SwampDiver / Peter ( Master Yoda...
),
Yes, I just read that data sheet.
on the time response.
Both has the calibration certificate at 50 PPM CO.
Just to let you guys know.
I been blowing cigarette smoke so slowly and the QRAE 2 can't indicate 1 PPM, minimum is 2. The ToxiRAE 3 can read 1 PPM.....YIPEEE !!!!! I can only read on decliningh numbers. I have not master the cigaretter blowing technique to get 2 PPM....
, it jumped to 3PPM on light blow of smoke.
Suprisingly the crude blow-smoke test get the reading climbing by 1 second faster on the ToxiRAE 3 this time. I tried a few times. So its true the ToxiRAE is faster response and QRAE 2 aint too bad either.
I played so much with the QRAE 2 just now, it went NEG ( NEGATIVE ) reading after I calibrated in Fresh Air mode a few times. The other RAE manual ( QRAE Plus ) stated that I had calibrated where the CO was not really zero and will get that NEG reading. My QRAE 2 manual did not state anything about NEG reading ( alarm actually ). This is quite a good feature to have..
My Cal-Gas from IdealGas is still in the California Peter. Will leave probably by middle of this month joining my friend's container and I will get it no sooner than end of May 2010. I decided to go for the big ones. 103 Liter of C02 at 10PPM and CO2 at 400 PPM. IdealGas said the content is guaranteed to last 2 years and it won't react with the tank. I think I got aluminum tanks...I forgot..
1 year gas life is good enough for me though. I will buy the cal-gas every year and next one maybe the 43L one.
Since shipping is nearly free, I opted the big tank so that I can play with it for 1st year. All in all US$600 with a special blue hard case carrying bag, regulator and 6 feet of tubing & shipping to California. Same non-reactive regulator can be used seller said for CO and CO2, I think its because of the 10 PPM CO ?
The hassle of the cal-gas import is really painful. By air CALGAZ ( another brand )wanted me to pay US$290 for shipping ONLY, a 103L by air and that is before tax but including a USA HazMat permit. If I choose that method, I guarantee I will need to pay at least US$200 or more to clear Indonesian custom because tax is CIF based. That will cost me total US$700 just for the 103L CO gas only, no regulator....man, that is painful. The regulator will be taxed at least 30% CIF too...holy cow !! All in all I could end up paying US$1,000. Good thing my friend has shipment at least 3 times a year from California.
QRAE 2 has data logging of 64,000 events. With Oxygen sensor installed, I can read 32,000 events per gas. The cable is serial, one must get a serial to USB converter, better from RAE, my USB-Serial converter failed to work and it reset my window Vista just now.
The oxygen sensor on the QRAE 2 can only read up to 30%, which is good enough for me as I do not do nitrox. The response is super quick. I blew my exhalation on it, it register 18.xx% , not bad. This way I can test for air stored too long on steel tanks and see if the oxygen has been reduced by rust or steel oxidation.
Yes Don, I think you are right, with people sleeping maybe some CO will be present.
I don't smoke at all in my bedroom but I don't open the window much too, too dusty where I live.
Peter,
Can I use 100% nitrogen as ZERO GAS or better I hyper clean one small pony tank and use my compressor to fill clean air ( zero gas ) with it, while say the very first few hours on the P41 filter life ?
I managed to order Swagelok fittings for the on-line CO sampling, 8MM OD tube size fittings. 6 weeks special order, the local distributor does not carry even 1 single item I need...dang what a pain. Then local Swagelok wanted me to order minimum 250 pcs 8mm OD SS pipes of 6 meters....wha ha ha ha, crazy US$40,000+ for the pipes and I traced Swagelok OEM of pipes to Sandvik. Managed to get Sandvik 3R60 type 8MM SS pipe , so I ordered 2 x 6 meters length from Singapore. At such high pressure I dare not buy locally the SS pipe for fear I may get some sub-standard ones, so safer to get from Singapore from a company that sells stuff to oil companies.
It is really draining my time and energy trying to hook up this on-line CO monitor, its the high pressure fittings and pipes source not available locally at 8mm OD, which the Bauer Mariner uses.
So the bottom line is, if a diver in USA who can get anything easy and cheap and still reluctant to get a CO monitor like ToxiRAE 3 in order to prevent possible "bad-luck", I urge them to re-consider.
I had a dive boat engine ( single outboard ) died on me while I was still in the water and it got pushed towards the straight by the wind, while I was thrown out to open Indian Ocean by the current. No other dive boat there, its too remote. If it weren't for my persistent rule to the charter boat owner that there must be a 25HP outboard as back up, I would be lost ...bye bye.
I carry a marine submersible IPX7 VHF in an Underwater Kinetic torchlight housing since 2003 and it saved my life twice. I dive in remote areas, very remote.
I recently managed to get McMurdo 406MHz PLB and the VHF ( Icom M72 ) and this PLB, both can fit in the same torch housing at the same time. I also managed to get a 180 meters rated PVC cannister specific to this PLB to place it on tank band.
I hope I shall never use this PLB.
I carry a special 20 liters CO2 powered float for strong down current scenario and also serving my "another" need, and I never dream of using it until last December where my fully inflated BCD and fin kicking could not send me up to the surface. I was still in the blue water and only my dive computer and ears telling me somthing is wrong. The targetted underwater sea mount was no where to be seen, I was deflected by the down current. Got sucked down only to 39 meters, while my friends got sucked down between 51 to 60 meters all in under 90 seconds from the surface. With my lousy ear that day, if I ever get deep like my friends and that fast, I may get such painful ear and may not be able to think straight...probably another bye bye scenario.
