Cylinder leak!

[g1138]

By curiosity since no one else has asked:
1) Does this shop overfill tanks by habit?
2) How hot was it outside that day?
3) How long did tanks sit in the car with the sun up?

It is possible that the a higher pressure can extrude a wrong sized valve neck oring.
I had an old coworkers's HP tank that kept extruding during my early shop days before I knew proper stuff.
I recall installing the wrong sized valve neck oring and it held until I reached 3200psi before it blew.
Started as a slow leak then went to a big hiss with the oring extruding.

 

[halocline]

Since you would have to go back to the shop to get a replacement tank anyway, go by with the tank in question, have them put some air in it, and when they see that it does in fact leak, surely they will give you a different tank at no charge.

 

[fmerkel]

If it leaked and you couldn't shut it down, it's their issue.

 

[BoltSnap]

You need to go to the shop and face them with the tank and let them make it right. They need to inspect the tank with valve.

 

[RayfromTX]

This is a coaching opportunity for the owner and his employee. Let the owner know that you want them to be aware of an experience you had that is a chance for them to improve their image with the diving community.

 

[scubadiver888]

A buddy and I bought 4 tanks from a shop (two each). Went on a dive together at remote location. Everything was fine. After the first two dives we went to the fill station (not the place we bought the tanks from). Four tanks all filling at once with nitrox. As we are walking away from the fill station I notice a little hissing noise. I investigate. After a few seconds I figure out it is one of my buddy's tanks. We are a few feet from the fill station. We tell the guy we think one of the tanks is leaking. As he investigates it starts leaking more.

My buddy is thinking we're screwed; boat dive and we need 2 tanks. He is expecting the worst. Guy at the fill station drains the tank, removes the valve, changes the o-ring, reassembles and fills the tank. We ask, "how much will that be?" and he answers, "no charge, it happens occasionally." I get my tanks fill there whenever in that area. While they are getting filled I wander around the shop and buy stuff. This is good customer service. There is ALWAYS a line up at this guys place for fills between dives.

I later learned the place I bought the tanks gave bad customer service. I quit going there. They went out of business one year after I bought my tanks.

Maybe the shop you rented from can be taught. Maybe the owner will treat you better. If not, take your business else where.

 

[EricTheDood]

Most definitely a bad neck O-ring that costs less than a quarter.

it must be our fault and is the result of being bumped/poorly handled in transit.

Impossible. It's a static sealing O-ring, meaning no sliding or twisting in operation. Poor handling would not cause such a failure without significant damage to the valve. This person has no clue as to how a scuba cylinder works.

 

[PT4476]

Not necessarily a neck O-ring, could be the valve seat. Either way, not the OPs fault and an easy fix…

 

[joe10540]

I'm not saying it is but even if it was the OPs fault the shop should have said bring it back so we can look at it before placing blame on the customer. Even then refill it for no charge and if both parties agree it's not leaking then that fixes it but chances are it would have leaked like crazy and could have been swapped out or repaired to make the customer feel better about doing business there.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I noticed one of the tanks was leaking, a pretty decent leak. I tried opening and closing the valve to no avail, it sounded like it was stuck open inside.

Could one of the internal O-rings or discs inside slowly deteriorated and resulted in the delayed leak? What else could have gone wrong? I'll replace the tank, if it could only have been our fault, but I feel like it's not an automatic "it happened off premises, it's not our fault" kind of situation?

Any thoughts?

It was leaking through the valve opening and not the burst disc, right? Outside of the tank flying out of the truck and landing in the street it's difficult for me to imagine how "rough handling" could cause the inside of the valve to leak.