I lost 2400psi in 30 seconds

[Web Monkey]

Good job. Thanks for sharing.
You have given us ALL a reminder that we need to check our air many many times, not just occasionally. That is not a mistake that you or your wife will ever make again.
Wristshot

It happens with your own tanks too.

I was in Florida, and brought a tank in for a Nitrox fill.

The guy brought it in back, I heard some air noises, brought it back out a little while later all wet, stuck and analyzer on it, showed me it was 32% and I went on my way.

Got back to my room, decided to check it and found 500PSI.

From then on, I decided to always check my own O2% and pressure even if I just saw someone else check it.

Terry

 

[georgelawrence]

Good job. Thanks for sharing.
I have one question: After you initially checked the air pressure in both tanks, did you replace the protective boots over the valves? Were there boots for the valves? Just wondering. (did someone else take a tank away that had the boot off?)
Wristshot

Neither of "my" tanks (the one I initially rented, nor the one I took down to 100') had a boot.

 

[Ayisha]

Is it common for the shop to put a sticker over the valve of a just-filled tank?
Over here, most shops seem to put a sticker, but down south, I don't recall seeing them. Is that so people don't carelessly throw them in the water or somewhere other than a waste receptacle?

 

[Web Monkey]

Is it common for the shop to put a sticker over the valve of a just-filled tank?
Over here, most shops seem to put a sticker, but down south, I don't recall seeing them. Is that so people don't carelessly throw them in the water or somewhere other than a waste receptacle?

It's a nice idea, although I wouldn't trust the stickered tanks any more than the non-stickered tanks. There's no reason why the tank guy couldn't get confused and sticker an empty tank.

Terry

 

[ScubaSarus]

Wow thanks for sharing. Seem to me the moral here is to check your gage just be fore descent and not just on shore or the boat. I usually do this because I check the loss of PSI on entering the cool water since I have steel tanks that heat up on filling quite a bit.

 

[Quaff King]

Nice post, thanks for sharing. No matter how many dives you have you can never overlook the obvious. Complacency kills.

 

[alijtaylor]

Don't panic, you will only die tired. I like that.. Good post and well managed response, thanks for posting.
Alison

 

[georgelawrence]

Don't panic, you will only die tired. I like that.. Good post and well managed response, thanks for posting.
Alison

Yeah, and it's pretty funny to hear my FBI buddy say it (for him it's "Don't Run...") because he says it with this big grin on his face. I guess it's good to like what you do for a living, even if that's shooting bad guys.

 

[KrisB]

kudos on dealing with that stressful situation. I bet the instant your buoyancy was different than your buddy's made you thankful you didn't take her octo, eh? Might have pulled it right from your mouth.

Just one thing bothered me about your post about the ascent:

but if the computer was OK with us skipping it, I was too.

Please, please, please be careful about giving your computer too much credit. It wasn't aware of any stressful situation (which can increase the risk of DCS, etc.). Even when it doesn't tell you that you *have* to do something, if you know it's the correct thing to do, you should still do it... I don't know how much gas you had left at that instant, but if you had enough to do a safety stop, it should have been a strong consideration, rather than just trusting your computer.

Other than that, great job again! A much better outcome than could have been the case, given other situations currently being discussed here!

 

[georgelawrence]

Please, please, please be careful about giving your computer too much credit. It wasn't aware of any stressful situation (which can increase the risk of DCS, etc.). Even when it doesn't tell you that you *have* to do something, if you know it's the correct thing to do, you should still do it... I don't know how much gas you had left at that instant, but if you had enough to do a safety stop, it should have been a strong consideration, rather than just trusting your computer.

Thanks for the kind words.

Yeah, I totally hear what you're saying. In fact the more I use computers (the one on my wrist, or on my desk, or at the bank, or in the hospital, etc.) the less I trust them unquestioningly.