How many own a O2 analyzer?

[diverbrian]

I own my own analyzer as well. Many times lately, it has become the only analyzer on the boat as the boat doesn't supply tanks and every once in a while I will loan out mine. I dive nothing but nitrox and I insist that everybody using my tanks on a loan analyze them. This is even if they are labeled AIR. Our dive shop uses prebank EAN36 and the staff has been known to just reach for the nitrox bank without checking what I asked it to be filled with knowing that I typically dive nitrox.

Also, my tanks (especially my eighties which I seldom use) may have been sitting around the house for a few months. I don't want to trust my life to faded hand-writing on a contents tag. I have had screw-ups from outside shops when filling, too. I remember a deco mix tank that came up to an actual of EAN35. Needless to say, the dive shop owner (her employee had done the first mix) wound up staying after hours filling my deco tank in my presence for that one!

No matter how you get it done, always analyze your gas and never take another person's word for it. They don't have to dive the mix.

 

[rab]

The important thing is to analyse your own gas to be sure what it is. I don't really think it matters much who owns the analyser.
Recently on a liveaboard over 22 dives which were all supposed to be 32% my tank was filled incorrectly with clean air twice. If I hadn't checked them myself I would have been diving air with my computer set to 32% - and would probably have been in serious trouble by going into deco without knowing it. I hate to think what might have happened then.
The point is: never rely on someones elses word or check - you have to do it yourself.

Or at least watch the analysis. I just had my cylinders visually inspected and filled at the end of vacation last week from FillExpress -- one with 32% one with 40%. When I got there to pick them up, Mark analyzed them both and they were "right", but he started to write "40" on the cylinder of 32 which I caught right away. It's Mark's policy to analyze every fill since they bank Air, EAN32, EAN36, EAN40, and a couple of standard Trimix blends (those might get filled in a different area). That's really nice when I'm down there at the start of vacation and getting air topped off with a banked Nitrox mix. Even though I keep my cylinders clean, it's just not worth it to get Nitrox much for quarry diving in Ohio.

-Rob

 

[Kim]

Rab - I hear you and I don't want to be petty....I still say: Do it again yourself.

 

[Tom Winters]

I was going to build one of those Oxycheq analyzer kits until I got an Oxyspy on a killer closeout for a little more than the kit.
Since using the wrong nitrox at depth can literally kill you, it is kinda nice to have your own system of checks-and-balances. Yes, you do have to change the oxygen sensor yearly, but just factor in how many breaths per year you take and divide that into $100 or so for a new sensor. Cheap insurance.
When tank pumpers get busy, it's not all that hard to mark the wrong nitrox percentage on a tank.

 

[triton94949]

I was going to build one of those Oxycheq analyzer kits until I got an Oxyspy on a killer closeout for a little more than the kit.
Since using the wrong nitrox at depth can literally kill you, it is kinda nice to have your own system of checks-and-balances. Yes, you do have to change the oxygen sensor yearly, but just factor in how many breaths per year you take and divide that into $100 or so for a new sensor. Cheap insurance.
When tank pumpers get busy, it's not all that hard to mark the wrong nitrox percentage on a tank.

Exactly.

 

[TwoTanks]

I dive nitrox frequently and I don't have an analyzer, but it is on my list for this year. I always analyze every tank myself before I leave the shop with them. My LDS uses premixed 40% so the risk of a life threatening error is small anyhow, but I still think that I should have one.

If I got my fills at an LDS where the do partial pressure blending I would absolutely have one.

TT

 

[Charlie99]

I don't own an analyzer, but do personally analyze each of my tanks using a shop or boat analyzer.

A drawback of not having a personal analyzer is not being able to recheck the tank on the boat. The mix won't change, but labels can fall off and get put back on the wrong tank. For that reason, my labels always include mix, mod, and TANK NUMBER.

 

[rickyd]

I recently built the Oxycheq El Cheapo II. $100, about 3 hours time to build. Cheap insurance - - - and I always know my O2 after topping off a tank.

 

[Damselfish]

I've always used one the op has available, but I've run across a number that weren't working very well and one op that didn't make one available unless you nagged them, they were big believers in "trust us." I'm getting to the point where I may buy one.

 

[SDAnderson]

Better to have one than not but that doesn't mean owning your own is required for recreational nitrox divers. Just be sure to carefully analyze and label your own tanks - never take anyone else's word for it, even if they did it while you watch. It's an important skill and better shops won't let you take the tanks until you do your own analysis.

If the tanks were pp blended, you should definitely be analyzing again at the dock or on the boat - if having your own is the only way to assure there will be an analyzer to use, then so be it.