Filling your own Cylinders at home...? Interesting...

[Mo2vation]

Sounds like Uncle Pug, Aquamanic and some others fill at home. Some of you even blend gasses at home.

Being still new to the board, that has always had a sort of prohibition era bathtub whiskey sort of ring to it. Filling at home... sounds funky.

So I'm at DEMA last week, and I run into several manufacturers that make the stuff. OK...so maybe its not so M*A*S*H in-tent still meets eye-of-newt, wing-of-bat alchemist sounding any longer. I sat through a demo, and it seemed to make sense. A lot of "new" stuff I read here does after a while.

The reason I'm writing it this: I drove about 25 miles to, and another 25 back from my LDS to get a fill of their filtered air. They're an ANDI shop, and they use the hydrocarbon free Safe Air that is supposed to filter out all that nasty stuff ANDI warns about, etc, etc.... Thousands dive breathing "normal" air and don't die. Maybe I'm a stooge... whatever. That's another thread.

So now I'm thinking (especially after watching the mouth breather fill my Cylinders) why can't I do this at home, too? Obviously there is the machinery, and the training of handling high-pressure filling equipment, etc. I'm not saying I'm gonna run out and buy a Craftsman and have at it - I'm a bit more rational than that. But here are my questions:

1) Additional Training and Information - is there a "fill certification?" I know there is a "Gas Blending" one offered by SSI. Where do I go to get the proper training for home filling so I don't blow up my garage and kill myself?

2) Compressors - surely oil-free compressors are the way to go. Looks like there are compressor rigs designed especially for the home / Small Shop filler and even location filling...how cool would that be? Throw it in the back of my Tundra and fill at the shore dive!! What will I need to fill Steel HP100's? Is there a rating system of PSI? What gear are you Home fillers using now?

3) Filters - I live in LA...not the best air (OK...it ain't Aussie air!). There is merit to filtering and processing before simply compressing... what filters do you home-fillers use? Gassious hydrocarbons, paint chips, airbourne particulates and just LA yuck is all over the place... what are you home-fillers using for pre-filtering?

4) Are there regulations that you are aware of? Will the EPA come and take me away in a GhostBusters like raid...?


I'm considering the drives to the LDS, the horror (many times now) of last minute invitations for shore dives I've had to blow off because my Cylinder is drained from the day before, and its now 11:00 PM and nowhere to get a fill....

Is it more trouble than its worth, or is the freedom worth the expense and self-sufficiency? Like most things, it sounds like more of a lifestyle decision than a save-$5.00-a-fill decision.

Thanks a ton.

Ken

 

[trymixdiver]

i will let Pug and the other home brewers get detailed for you, but i would guess it boils down to money.

If you got alot of it, then by all means do the research and get what you need. If not, buy extra tanks and keep one or two always filled so your ready to go any time.

Tanks are pretty cheap these days.

Andy

 

[Aquamaniac]

Im no expert in compressed air proceedures, not by a long shot.
I never mix at home.
I use a compressor that origially came off a Proffesional Abalone boat (ex hookah).
My father in law is a Fireman who is involved in the scba and draeger program in my home state, so he does all the maintenance.
I still have all my tanks go through the regulation tests, and still get them filled at dive stores when we are away or need mixes. (begrudgingly, I am an untrusting sole).
It is an expensive setup, filters are not cheap, and if I had to pay for maintenance, it would be real expensive.
At home we dive 4-5 times a week, mainly on air,so it does justify using it.
I do plan on extending my education on mixing, and maybe one day will go the next step.
Im thinking of heading to the PNW soon to drop in on an old seadog up there who seems to know a bit about this "scubin diving" stuff.

Then I can head home, puff my chest out and say "father in law, I am a learn-ed man!"

But first I have to GET home!!!!!
A six month trip they said......HA! Its been two years now!!!!!
Boy am I getting homesick!

 

[Rick Murchison]

I have a portable compressor that I take with me to remote sites. Otherwise, I fill at the LDS - it's cheaper in the long run than doing it with my own equipment.
Rick

 

[Uncle Pug]

trymixdiver once bubbled...
i would guess it boils down to money.

If you dive a lot then you need to find a way to bring the fill costs down... especially if you dive other than air.

 

[voidware]

A large portion of my job this summer was sitting around and having fun in the caribbean. A smaller but more noticable part was filling about 60 tanks a day on the deck of a rocking sailboat and maintaining 3 bauer compressors.
If you are filling tanks just for yourself, it is not even close to feasible to fill your own tanks. There is too much to think about. Sure it's safe (they let me do it didn't they) and not that difficult, but it's not economically feasible. Now, if they were 100 miles away or charged $15 a fill or you dove 6 times a day, that's a whole different story. I am also not that familiar with blending nitrox, so I can't speak for its appearance in the equation.

brandon

 

[Padipro]

Mo2vation,

I was thinking about doing some home filling myself not long ago. I started seriously looking into what it would cost and the problems associated with becoming a "home brewer". I don't have anyone to talk to, localy, about the subject so I bought a copy of Vance Harlow's Oxygen Hacker's Companion. IMHO it's a great book with lots of useful information on everything you could possibly want to know about the subject of blending and filling at home. After much careful reading and research I came to the conclusion that buying a compressure was out of my financial means and priming the cylinders with the O2 and bringing them to a LDS to top them off with air to make Nitrox wasn't going to work. Non of the LDS's I spoke to about doing this would even touch the tanks if I did the O2 prime myself, even though I'm a certified Nitrox Instructor and received blending instruction at a dive shop I worked at several years ago. As you said in your post, "that has always had a sort of prohibition era bathtub whiskey sort of ring to it. Filling at home...". It seems that a lot of people working in the recreational SCUBA diving business don't have a very good understanding of how all this "Black Magic" home mixing, nitrox blending, trimixing stuff works. If you talk to them about it most seem to think that it's totally illegal to begin with and that if they have anything to do with it, it's going to kill everyone within and half mile radious of the dive shop when the tank undergoes some kind of thermo-nuclear explosion and both you and they are going to go to jail for even attempting it. Trying to explane to them that it is not illegal and no one is going to go to jail, or die, if everything is done correctly seemed to go in one ear and out the other, in other words their opinion was that "My mind is made up so don't confuse me with the facts".

To make a long story short, I'm still getting my fills done entirely at my LDS. So IMHO unless you're willing, and able, to invest a chunk of money in a compressure, the O2 cylinders, fill wips, gagues, etc., etc., etc., and do everything yourself the cost and hassle just arn't worth it. It would be nice to beable to do my own fills and it certainly would be cheaper then having them done at the LDS but it was such a PITA to get someone to cooperate with me I just gave up.

Good Luck and take a look at the Oxy Hacker's Companion if you're still interested in becoming a "Home Brewer".

Scott

 

[dmdalton]

I've been filling my own and mixing for 3 years. If you are only going to pump air the compressor and filters and such will NEVER pay for themselves. Convience is something else again.

If you move to Nitrox at 10-20 a fill and if you don't spend too much on the compressor it might be economically feasable. Trimix it becomes quite cost effective given the $50 + up (way up) to fill a set of doubles.

As the previous poster mentioned, get the O2 Hacker Companion. It has more info for $35 than you could find anywhere else for $1000.

Dave D

 

[Dectek]

I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents by reminding you that many fire departments will fill your scuba tanks for a donation. A couple of years ago most were limited to lower pressures but some new scba systems are up to 4000 PSI.I hope there is one closer than 25 miles from your home. You could go one step farther and join that fire department and help protect your community