CO Detected

[WarrenZ]

Unless your dive shop is willing to refill your tanks after he changes filters I wouldnt worry about 1-2 ppm you breath more on the back of the dive boat dive the tanks and get a fresh fill when you get back.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Unless your dive shop is willing to refill your tanks after he changes filters I wouldnt worry about 1-2 ppm you breath more on the back of the dive boat dive the tanks and get a fresh fill when you get back.

As reasonable as that sounds, once the suspicion is planted in a diver's head that the CO level exceeds whatever threshold they have in mind as being "safe" (given the precision of the instrument, etc.), then it could very well cause the diver anxiety throughout the dive, which anxiety itself can lead to problems. I would wager that people commonly dive in blissful ignorance of a few ppm CO in their tanks. But a diver who knows his tank has a few ppm CO and believes it is "unsafe" might very well believe he can feel symptoms. Bottom line: don't dive with fills or any other equipment that you know bothers you.

 

[DJEdB]

Sounds like the compressor could use an oil change and possible service. Most filter towers don't use hopcalite, so aren'd designed to remove co anyway. (Possibly different story depending on local regulations!)

 

[Jack Hammer]

For shallow recreational dives that aren't extensively long I'd dive the tanks without much concern. The fact you mention the tanks have been sitting for several months begs question to when/where the contamination may have occurred and if a clean fill was added after the contamination. Have all fills been from one source?
Id hope after several monthd they'd have changed the filters already. I'd still have mentioned it to the shop.

 

[kelemvor]

Why not suggest he plumb in and in-line CO monitor and then he doesn't need to rely on his customers to catch a failing filter stack.

I thought he had one. Maybe not though. I'm going to stop by tonight probably so I'll take a look.