Continued Carbon Monoxide - Cozumel

[beasleym]

I personally carry a combination O2 and CO monitor I designed myself around a lab regulator that gives 2lpm output. There's a cleanable stainless 10 micron filter inline. The regulator lets me determine how full the tank is. The O2 is a typical nitrox analyzer. For the CO I use a cheap Korean CO detector which I calibrate against a lab CO monitor. The CO detector sets off a buzzer at 2ppm CO and does not read out the actual CO level.

Why the 2ppm? Early in life I put myself through school in part by working as a fireman. I understand they don't do it anymore, be we were subjected to CO at several levels, not so we would understand or be able to detect CO, but rather to give us real world experience in the effects. I never want to experience those higher levels again and you just can't detect lower levels at all until it's too late. So I'm not going to accept anything that is less than trace above ambient.

One point, that I haven't heard yet and was the reason I started carrying a CO monitor, is that a friend had his own compressor and never had a problem until one day. One time we hooked up tanks and detected exhaust fumes. After further checking he discovered that the telephone company was right outside his shop with a truck that had an exhaust stack that directed it's output right at his roof mounted intake. That was years ago and he bought a lab CO monitor. The point is that even a good shop can have problems.

 

[cruiser]

I actually talked with the top man there about this. Very pleasant, very agreeable, nothing happened.

It would be a positive step to see DAN involved (or even the scuba agencies), but I don't see it happening anytime soon. This isn't an issue that the industry will champion for whatever reason, IMO. Dive Training magazine had an article a few months ago about checking air. A lot of copy was devoted to the importance of analyzing oxygen content, but only a sentence or two was devoted to checking the air for contamination. I like having a tool that enables me to be proactive about checking for CO in tanks.

 

[cruiser]

Got 2 tanks of air from my local scuba quarry today, both tested 0 ppm for carbon monoxide.

 

[DandyDon]

Got 2 tanks of air from my local scuba quarry today, both tested 0 ppm for carbon monoxide.

Do you know if they monitor their air for CO, or just hope they got it right?

I'm really looking forward to your experiences on the Blackbeards.

 

[cruiser]

Do you know if they monitor their air for CO, or just hope they got it right?

I'm really looking forward to your experiences on the Blackbeards.

Good question, Don. I'll see what I can find out.

 

[daniel1948]

I am a late-comer to this thread, and have not even read all three pages of it (my eyes blur over after a while), but I want to thank Don and the others for keeping this topic going. I am a land-locked recreational diver, and I dive once or twice a year for a week or ten days at a time. I have a hard time justifying $400 for a tester that will need a new membrane (or whatever it is) every year, but this does not mean I am not concerned. I'd like to see overseas operators held to the same standards as U.S. operators. Especially I'd like to see a requirement for in-line testers and disclosure of the results. I gather from some of the posts on the first page of this thread that testing for CO is not as simple as testing for nitrox, so in-line testing seems more reliable than one person of unknown skill with a portable tester of unknown reliability. I doubt that the diving community is unified enough to effectively boycott dive locations that refuse to use in-line testing, but we should definitely continue to pressure PADI, SSI, and NAUI to require their affiliated dive operators to have all diving gas tested, and while DAN cannot require anybody to do anything, I'd like to see them put out a position. If DAN says this is all a lot of hoopla about nothing, I'll believe them. But I'd like to see them investigate the issue and report on it.

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks Daniel, it's a windmill battling experience at times but needed. About this excerpt tho...

I have a hard time justifying $400 for a tester that will need a new membrane (or whatever it is) every year, but this does not mean I am not concerned. I'd like to see overseas operators held to the same standards as U.S. operators. Especially I'd like to see a requirement for in-line testers and disclosure of the results. I gather from some of the posts on the first page of this thread that testing for CO is not as simple as testing for nitrox, so in-line testing seems more reliable than one person of unknown skill with a portable tester of unknown reliability.

The initial costs are not that much. The Analox tester was going for $300 and I bet you can find it for close to that, and the Pocket CO kit is not as easy to use but still a viable choice for less than $200 including calibration kit.

And no they don't need new sensors every year, just calibrating. The sensors have a 6% annual drift possible so while the manufacurers (and their attorneys?) may suggest semi-annual calibration, at worst they might read 10 to 20 ppm as + 1 ppm off in the 11th month, still close enough to call. So you buy a can of cal-gas for a few bucks, test and adjust.

Finally, no - not hard to use at all. The Analox tester works almost like their Nitrox tester, and while the Pocket CO takes a minute or two longer - it's easy enough: turn on inside ziplock, fill bag from tank, wait for the automatic timer to go off. It's a 3 minute timer but it starts as soon as you turn it on so it's a 3 minute test total; you get about 2 minutes of exposure time with the filled bag - enough.

Yeah, we need to pressure vendors to get serious about their air quality, but I don't have enough trust in a compressor even if I see the CO monitor on the machine my tank supposedly came from. I'd still test. I know too much about what is hidden at times.

You're only 300 miles from some great diving. You need to get away more anyway. Some of the local divers were surprised that I came up there just to dive, no other reason, as they'd never met a Texan who did - but it was great. I drive 200 miles just to practice in a spring before a trip; I wish I could do real diving with sights seen nowhere else for 300.

 

[daniel1948]

Thanks for the corrections, Don. But about diving in the Pacific Northwest, I don't do cold water. I just don't. 78 degrees F. is FREEZING to my old bones. I only dive in warm water. Preferably bathwater warm.

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks for the corrections, Don. But about diving in the Pacific Northwest, I don't do cold water. I just don't. 78 degrees F. is FREEZING to my old bones. I only dive in warm water. Preferably bathwater warm.

Ok, well - I guess you'll have to spend more on your dive trips, but will be traveling to destinations where problems are more common - so you may want to consider a tester.

 

[cruiser]

Picked up 4 tanks from my LDS -- all 0 ppm CO.