Faber Hot Dip Galvanized Tanks - Anyone Have Experience With New Ones?

[MichaelMc]

these new Fabers seem to get hotter quicker, not sure the science behind it and will do a little more scientific experimenting as time/location allows.

Could there be valve differences? A more constrained path creating more heat? I would be curious to know about valve differences in that regard. Nice to know when buying valves if it made any difference. Their tank might have more steel, so their tank rises in temp less for a given addition of hot air. But it is the air itself that matters here. I do not know how fast the tank reaches equilibrium with the incoming air; from your high speed fill scenario I assume a fairly turbulent flow and mixing inside the tank. Some physics thoughts, but I'm unsure how much they matter. Edit: or maybe not opening each as wide.

 

[WebmasterJ]

Had not thought about the valves making a difference, I think my buddy runs the same valves (XS Scuba Pro Valves) on his tanks that were not nearly as hot, have to double check next time.

 

[BRT]

About 5 months later and around 50 dives on each of the tanks they are doing OK so far. Way to early to know how corrosion resistant they are but they are holding up WAY better than the painted (Grey) Faber tanks.

One thing I have noticed is that these new Faber Hot Dip Galvanized Tanks (133cf) seem to get a lot hotter when filled than some other HP Steel tanks.
At first I thought it was a dive shop employee not paying attention or not bothering to fill the tanks to 3500ish PSI and I had to continually request the tanks be topped off when picking them up.

Then on a recent trip I made the following discovery.
Tanks were being filled off a bank at a dive shop up north, shop fills about 300-400 tanks a day and really moves them out. Banked 32% got dumped in the tanks 4 whips going at once all until the tanks hit 4100PSI at that point the whip gets shut down and the tank is "done" analyze it at the shop, check the PSI which is about 3900 and you are on your way, obviously knowing it will cool down as the tanks are warm/hot to the touch.
After several days of doing this I solved the mystery why my buddy always had fills of 3600-3700PSI while I was always around 3300-3400PSI these new Fabers seem to get hotter quicker, not sure the science behind it and will do a little more scientific experimenting as time/location allows.

Yours were emptier.

 

[WebmasterJ]

Yours were emptier.

That would make sense, but we had the same thing happen when we changed up dive profiles and drained the tanks down to about 50-100PSI.

 

[2airishuman]

It's possible that the galvanized finish doesn't radiate heat as well as the white paint, but I would have expected the opposite.

 

[BRT]

It's possible that the galvanized finish doesn't radiate heat as well as the white paint, but I would have expected the opposite.

If they radiate heat better than painted tanks the effect would be to radiate more heat thus being hotter on the outside while filling and soon after filling. The real test is if after a day one is lower pressure than the other. The lower pressure tank would have radiated heat slower thus not getting as much air before reaching pressure. Any tank I fill from empty drops more pressure when cold than a tank that I fill from partially full.

 

[Rred]

Are the tanks the same weight and dimensions? Because it is possible (even between lots in "the same" tank) that one tank has more thermal mass too. If your friend's tank has more thermal mass, it could absorb more of the heat from filling and stay cooler.

Something arcane like that, which a real engineer could probably recognize as fast as you could say "Why..."

 

[george_austin]

I just last week purchased a Faber hot dipped HP80 "lowboy" 21 inch from bottom to neck face. Sexy tank, 8 lbs negative when full. Pro valve convertible.
It's summer in Southern California diving in a shorty, plastic pack with rubber 2 inch harness, no BC and no weight belt.
This tank is THE beach diving or rig diving kit. Love it's buoyancy and trims me out perfect.
BTW - I call it a lowboy, they don't

 

[RayfromTX]

My wife has 3 of the 80s and I have 3 of the 100s. We like them. We dive without weights in 5 mils fresh water with kydex bp/w. The still look new after 20 dives in fresh water.

 

[MichaelMc]

Do people think the hot dip will work its way to the LP50s? The non hot dipped seem to have worked out of the online stores for HPs and the LP85s.