Are all the brands of tanks the same?

[pw1981]

I have heard of Luxfer, PST, Faber and a couple others... are they all the same?

I need a pair of tanks, really want steel 100's. I prefer steel for the neg. buoyancy empty in salt. Plus, I like to be able to dive with less weight.

Is one brand any better than another? Also, can someone explain why all the HP Steels come with DIN valves on them? I was under the impresion that DIN was a non-US standard?

If I am using a Yoke forst stage, there really is no point in getting a HP Steel because its only going to work to the yoke valve rating. Correct? I may as well just get a LP Steel in that case....

My buddy has a PST 100 and he swears by it - I like it too because I dive with no weight in fresh water using that tank. I can't seem to find anyone with PST's in stock in Central Florida, but Luxfers are in good supply - I have heard nothing but good things about them but wanted to see if I should wait it out for new supplies of PSTs or some other brand?

Thanks for the info gang!

Phil

 

[Diver0001]

steel tanks can vary a bit in size and weight from one batch to the next and one manufacturer to the other. If you're buying them for doubles then get two tanks that are the same size and weight. Sounds obvious but it might be something you don't think about. Around where I live Faber is the most popular. I don't kjnow much about the others.

All HP steel tanks come with DIN Fittings because the a-clamp fitting can't take the pressure. Most regs can be easily converted.

R..

 

[Atticus]

I live in the US. 10 of my 11 regs are DIN. All my tanks are DIN, but I do have the screw in donuts so I can loan a low pressure tank to a diver with a yoke regulator.

As Diver0001 pointed out, yoke is really not designed for 3500 psi (high pressure steel tanks).

I'm a big fan of low pressure steel tanks. The size difference between LP and HP is not that great due to the reduced wall thickness on LP tanks and you don't have to run the compressor as hard to fill them.

 

[pw1981]

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking online this morning at a few places, and found that Sherwood makes a Yoke valve rated at 5000 and Yoke regs and first stages to handle it also.

I would really prefer the HP tanks... I tend to drink a lot of air sometimes so any way to get a lot of air in a tank is a bonus for me. With an Al80 I can usually get about an hour on the bottom at 25 feet which makes for a very enjoyable reef dive but I want to do a couple of the wrecks around here and need to be at 60 feet for a while so lots of air is a good thing

Not planning on running doubles any time soon; but the tanks will match because I am really anal about that sort of thing. That is a good tip though... I guess I would have assumed that one tank of a size by a manufacturer would be the same as aonthier, never would have guessed there would be manufacturer tolerences that varied enough to matter.

I guess I just need to go shopping for tanks (live we really need an excuse to spend hours in dive shops ) and see what I can find.

I might go with HP Steels and just have the valve changed to a yoke for now, that way I can go back and use the DIN later if I want, but can use the tanks for what I have now without a problem also.

 

[Diver0001]

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking online this morning at a few places, and found that Sherwood makes a Yoke valve rated at 5000 and Yoke regs and first stages to handle it also.

I would really prefer the HP tanks... I tend to drink a lot of air sometimes so any way to get a lot of air in a tank is a bonus for me. With an Al80 I can usually get about an hour on the bottom at 25 feet which makes for a very enjoyable reef dive but I want to do a couple of the wrecks around here and need to be at 60 feet for a while so lots of air is a good thing

Not planning on running doubles any time soon; but the tanks will match because I am really anal about that sort of thing. That is a good tip though... I guess I would have assumed that one tank of a size by a manufacturer would be the same as aonthier, never would have guessed there would be manufacturer tolerences that varied enough to matter.

I guess I just need to go shopping for tanks (live we really need an excuse to spend hours in dive shops ) and see what I can find.

I might go with HP Steels and just have the valve changed to a yoke for now, that way I can go back and use the DIN later if I want, but can use the tanks for what I have now without a problem also.

I would seriously reconsider the yoke thing. There's a very good reason that everyone else uses DIN for HP, namely that the o-ring is captured and can't extrude/leak. Yoke fittings are notorious for that even with normal tank pressures....

Chances are you'll regret combining the two.

BTW a DIN conversion for an average reg will cost about $40-$50. And you'll be off from the weak link.....

R..

 

[Atticus]

I'll second Roturners comments about yoke -- it's really not the best choice for higher pressures. If you do convert your reg to DIN and need to borrow someones K valve (yoke) tank, you can use the DIN-to-yoke converter on your regulator. I often do this on day trips when I don't want to bother hauling tanks around.

