OP
BVickery
Contributor
We are in no rush to buy our own and will take the advice of keep on renting, though, if given the chance, may rent some of the larger tanks if available.
Help in determining proper tank
- Thread starter BVickery
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If you truly do use twice the air of your wife, just dive doubles of the same size tank as your wife.
Diving doubles doesn't mean diving full tech gear. You can even get a temporary manifold to connect two rental tanks to one regulator off of eBay.
But as others have said, get in some more diving, see how your SAC stabilizes and then look into buying tanks.
Diving doubles doesn't mean diving full tech gear. You can even get a temporary manifold to connect two rental tanks to one regulator off of eBay.
But as others have said, get in some more diving, see how your SAC stabilizes and then look into buying tanks.
mike_s
Contributor
If you truly do use twice the air of your wife, just dive doubles of the same size tank as your wife.
sounds like he's just started diving. adding doubles is changing his gear completely and adding task loading that he's prob not ready for yet.
would be simplier (and much cheaper) just for him to move to a larger capacity single tank at this time and when he's ready to make the move to doubles, he can do it then. (just my opinion/suggestion)
piikki
Contributor
I don't know. When people gave me the advice to just keep on renting when I was new and diving EVERY weekend I was not too happy. I went on and bought (wrong) tanks anyway. The truth is that you fairly quickly pay the price of tanks in rentals if (but only IF) you dive a lot. Owning your own tanks you also gain a great convenience (no scurrying to and back to the shop for returns). You also get to dive same tanks all the time and learn how they act.
My personal favourite for single is either HP100 or HP130 but since you are big guy you certainly could consider HP120 which is taller tank. It might have better characteristics for you. Stay away from LP 120 which is a water boiler (some people are dumping them for cheap). I assume you dive wet in Fl, so you need to realize that with these tanks the deal is a bit different than with Al that swings positive when empty though.
I don't know why you should wait for your SAC to improve if you anyway will purchase tanks. Your SAC will improve regardless, maybe faster if you do not need to fret about ending dives early. Extra gas left in the bottle never hurt anyone.
The fact is that Al80 might always be a little small for you, unless you get your wife a smaller tank. Being so tall the common recommended HP tank (HP100) is probably a tad short for you, even though it would give you a little edge gas-wise. So you'd be either looking for LP85 which is longer but about same volume as AL80 so no point there other than it being steel and more money - or the tanks already mentioned 120/130.
Best thing would be to go try how they balance out. And I second the opinion that best to leave the doubles idea for now.
My personal favourite for single is either HP100 or HP130 but since you are big guy you certainly could consider HP120 which is taller tank. It might have better characteristics for you. Stay away from LP 120 which is a water boiler (some people are dumping them for cheap). I assume you dive wet in Fl, so you need to realize that with these tanks the deal is a bit different than with Al that swings positive when empty though.
I don't know why you should wait for your SAC to improve if you anyway will purchase tanks. Your SAC will improve regardless, maybe faster if you do not need to fret about ending dives early. Extra gas left in the bottle never hurt anyone.
The fact is that Al80 might always be a little small for you, unless you get your wife a smaller tank. Being so tall the common recommended HP tank (HP100) is probably a tad short for you, even though it would give you a little edge gas-wise. So you'd be either looking for LP85 which is longer but about same volume as AL80 so no point there other than it being steel and more money - or the tanks already mentioned 120/130.
Best thing would be to go try how they balance out. And I second the opinion that best to leave the doubles idea for now.
I brought up the doubles because a single SCUBA tank with double the capacity of an 80 doesn't even exist. The origional poster will see an improvement in SAC but probably , so too will his wife. They may always have a 2:1 ratio of SAC. (proper dive planning will show slightly less than 2:1 air supply capacity since th smaller diver needs to have enough backup air for the larger diver)
A lot of divers that haven't been around for a long time may not have seen the simple single outlet doubles manifolds. While they usually have to be purchased used these days, they don't increase task loading over single tanks. In fact small doubles are EASIER to carry and dive with than large singles in a lot of cases.
Back in the 70's, double 50s were a common rig for larger beginning divers.
A lot of divers that haven't been around for a long time may not have seen the simple single outlet doubles manifolds. While they usually have to be purchased used these days, they don't increase task loading over single tanks. In fact small doubles are EASIER to carry and dive with than large singles in a lot of cases.
Back in the 70's, double 50s were a common rig for larger beginning divers.
TheScubaBOB
Contributor
If you really want to carry twice the air as her just get her an OMS Steel 66 it will be smaller & about 6lbs lighter than the AL80 she's probably used to. Then get yourself a steel 120, the HP variety is lighter that the 3100psi ones.
Personally I'd also use a DIN connection for the regulator with HP Tank, the OMS 66 is LP so yoke is fine there.
Personally I'd also use a DIN connection for the regulator with HP Tank, the OMS 66 is LP so yoke is fine there.
OP
BVickery
Contributor
I'm still holding off of getting a tank as suggested.
One thing I am going to do is probably rent one of the larger steel ones for a shore dive in the keys in a weeks to see how the disparity goes.
One guy said i could use the HP tanks at 3000+ PSI with my yoke valve since the time it will be above the rating would be a little bit. Not going to do it, may just pick up a DIN M1 or B2 (want one anyways).
Right now, the wife and I are actually looking at Nitrox and thinking if we dive it a lot getting our own tanks for that (we get 1/2 fills at our LDS since we belong to their dive club as well as 10% things we buy from them).
We are diving at least 2-3 month, double tank dives each time, and if we can find a place to dive that isn't 1 hr away from Jax and doesn't cost an arm-n-leg to get into we would dive even more.
I actually toyed with going doubles for about 5 seconds and then decided to keep it strictly single tank for a while.
One thing I am going to do is probably rent one of the larger steel ones for a shore dive in the keys in a weeks to see how the disparity goes.
One guy said i could use the HP tanks at 3000+ PSI with my yoke valve since the time it will be above the rating would be a little bit. Not going to do it, may just pick up a DIN M1 or B2 (want one anyways).
Right now, the wife and I are actually looking at Nitrox and thinking if we dive it a lot getting our own tanks for that (we get 1/2 fills at our LDS since we belong to their dive club as well as 10% things we buy from them).
We are diving at least 2-3 month, double tank dives each time, and if we can find a place to dive that isn't 1 hr away from Jax and doesn't cost an arm-n-leg to get into we would dive even more.
I actually toyed with going doubles for about 5 seconds and then decided to keep it strictly single tank for a while.
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