure if the old PST's have this issue (not heard of it)

Oh~~~ Gee~~~ I got four tanks to double up 2 sets a few month ago through Seapearls and even, don't open the boxes yet......

I doubled up the tanks (luxfer and pst) several times by myself, but I didn't have any issue so far. How could you find out that it isn't a matched pair?