How does overpressured tank break/crack

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Valyngar

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Messages
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Location
Finland
# of dives
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1 I have been wondering how does overpressured tank break, does valve pop off or how?
2 Difference when filling tank or diving with it. Everyone always warns about overruling, but what actually happens.
3 Is the tank safe to dive with if it didn't break during filling?
 
1 I have been wondering how does overpressured tank break, does valve pop off or how?
2 Difference when filling tank or diving with it. Everyone always warns about overruling, but what actually happens.
3 Is the tank safe to dive with if it didn't break during filling?
Depends on the tank and how much you overfill it. There are some videos on youtube of people who have deliberately overfilled tanks with water until they burst. Generally, LP steel tanks do not burst from "reasonable" overfilling... say 1,000psi over the + rated pressure. I've seen a lot of people talk about going higher than that, but 1k is about my limit for comfort. I've been doing it consistently for just over 5 years now with no problems - including during hydro testing. I wouldn't overfill an aluminum, personally. HP steels are tough to overfill because most fill stations don't bank enough pressure to overfill them a by lot afaik - I don't own any HP so I might be wrong about that situation.

If a tank valve meets with some force (you hit it with a hammer or drop the tank onto the valve) then the tank might go for a ride. If you overfill a steel until it bursts, the videos I've seen show them blowing out the side. That takes some prep as you'll have to remove safety features such as burst disks in order to do it. Search youtube.
 
Burst disk would blow before anything else can happen. Its loud, but uneventful when it happens
 
Burst disk would blow before anything else can happen. Its loud, but uneventful when it happens

Tanks/valves made for markets outside North America, Europe and the rest of the world, don't have burst discs :)
 
Tanks/valves made for markets outside North America, Europe and the rest of the world, don't have burst discs :)
Yes, sometimes I forget the rest of the world does it differently. Now that you mention it, I seem to remember that some people consider valves with burst disks to be less safe than valves without.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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