High Pressure Aluminum

[swimlikethefish]

I am currently using 80's and 40's. I'm thinking of buying some aluminum 72's, I notice they are 6.9 inches in diameter. Figured I'd ask before I just took the leap.

 

[rjack321]

Problem with that theory is 2008 is about the same time PST went out of business! Worthington went out of business shortly thereafter (about 2012)...so if hot-dipped galvanized tanks are so 'hot'/superior, what's your theory on that ? Don't get me wrong, I own 16 hot-dipped galvanized HP tanks (PST and Worthington), but somehow they failed in the market.

PST started making scuba tanks (lp72s) in the 1950s, then the 3500psi exemption tanks in 1987. They switched to the 3442psi tanks in 2004 and went into receivership in 2006. Scuba tanks- all scuba tanks including both PST's 2400 and 3442psi versions - were a tiny fraction of their business and not profitable. Part of the reason was because their plant was old and decrepit, their labor costs were high on a low margin product. The plant was so old and useless that the City of West Allis, PA bought up the property to redevelop it PSI-PCI - Investors to buy tank-maker PST never restarted their scuba tank line after that. Their new facility in Michigan only makes LNG cylinders now. Sometimes business factors completely unrelated to product performance and desirability take precedence.

Easy answer: Divers are cheap. Aluminum tanks are WAY CHEAPER than steel tanks. And that's how the mass market goes. Rental shops that need to buy maybe 50-100 tanks at a time? Would rather buy the tanks that are popular and familiar to their customers--the aluminum tanks--and while they are at it, save maybe $100 per tank on 50-100 tanks. It adds up!

The mass market things aluminum is better because it is LIGHTER and MODERN compared to those old steel tanks. Some of us know the difference between the steak and the sizzle, and stick to steel.

And they are incentivized to NOT buy bigger aluminum tanks too. The faster the customers go through air the faster you get them out of the water and back to the dock. And you can justify charging more for "2 dive" atrips when the dives are only ~30mins long.

 

[Blasto]

Dive time is not *that* expensive. I have never seen a non-liveaboard (which are all inclusive anyway) dive op that utilized all of its dive opportunities in a given day. Well... met one that would've taken someone my level to squeeze in one more dive, but even then, they weren't at the limit.

HP100 instead of AL80 will get a 30-minute op to 35 minutes. Just 35 because some dives are deep and NDL limited. That's 20 minutes a day. They waste more with easily-improved non-value-adding procedures. Customers do care about dive time and do perceive it as value.

It's a safety and liability thing. Small tanks mean rookies don't overstay their NDL out of ignorance, they get called up by air checks. Low-SAC divers are usually more experienced and knowledgeable. When you're running a thousand dives a day, suddenly a 0.001% DCS risk instead of 0.01% isn't such an irrelevant improbability anymore.

 

[Bob DBF]

And they are incentivized to NOT buy bigger aluminum tanks too.

With a quick check online, the biggest incentive I found was AL80 $149, steel 100 $299, AL100 $365. Even with a discount the the relative cost will remain the same.

As it is, some operators have larger tanks for those that ask, but the standard rental tank has been AL 80's for many decades. If there was a larger cheaper tank it would be used and 80's would fall into disuse as did the old steel 72 before it.


Bob