One other comment is that you can get LP tanks with the same volume of air as the HP tanks. In general this results in only a small change in tank dimensions and weight due to the thick walls of HP tanks.

I lifted a tank comparison chart from Huron scuba a while back that I use. It can be found at http://www.huronscuba.com/gear/cylinders.htm.

It's important to remember that it's not how many PSI are in the tank, but how much volume of gas (cubic feet). An LP108 will hold about the same as an HP100 even though one is at 2640 psi and the other at 3500 psi.

A common practice is to overfill LP tanks. Without going into the whole debate, let's just say that if you take that same LP108 and fill it to 3000 psi you now have 122cf. If you fill it to 3300 you have 135cf. If you fill it higher then I don't want to stand next to it

 

[UWSojourner]

Would you go with a LP Faber 108 or a E8-119? It seems like the E8 would give you about the same capacity (as the Faber) at 3000 psi, but would make a fill to 119 cu ft available.

 

[iflyprops]

I just ordered an E8-119 from www.scubatoys.com if you hurry up they had one left after I bought mine!! $295 nitrox ready with pro K valve (either yoke or DIN).

Good Luck!

 

[Scuba_Vixen]

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking online this morning at a few places, and found that Sherwood makes a Yoke valve rated at 5000 and Yoke regs and first stages to handle it also.

I would really prefer the HP tanks... I tend to drink a lot of air sometimes so any way to get a lot of air in a tank is a bonus for me. With an Al80 I can usually get about an hour on the bottom at 25 feet which makes for a very enjoyable reef dive but I want to do a couple of the wrecks around here and need to be at 60 feet for a while so lots of air is a good thing

Not planning on running doubles any time soon; but the tanks will match because I am really anal about that sort of thing. That is a good tip though... I guess I would have assumed that one tank of a size by a manufacturer would be the same as aonthier, never would have guessed there would be manufacturer tolerences that varied enough to matter.

I guess I just need to go shopping for tanks (live we really need an excuse to spend hours in dive shops ) and see what I can find.

I might go with HP Steels and just have the valve changed to a yoke for now, that way I can go back and use the DIN later if I want, but can use the tanks for what I have now without a problem also.

You *really* need to just dive a lot for a while, before you buy steel tanks. HP steels are like cinder blocks, and I'm thinking from your location, that you're diving a wetsuit. As you gain experience, your air consumption will improve. The "needing more air" problem will pretty much take care of itself. If you buy big hP steel tanks, you'll be taking on a whole new set of issues, usually more of a problem to deal with than the high air consumtion rate you got them to try to solve.

Steel tanks are expensive, don't rush out to spend your $$ too quickly.

Darlene

 

[SeaJay]

PW, the question you've asked is simple enough... But the answer isn't so simple.

Imagine your kid brother/sister just got a driver's license, and he or she asks, "What sort of car should I buy?"

The bottom line is that most of the tanks on the market have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. Asking, "which one do I buy" isn't really a matter of pointing you to good ones or bad ones, but to certain tanks that have certain advantages or disadvantages.

If you let us know what sort of diving you're doing, then we might be able to make an educated recommendation - or at least tell you what others like you are using successfully.

Questions:

Are you diving in a wetsuit or drysuit?

Are you diving water that's colder than 60*?

Freshwater or salt?

What level of certification are you?

What sort of diving do you plan to be doing five years from now?

How many times a year do you think you'll be diving?

How often do you travel by plane to the dive site? How often do you travel by car to the dive site? Do you have a truck or SUV capable of hauling tanks?

How much boat diving do you plan on doing?

How much "on your own" diving will you be doing? How much will be with a dive shop or divemaster?

How far to your local dive shop?

Are you nitrox certified, or do you plan on being nitrox certified any time soon?

More bottom time is something that we all wish for - and there are some really great ways of doing it. Simply getting a bigger tank isn't the "whole picture." Most people hit their NDL right around the time they are emptying their AL80's. So if you're looking for more bottom time, then you're not only going to need more breathing gas - you're going to need to either extend your NDLs (with something other than air) or learn decompression and plan to stay past your NDL.

...So there's a lot more to the picture than simply buying a bigger tank.

If you can answer the questions above, perhaps we can get you pointed in the right direction...