Article: Are you Diving with the Right Tank?

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Glad you got the metal right.

AlumInium :D

Good blog, divers should take a closer look at their own tanks.
Can't do much about rentals, they mostly have one size(and for me,I couldn't care less)
But when you buy, you should take a REALY close look at what you NEED
We had a "fasion"here,short 12L tanks,they where cheap, so everyone bought one.
Well a small top heavy diver was\the result. They're all on sale now.
Think before you buy.
 
Steel 100 tanks are the best and can be doubled up later on for tech diving!
 
Having steel 120s in Cozumel was just heaven! Dives were all over an hour, and we saw some deeper stuff than the 80s would allow
[video=vimeo;39891181]http://vimeo.com/39891181[/video]
 
Are you Diving with the Right Tank?
Depends on where I'm diving, if in some nice warm tropical water, would prefer an aluminum tank, when diving here on the north coast of California 46 degree salt water, would prefer the HP Steel so I don't have to wear so much lead.
 
@zinmaker, exactly. For me, diving with steel tanks locally in Monterey/Carmel is perfect. I plan to rent aluminum tanks when I travel to dive in the Caribbean and South Pacific. Figure if I do 100+ dives a year locally the steel tanks are worth it. Add another 100 for warm water dives can use rentals for that.
 
Sheri,

Your article neglected to mention a significant downside of diving with PST, Worthington, and Faber (and other) high pressure steel cylinders. A recreational, open water diver should be weighted such that, with a full cylinder and a completely empty BCD, he or she should be able to establish *positive* buoyancy at the surface by simply dropping his or her weight belt. However, when full, these high pressure steel cylinders are so negatively buoyant that a diver just might not be able to do this—especially if he or she is wearing a thin, or no, wetsuit.

And, of course, this has obvious implications for recovering a non-responsive diver from depth, too.

Note: This is less of a concern when using the old steel USD (PST) 72's (71.2 cu ft at 2,250+10%=2,475 psig)—especially when diving in salt water.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver
 
Thanks for this blog. Very informative. including the comments from readers.

rx7diver, I hadn't thought about it but you are correct about warm water diving. I have been offered HP steels when in the tropics before. I declined but not because of this consideration. For the most part, I cold water dive. Drysuit etc requires significant additional balast, so dropping lead is still going to get me positive.

Tanks are such a basic piece of kit and yet I havn't seen such a well composed discussion before. Thanks all.

Paul.
 
Most divers here in Norway dive with steel tanks (200, 232 or 300 bar), the only aluminum tanks I have seen are stage tanks.

A popular choice is the 10L / 300 bar tank (106 cuft / 4351 psi), another one is the 12L / 232 bar (98 cuft / 3365 psi).

(EDIT: This post triggered an itch, so I made a cylinder tank size converter and buoyancy calculator.)
 
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I love my HP 100 steel tanks. I live in South Florida, and the extra gas, plus slightly negative buoyancy at the end of dive, makes it a pleasure for boat dives. If you have ever struggled to stay down at the safety stop, you can really appreciate it.
Minuses: they are expensive and a little ungainly for beach diving.

We also dive a shallow (<15 feet) bridge that is very popular and I use an AL 40 for that. The 100's are too big and heavy, as we park the car and wade in. Since you may have to walk quite a distance from the parking area, the 40 is perfect.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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