So, many things can go wrong and now that I learnt of air-contamination taking life in Maldives in 2008, now Conzumel case ( lucky no fatality ) and the case of unexplained death of few divers in my city who are simply declared "drowned" by the doctor, could by some small possibility may have been due to contaminated air. At least a bad air may contribute to bad judgment and fatality is the result of that bad action or panic. Police never check for contaminated air here. Old, not so well maintained compressors are quite common here in some areas and the tropic heat makes all for the worse on the compressor itself as the possible cause of contamination. If I weren't reading so much of SwampDiver knowlege on compressor's overheating and burning oil as possible baddies, I may have ignored all the bad headaches I had ( sometime ) when diving and I simply blame it on my crazy smoking habit. Now I want to try to detect other possible headache contributors.
So, knowing the possibility of CO contamination, I have to get the CO meter and the cal-gas, nothing is more valuable than my own life because I have kids who still rely on me. It will be irresponsible for me to be able to spend money on dive trips and can't spend some on safety gears.
The logic is simple. Diving in my country started to be quite popular in the 80s.
Good compressor like Bauer can have keep running for 20+ years when maintained well or even when not so well maintained. Compressor is powered either by electric motor or gas/diesel engine. If anything is wrong with the compressor itself, the motor will keep it spinning, until something major breakdown at the compressor like crankshaft or piston rod smashed, ONLY then it will stop. In between poor condition to destruction, the compressor will still pump air even at lower rate and very oily air produced and probably burning oil too. Risk #1.
Compressor is expensive to buy and to fix. At the current mood of economy in Asia or probably also in many parts of the world, less income = less maintenance.
If an outboard engine break down, dive operator will fix it by hook or crook or else no diving customers = no income. Compressor can run even in a poor state but bad air produced.....but it runs !!! Risk #1.1.
All compressor manufacturers state the best of ideal condition for the capacity of their filters in their sales literature. Unless one knows the filter table and understand about moisture in hot air ( 30C and above ), no one will expect that a reduction factor of up to 50-60% must be calculated. Many do not want to believe it, so pushing a Bauer filter size P Zero ( USA ) or a P21 ( Asia / Europe ) for 15 - 20 hours is common at 30C ambient, where it should be by today's filter table ( a bit more stringent ) , we are looking at only 5-7 hours life for the flter cartridge to be within Grade E, assuming the compressor is mechanically healthy. Risk #2.
Out of 10 compressor operator, probably only 1 understand the function and importance of the Pressure Maintaining Valve ( PMV ) on say a Bauer. I seen many compressor with faulty PMV. They do not know that the PMV is jammed open. As long air flow to the tanks, compressor is assumed OK. There goes the filter life even more ( can be up to 80% life reduction here !! ) due to poor pressure regulation which is the key to draining the water for the final water separator in consideration of vapor partial pressure. Wet air destroy the filter media faster, after all its dryness of the 13X which is the technical requirement of the activated carbon and the hopcalite to work. Over extended use of the filter media always destroy the seal of the PMV and corrode the inner cavity of the housing which is aluminum block. Some sort of corrosive sulphur is produced by the over-wet activated carbon, this is how the PMV usually jammed up with white powdery sort of flake. Also the fact aside that in wet humid and salt laden sea air at all tropical resorts, PMV also jammed up too due to salt build up and rust, unless serviced often.
If one look at the old Bauer PMV design : one will laugh looking at the steel spring the PMV uses. It can corrode bad and sent out small metal particles to the hole where the small pushrod ( stainless steel ) glide in and out wihin the PMV housing block which is aluminum. Ask any long time aluminum boat owner and they will tell you, aluminum get pitting corrossion fast when in contact with other metals and in wet environment.
The corrossion may hamper the movement of the pushrod, which maintains the final water separator pressure at +-2,200 psi or filter/separator combo as in P Zero , P21 and P31. One thing leads to another and this is Risk #3.
Adding fuel to the fire, most old compressor was using the mineral oil. Not many want to switch to synthetic because of the overhaul and de-carbonization required on aftercooler pipes ( hard to clean ) and all other carbon laden parts and also its expensive. In the tropics this mineral oil does not survive well and Bauer reccomendation of 1,000 "incredible" hours service life for minreal oil is not teaching anyone good either. Not that synthetic is guaranteed safer when burnt into the production air during an overheat condition. SwampDiver knows about this a great deal. I don't know if 50cc burnt mineral oil is safer or more dangerous than a 10cc burnt synhetic oil. Burnt oil is burnt oil and that is not good. Risk #4
Then come the dive training material itself that stated, "smell your air".
New divers assumed that as long there is no smell, its good to go. CO is odorless and probably too some other dangerous gas, SwampDiver can spell out for you all the gases. No recreational dive training will sell, if the danger of diving is so emphasized and numerous like what we are discussing now. Risk #5.
I do not know about Conzumel standard of living, but in anywhere around the world, if the local wage is low, don't expect too much that compressor operator is as educated as you guys here on SB. One need money to pay for school. Risk #6
Safe bubble blowing you guys...
Yes, SwampDiver...you Rock !!!
IYA
