Filling Air into a "Nitrox" Tank ILLEGAL?

[SparticleBrane]

^ There aren't any.

 

[Ann Marie]

I'm pretty sure that I've read about the Sport Chalet on this board before as well -- if memory serves they partial pressure blend nitrox, but it'll take you a serious argument to get them to top a nitrox-labelled tank with EAN21...

You are incorrect. They do not fill nitrox at all; perhaps this is why the employee made a mistake. He read an article and misinterpreted what was written. Similar to what you just posted.

Luckily, when someone makes a mistake, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt before I sling mud.

 

[Dan Gibson]

and here I thought the mistake was closing the isolator

You are incorrect. They do not fill nitrox at all; perhaps this is why the employee made a mistake. He read an article and misinterpreted what was written. Similar to what you just posted.

Luckily, when someone makes a mistake, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt before I sling mud.

 

[Delta_P]

Could someone please direct me to whatever statute makes putting air in a nitrox tank illegal. I am not familiar with US laws.

Depending on the jurisdiction, there could be a couple of potential violations here (WARNING - rampant speculation follows. I'm not an American.):

1) If the employee finishes filling the tank and walks away without altering the label, he could be in violation of the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System section of whatever Occupational Safety and Health regulations governs his workplace - the label must reflect the contents. I doubt the yellow band would qualify as a "workplace label" since it covers a wide range of mixes (and hazards).

2) Once the tank is filled, if it will be tranported by road the Transport of Dangerous Goods regulations probably require that the label must be changed from "UN1956 COMPRESSED GAS N.O.S." (Not Otherwise Specified) to "UN1002 AIR, COMPRESSED" (not more than 23.5% oxygen). Oddly enough, TDG doesn't recognize the yellow band either.

And yes, I'm a sick and twisted individual for even thinking about this. Shoot me now.

 

[Steve Lawson]

I e-mailed the author of the article, and he replied as follows:

Cylinders must contain the gas that they are labeled for. The Compressed Gas Association publication C-10 states that interchanging different categories of gas in a cylinder that is marked for one category of gas is improper. This is law by reference based on Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations that includes all references contained within are the same as the code itself.

The CGA is not a rule making body but is incorporated in the CFR’s.

NOAA is the agency that started the NITROX labeling requirements that are followed by practice in the dive industry. Nitrox and Air are two different categories of gas per the CGA, so a visual inspection to CGA standards must be performed when changing the gas in the cylinder, example: Nitrox to air or Air to Nitrox. The reason for this is to prevent Oxygen cleaned cylinders from being contaminated by filling with air. CGA dictates that any Oxygen concentrations greater than 23.5% require the cylinder to be Oxygen cleaned. The 40% rule does not apply to sport scuba per Title 29 of the code of federal regulations and has been erroneously adopted by the sport diving industry. PSI subscribes to the CGA guidelines of O2 cleaning any cylinder that has greater that 23.5% Oxygen.

We understand that this practice of interchanging Air and Nitrox takes place daily but must reiterate it is incorrect and unsafe.

Regards,

Mark A. Gresham
General Manager PSI Inc.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Hmmmm. I would not want an ignorant fill monkey to get anywhere near my tanks...

The people who fill mine are not "fill monkeys".

 

[The Kraken]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A person's ignorance of the laws set forth the U.S. DOT with regard to the cleaning and filling of tanks containing elevated percentages of oxygen does not make him or her an "idiot".

I'm sure there are many people across the nation and world filling tanks who are not fully aware of all of the actual regulations regarding filling, and I'm also sure that they're not all "idiots". I fill tanks from time to time and am not an expert in the laws and regulations set forth by the DOT. I sure hope that doesn't make me an idiot!

Let's not resort to name calling.

Thanks . . .

The Kraken

 

[joji]

YES,have them fill nitrox 21%,the only difference is it should pass thru nitrox filter.But better yet, look for a new shop who understand what they are doing.

 

[CBulla]

Who cares, if it's backgas? The op was talking about his doubles - not a dedicated high % o2 bottle. You're not gonna' get more than 40% at a chain LDS like S.C. anyway. Labels, shambels. Just give me what I ask for - it's my tanks, and I doubt I'll blow up your shop with my 32%. You wanna' analyze my remaining gas to make sure I'm not doing the partial pressure fox trot on you, ok (although, you might get a 0% reading ).

Really, until you get over the 50% hump, just give me the gas.

Rick - you beat me to it again!

BTW - any 2 people can create an organization of standards and publish something.. while I respect the knowlege they share, its been stated in this thread already that common sense and education go a long way.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Remove all the labels from your tanks... problem solved.