Do you check tanks for pressure and contents before you leave the shop?

[Genesis]

assuming you have some single tanks as well, if some friend of yours who is NOT Nitrox certified wants to use one, why not let him - as long as its full of EANx21!

The problem I have with the sticker is that it doesn't tell me anything that the tank ITSELF tells me - that some gas is inside it.

Yes, theoetically a tank minus the sticker should not have anything other than air in it.

Ok, one of the LDSs around here one fill panel from which they fill EANx32 (banked) and Air, plus they partial-pressure fill custom mixes (topped with air) and another local shop direct-fills off their compressor with a stick. A third has a membrane system. All of them have their fill stations in one place, with no physical separation.

Are you comfortable with that? I'm not, now that I understand what could happen. While the usual case (you get a fill of EANx32 thinking you have Air) is not likely to nail you around here (most of our diving is in the 80-110' range - "safe" for EANx32) the fact remains that its not cool to potentially have something unitended in a given tank.

A contents sticker on ALL tanks solves this problem, does it not? If the gas mix inside is identified, then such mixups are avoided.

So why would shops want the silly sticker instead of simply putting a contents label on ALL fills?

 

[The Chairman]

1) It's "code". That is, ALL tanks that carry ANYTHING other than air should have the proper label on them. I am sure you wouldn't want to go breathing off of an Argon tank, now would you? TriMix should be labled as well as NitrOx... there should be NOTHING left to the imagination.

2) Contents stickers are fine... please use em! But they are small and IF they become routine, then el Guappo can hit the fan. As an instructor, I like to "see at a glance" what they are diving with and what not. Will I put an OW student on NitrOx??? Yeppers! Usually 32% as most of my students become NirtrOx certed with their OW class. Do they measure their own mix??? Yeppers... it's part of their certification process. Do they understand the tables a tad better than most OW divers??? Whaddyathink??? I run a pretty tough class.

3) No real reasons have been proferred against them. I think most of it comes down to "they don't look cool", especially on a set of doubles. Screw cool... I like yaller 'n green!

4) If you can't trust a shop to give you the proper fill... DON'T USE THEM!!! The shop I use most makes it easy to fill air, and tough to use OCAir... and the O2 tank is sequestered FAR away from the air fill area. It's as it should be. Idiot proof??? Well, the problem with that is that idiots can be so durn ingenious. But it's about as close to it as I can see. Have they screwed up on my air??? Never! Have they screwed up my NitrOx? Once.

5) I may have extemely different conditions than those that others might have in their area (even elsewhere in Florida for that matter). You should do what works for you... I still like the idea of a national standard for marking tanks. But hey, it's your butt on the line, so do it the way you see fit.

6) My NitrOx tanks filled with OCAir are labeled as such... AIR! and I either vent them fully before fill, or I check them after fill to be sure. I have dove a few tanks that were 25% or 23% NitrOx.

7) Time... when I am dealing with 20+ tanks for a class and they are all air, I simply do not have time to check every one. If they are NitrOx, then the student has to measure them in my presense.

 

[MikeFerrara]

NetDoc once bubbled...
compression. The O2 had nothing to do with it. I never pick up or analyse a hot mix... I plan ahead to avoid that. I don't have to "worry about it" as I don't let the temperature be a variable. IF the air tank you are using as a cal gas were to be the same temp, then there would be no issue. Many divers go so far as to not even use a compressed air cylinder to calibrate but rely on the unit to calibrate to atmospheric air. That's their choice... I take my diving seriously enough to do it correctly. :tease:

I mix alot of gas. I do fill slow but I check the mix right after I fill. I also check it later. How much later depends on whether it's a tank I'm using or a customers tank. I have never seen a significant difference with recreational EANx mixes.

 

[MikeFerrara]

As far as tank marking there is GUE/WKPP and then there is the rest of the world. OK technical diving in general should maybe split off.

In recreational settings there may be a boat full of divers and a whole bunch of tanks. Most of the divers don't know sheet from shinola but they are told not to use a tank marked as NITROX unless they are trained. A big sticker has some value here.

For a technical dive all you care about once your in the water is MOD. You don't want anything that makes it harder to tell what the MOD is. When you swim up to a pile of tanks in a cave you want your name on the tank and the MOD.

And then there are agency standards. For instance a IANTD facility is forbiden to fill a tank that isn't marked according to IANTD standards. PERIOD.

