can i use a SCBA to fill my SCUBA tanks?

[Sm0g]

hey im wondering if i can use a standard SCBA filling station with a SCUBA adapter to fill my tanks? thanks for help!

 

[mrfixitchapman]

Go here. Click. Buy.

SCBA Accessories (Fire Fighting) - North Shore Compressor Store

DC

 

[fdog]

Briefly, yes.

It would benefit you to make sure the SCBA fill station has had it's air analyzed, and it is at least Grade E compliant.

...of course, this assumes you only want air, and that particular cylinder will not be used for partial-pressure (PP) blending for nitrox. If your cylinder has a sticker on it that says "Cleaned to Oxygen standards" then I wouldn't reccomend using SCBA station air, as it is rarely intentionally filtered to the quality of "Oxygen Clean Air", and using non-O2 clean air will contaminate the cylinder such that it could not be used for PP blending. (But, it would be perfectly fine as plain old air)


All the best, James

 

[Sm0g]

Would grade d really make a difference?

 

[Sm0g]

well, is there anyway to convert or make a grade d filling station to put out grade e air? maybe buy a new filter or something?

 

[CraigAClark]

If you are talking about a containment fill station, you should make sure that it is designed to accept the bottles you intend to fill. Some units will accept 80's but nothing bigger. As far as air grade, what makes you so sure you are only getting Grade D. Have you had it tested or is your compressor a small portable?

Craig

 

[rhwestfall]

the local VFD saved our bacon on a dive trip way too long ago... Our compressor (which we had brought along with us) would not work (3-phase on 1-phase service - yes, we were dumb!). We brought our whip to them, they hooked it up to their system, and filled out tanks.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL VFD - THEY DO MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!!!!!!

 

[fdog]

Would grade d really make a difference?

Yes. Breathing air at depth changes the effects that contaminants have on your body. Grade D has no spec for hydrocarbons, and Grade E has a rather tight limit; and, there's a narrower limit on O2 percentages. Here's a good reference.

well, is there anyway to convert or make a grade d filling station to put out grade e air? maybe buy a new filter or something?

There's many factors that affect filtration. Simply dropping in a different filter cartridge is rarely the answer.

The biggest factor, surprisingly, is cubic feet per minute. This governs the dwell time, or, how long the air stays in contact with each layer of the filter. Air that passes through too quickly has insufficent time to allow the media to absorb the contaminants. Hence, filter stacks are rated for a particular filtration grade at a particular CFM. A small filter can become surprisingly efficient at very low CFM rates (say, 2 CFM); a large filter can produce very poor filtration when pushed to double its rated capacity.

I presume you work for a fire department, and this is why you're asking all this, because you'd like to fill your SCUBA cylinders from the SCBA fill station at work. As a point of reference, our fire department has three mobile SCBA fill apparatus. About 10 years ago they were all updated to produce Grade E air. The filter stacks roughly doubled in size.

There are aftermarket filters you can place in-line with your cylinders as you fill them. It's been a while since I looked them up but they were expensive, in the range of $600 IIRC, and they had amazingly slow CFM rates, (maybe 3 CFM? Can't recall here, sorry) so they were more a PITA than a real help.

Soooo, the short version is if you want Grade E air, then you really need a compressor/filter stack assembly that's designed as a whole to produce that grade.

Probabally not the answer you're looking for, but so be it. For the record, I fill SCBA's at work, and all my SCUBA cylinders at the dive shop.


All the best, James

 

[scubaboat]

I look after the scba fill station for our fire dept. same filter... molecular sieve ..Hopcalite ... charcoal ....same commpressor as a dive shop so the air quality is good the only thing is our scba bottles are 2250 and our fill station can not be changed above this foir saefty reasons ..that is the only issue I see

 

[jbomb001]

I fill mine at my station all the time but we have a mako compressor grade E all day long yumm.

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