Argon Bottles?

[ericfine50]

hello,

Does anyone know where I could get a small 1.5lL bottle here in the US? Looking to rig it for Argon on my waist strap.

Thanks
Eric

 

[omar]

Check out
http://www.divesales.com/
For Luxfer Al
14.0 cuft / 2.90L $93 delivered w/K valve
6.0 cuft / 0.89L $75 delivered w/K valve
You can call them and get the din valve in place of the K. I have forgotten what the price difference was ( I think it was +$15).

omar

 

[ericfine50]

Omar,

Thanks for the information. I was looking for one of those small bottles they sell in the UK. I think it is 1.0 Liter or something. Got the amount wrong last night (to late).


Thanks again for your help
Eric

 

[TexasMike]

Outta curiosity, where does one get an argon fill?

 

[HoosierDiver]

The guy who runs one of our LDS does pretty much any kind of fill that you want. I think he charges $6 for an argon fill. He does a lot of technical diving though (ie. ice diving, training the local police and fire departments to do recovery dives, etc...).

 

[Ferrara]

We're in Lafayette and we fill argon. Just started havn't set a price yet. We just transfill so the cost will probably depend on how good of a fill we can give.

 

[Uncle Pug]

First... we use 6cf and get a couple of dives off of them....

Second... we carry a steel 72 to pre-purge our suits before the dive....

It would be better to prepurge with argon and just use air on the dive than the other way around.

Where to get argon fills???

before I started pumping argon through my compressor into storage steel 72s and our 6cf bottles I just transfilled them from a "T" and as long as we got ~1200 into the 6cf we were good to go.... but I hate giving back that much Ar to the supplier. If I couldn't afford a compressor I would just skip the argon inflation and buy a small (100cf) argon supply cylinder from a welding shop to use for prepurging before the dive and then inflate with air as necessary.... I'm sure you could get free air fills for your small *pony* inflation bottle if you are diving He back gas and need air... if you are diving air or nitrox backgas just use that.

 

[TexasMike]

Explain Pre-purging please. This is the first time I have heard of that term or procedure....

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by TexasMike
Explain Pre-purging please. This is the first time I have heard of that term or procedure....

Hi Mike,
Before the dive we get as much air out of the suit as possible by holding the neck seal open and squatting down... most folks are familiar with this part....

Then we fill the suit with argon...
After filling the suit with argon we purge it out by holding the neck seal open and squatting down again. Two times and the gas in the suit is mostly argon.

We have a first stage with a lp inflator hose attached to a steel 72 containing argon (this can be transfilled with a whip from a supply cylinder at home and the pressure doesn't need to be way up there cause you don't really draw it down that fast.) WE carry this on the boat or in the back of the P/U. You could do the same with your argon inflation bottle but it would draw it down too fast. This way we can keep our onboard bottle small.

 

[TexasMike]

That makes sense.....but still need idea for source of Argon.

Local Welding gas supply?