When it comes to fill station lay out you can be as fussy as you want but...Probably the busiest fill station in north Florida will likely dump banked nitrox in your tank unless you ask for air. It's usually somewhere around 34%. Oh and they don't care how the tank is marked or what kind of card you have. I have also never seen a fill station log there. I don't believe any of the gas is OC. There is one other place to get a fill and they have a membrane system. Again I doubt OC. If you don't like it you can skip your cave diving trip and go golfing instead. As for maintaining the O2 clean integrity of your equipment, if this is a big deal to you you will likely need to stay at home.

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

Here is the reason to check your tank pressure !!!
few weeks ago was diving fla in springs and few other places twice I had my alum 80 with pressure rating of 3000 only filed to 2400 maybe because its a DIN instead of a yoke , but the burst disk rated at 5000 and tank rated at 3000 PSI
so from know on I will check all mine !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Genesis]

I use 2" Blue "easy release" painters tape and WRITE on it with a nice black sharpie!

Ain't no way you're missing my contents label. Its right under the valve, where you have to see it to hook up the tank.

I understand the whole "Nitrox sticker" thing; I just happen to think that the "standard" is frought with risk. If you don't analyze what's in the tank then you are NEVER sure what's in the tank.

If you're diving where your tank never leaves your custody, and you WITNESS the filling, then this is probably ok.

But most divers don't do that, 'ya know. They either hire tanks (which come out of a "filled" set at a dive shop) or they drop their tanks off, someone fills them, and they come pick them up. If they're diving one of the cattle boats then they may never SEE the tank until they get on board, and they're "given" one.

And as I said, I know NONE of the shops around here have separate fill areas for Nitrox (or even pure O2!) and air. Zero. They're all coming off the same whips and panels; the "best" of them has the Nitrox panel mounted right next to the air one (a separation of about a foot!); the others don't even try.

Around here I know of one place that insists that you analyze in front of them, or does it in front of YOU, and you sign the log.

The other shops don't. You pick it up, there's a contents label on it, just a 1/2" wide piece of tape with a FO2 on it. Eeek. If that was to come off, you might well think you have an "Air" fill.

I suspect that a LOT of people have dove an "air" tank filled with EANx around here. The only good news is that we don't have any "bottomless pit" style wall-dives here, so the risk of an O2 hit is pretty remote as long as you don't get a "hot" mix.

I personally feel that BOW class should include Nitrox, and that tanks should ALL have contents labels. But heh - that's just me.

As for the tank bands, the tanks that I will ever let a dive shop fill will have them, simply because I have to in order to get them filled. The others? (I have some new PST HPs coming, which will likely NEVER see a shop fill) I don't know. I'm inclined to stencil my initials or name on them, have the O2-clean VIS sticker on them, and then just stick my contents labels on them. If I get fancy and can find someone who can print stickers with an adhesive that isn't made to be permanent (as most are) perhaps I'll have some of "my" contents labels made up - otherwise the blue painters-release tape works great for me.

Finally, for shops that "can't" fill my tank with OCA, sure they can. I can carry my HF stack with me - its portable. So, if I happen to have PP-ok O2-clean tanks, I can give them a way to fill me with OCA (or OC-Nitrox) if I really want to. Since that stack is flow-restricted to 6cfm it will also prevent them from blasting me with a hot fill too....

 

[dvas]

for the shops that use 2 separate fill systems (one for nitrox and one for air), i check content and pressure only when it is nitrox.
since i use my tanks with EAN, i check them always.
if i dive with air tanks, and they are filled through air compressor, then i check only the pressure.

dvas

 

[dabigcat]

The shop that I use makes sure you check the pressure before leaving the shop if you got an air fill and contents and pressure when getting a mix fill. However after reading the responses I will be checking both every time whether I get air or mix.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

My singles are labelled for Nitrox.

My doubles are labelled for O2 clean, because they do not always contain Nitrox.

I analyze everything and check pressure.

The reason is simple. I do a fair amount of dives below 100 fsw where I'm on a custom blend. I don't want to find out that someone blew the mix. In addition, if the dive gets cancelled, I want to remember what's in the tank.

Besides, its LDS policy.

 

[bwerb]

another stupid but serious question. Do you "borrow" the shop pressure guage or have your own or use your regs. Again, I've never done this so I don't know the procedure.