Bad Air

[pablosells]

I just got back from a 3 week trip in Fiji and I had a strange/bad experience with one of the 3 dive operators that I tried. As most dive operators do, they setup my gear for me and, while double-checking everything on the boat, I took a breath from my regulator and noticed that the air tasted bad and left a taste on my tongue.

I know I shouldn't have but I ignored it when one of the other divers told me that his air also tasted that way and it had on the prior day's dives.

The taste dissappeared at depth but after the dive it stayed on my tongue for a while. When I spoke to the dive shop they didn't believe me at first until the second diver chimed in and we actually started smelling the air from the tanks and it had the same smell/taste.

Before the second dive of the day (we returned to shore) they assured us that they had checked their compressor and filter and that the smell was harmless and was due to humidity in the carbon filter.

I did the second dive and then later brought this up with the resort management who told me that the air was fine, that no one ever complained, and that if I wanted to skip the rest of my dives that was fine with them,

I'm not a novice diver (nor am I experienced with only 100+ dives) and I've never had this kind of experience before. None of the other divers chose to stop diving even though some of them acknowledged the taste/smell and some even felt weird after the dives.

Is this kind of problem normal with carbon filter systems? (I was told that to make the problem go away they would have to upgrade to a silicon gel system) In any case, how do you tell a dive shop operator that this is a serious issue? Why would other divers (who appear to be more experienced) completely ignore the problem?

 

[skinnydogdives]

there was a problem recently in a dive centre near me that had air that smelled bad after fully testing it turned out that they were hanging their suits in the compressor room and it was the drying suits that were making the air smell. it was still perfectly safe to use
may be something similar

 

[Diver0001]

It's quite possible to have an oily smell/taste from a compressor from which the filter hasn't been cleaned on time or properly. My guess is that somehow oil from the compressor can get into the tank. The dive-op is quite aware that this can happen.

Obviously any time you smell bad air you should scratch the dive for your own safety. This is the main priority regardless of the cost.

Compensation from the dive-op will depend on how convincing you are. Some dive-ops will want you to be satisfied at their expense. Other dive-ops would prefer for you to post a very negative report on the largest scuba related site on the internet.... (hint, hint).

R..

 

[Paco]

I wouldn't take a chance with suspicious air. Under increased partial pressures, who knows what you're taking in?

 

[rjack321]

The activated carbon in the filters is never, ever supposed to get wet. There should be a suitable quantity of regularly changed dessicate before that point. The fact that the facility didn't know this and admitted their charcoal was wet is cause for serious alarm.

Many compressors around the world are setup with inadequate ventilation and poor filter maintenance. You did what you could to inform them of the situation, I'd avoid them in the future. Volatile vapors in breathing gas have been linked to more than one death over the years (probably more if air analysis was done more regularly).

 

[Scuba Jerm]

I just got back from a 3 week trip in Fiji and I had a strange/bad experience with one of the 3 dive operators that I tried.

What dive operation was it?

 

[Melicertes]

Air that does not smell or taste like it normally should raises questions in my mind for certain. Although carbon monoxide is a tasteless, colorless, and odourless gas, the presence of other contaminants in the air in a cylinder may well taste and smell bad and *may* therefore *possibly* indicicate the presence of CO also. Airfill compressor intakes that are not properly positioned may contaminate compressed air with exhaust fumes from a fuel run compressor, especially if it is located in an enclosed space. Note that electric motor compressors elliminate this problem, at least they elliminate it to the degree that they do not generate exhaust fumes themselves that could contaminate air at the intake; this doesn't exclude other sources of contamination from still being a problem however.

We all know how foul smelling exhaust fumes can be and it often leaves an aftertaste on the tongue just by being near it.
CO poisoning is not something to be messing around with. At depth partial pressures that would normally be okay at the surface could very possibly become dangerous at higher ambient pressures like when diving.

For a very superficial overview of carbon monoxide and it's properties have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide

If I got bad smelling/tasting air on my cylinder fill, I'd be very reluctant to use it without getting a more reliable and trustworthy answer than just "nobody else has complained thus far, our air is A okay!"

I'm not saying that your air was necessarily contaminated with CO, just that I'd be very careful given the red flags you mentioned.

 

[ScubaTony]

I have had experiences with contaminated tanks. The fills were good but the tanks had salt water inside which went south and caused the air to have a very slight musty smell. No taste as I recall. Problem was that the water in the tank loosed some oxidation in the aluminum tank which then (as the pressure dropped) clogged the tank valve. When the diver turned upside down to look under a ledge she had a complete and instant air failure. No worning. Just out of air. Not good. Rental tanks don't get taken care of as well as we would all hope.

 

[pablosells]

Thanks for all the posts. I feel pretty stupid for not having cancelled my dives.

I have no problem naming them because I don't feel that there really was any room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation:

I first spoke with the dive shop who told me that they pulled the filters and cleaned the entire system. The problem did not go away and I then spoke the the resort's General Manager who said that their air was fine and no one else had complained (which wasn't true because I had spoken to another diver who had the same issue). The general manager's solution to ruining the dive portion of my trip: "Now you can spend more time in the spa!" Nice.

The dive-op is Dive Namale (at Namale resort) in Fiji.

 

[Diver0001]

Thanks for all the posts. I feel pretty stupid for not having cancelled my dives.

I have no problem naming them because I don't feel that there really was any room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation:

I first spoke with the dive shop who told me that they pulled the filters and cleaned the entire system. The problem did not go away and I then spoke the the resort's General Manager who said that their air was fine and no one else had complained (which wasn't true because I had spoken to another diver who had the same issue). The general manager's solution to ruining the dive portion of my trip: "Now you can spend more time in the spa!" Nice.

The dive-op is (at Namale resort) in Fiji.

Well done. I put it in the title so it will get caught by the seach engine.

R..