Filling Air into a "Nitrox" Tank ILLEGAL?

[Ann Marie]

I would like to point out that Sport Chalet does not fill cylinders with Enriched Air and therefore has no policy for filling Enriched Air Cylinders.

The person working in the department should have drained the cylinders and had you remove any enriched air stickers before filling.

For those of you that called him an idiot or other disparaging names, he made a mistake; I hope that you take the time to thank God you're perfect.

I have no idea where this store is located or who the person was, but do you all need to be so harsh?

 

[dsteding]

(he shut off the isolation valve)

No one should touch your isolator when filling . . . EVER.

 

[SparticleBrane]

The person working in the department should have drained the cylinders and had you remove any enriched air stickers before filling.

Which stickers? The little tiny ones saying what's in the tank (current mix)? Or the big huge nitrox bumper stickers? I'm sure as heck not going to take off and put on one of those huge stickers each time I switch from a nitrox to an air fill (not that I use those stickers to begin with...)

While I don't agree with the nitrox bumper stickers, I also don't agree with having a shop money ask someone to remove something from a customer's tank. Why should I have to take a big ugly sticker off my tank? Just because a tank says trimix or nitrox doesn't mean it's filled with it.

 

[CompuDude]

A simple mistake in misunderstanding a policy I can forgive. But there were SEVERAL mis-steps in that exchange, not the least of which was turning off the isolator valve and filling only half the set. Then the absurd advice was given to take off the stickers and come back tomorrow?

Whoever it was either needs a serious attitude adjustment, some thorough re-training... or a new job where they are less likely to put someone's life at risk.

Had they been my tanks in that situation, the diminutive appellation of "idiot" is mild compared to the havoc I would have raised. I don't claim to be perfect, but I also do not have a job where a mistake can have such disastrous results.

 

[Dan Gibson]

Who cares about the nitrox/air sticker debate. If one doesn't want to get involved in those sort of things, do what many of us have done. Get your own compressor. It's closing the isolator that is the real problem. I understand mistakes, but it sounds like the fill operator intentionally closed it. :shakehead

I would like to point out that Sport Chalet does not fill cylinders with Enriched Air and therefore has no policy for filling Enriched Air Cylinders.

The person working in the department should have drained the cylinders and had you remove any enriched air stickers before filling.

For those of you that called him an idiot or other disparaging names, he made a mistake; I hope that you take the time to thank God you're perfect.

I have no idea where this store is located or who the person was, but do you all need to be so harsh?

 

[lamont]

I would like to point out that Sport Chalet does not fill cylinders with Enriched Air and therefore has no policy for filling Enriched Air Cylinders.

Because they're worried about liability. Being afraid of nitrox or unable to figure out business practices in order to sell it in 2007 does not speak well of the competency of the overall business.

 

[CompuDude]

Because they're worried about liability. Being afraid of nitrox or unable to figure out business practices in order to sell it in 2007 does not speak well of the competency of the overall business.

They are, first and foremost, a chain sporting goods store. Scuba is a small department within the whole. As I understand it (and I don't pretend to have a comprehensive understanding) there are issues with needing to have employees other than those in the scuba dept. be trained for Nitrox, and it starts to get a lot more expensive. Then there are OSHA requirements and a bunch of other issues that can be dealt with for a small Scuba shop with perhaps 10 employees, but again, scale up poorly when you're talking about dozens of shops and hundreds of employees.

There are rumors of pending changes to the Nitrox [non-]policy, but nothing firm has been announced.

I'm fine with them not carrying Nitrox (although I wish they would!), but this particular situation is clearly in a whole different realm of problems.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Basically what we're dealing with here is someone who needs to engage their brain.

 

[texdiveguy]

Just use one of these on your cylinders:

http://www.airspeedpress.com/stickers2.html

 

[nadwidny]

I would like to point out that Sport Chalet does not fill cylinders with Enriched Air and therefore has no policy for filling Enriched Air Cylinders.

Obviously they have no policy for educating their employees either.

For those of you that called him an idiot or other disparaging names, he made a mistake; I hope that you take the time to thank God you're perfect.

There is a difference between being perfect and being an idiot. Nobody is expecting perfection. What we are expecting is that LDS (or equivalent) employees have half a clue.

I have no idea where this store is located or who the person was, but do you all need to be so harsh?

Yes. It was a shop monkey at an LDS (or equivalent). They deserve it.