Is it worth it to blend your own?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Price of helium is very very unknown. There are shops in the area that are still trying to lose it at 2.00 USD per cubic ft but no one knows that will happen to these rates in the future. When you call bulk suppliers, their priority would obviously be the high volume buyer than some buy blending in his garage.

 

[boulderjohn]

Price of helium is very very unknown. There are shops in the area that are still trying to lose it at 2.00 USD per cubic ft but no one knows that will happen to these rates in the future. When you call bulk suppliers, their priority would obviously be the high volume buyer than some buy blending in his garage.

I would quite rightly be qualified as someone blending in his garage, except I usually do it in my driveway.

 

[rjack321]

Thanks everyone for all your thoughts and insights. Scubaboard can make you wiser very quickly on certain things and this happens to be one of those moments. At my present certification level and with the TDI Trimix course in process, my own diving will remain above 200 with most of the dives in the 150' or shallower range. Based on what I have read so for, am I correct to realize that if I carry O2 and Helium then that would be a more manageable set up than air compressing. I can top off air at LDS and that takes away one of the major hassles involved in blending your own?

Thanks once again for all the help.

I guess you're saying "Should I get a booster and my own supply tanks and rely on a shop for air?"

1) Would your shop do air top offs? Many will not
2) An OC sized booster and a compressor to drive it is going to be at least $4K
3) At $2/cf that's like 150-200 OC dives - unless your gas supplier charges you $3/cf in which case you have lost $2K vs. buying from your shop

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

I guess you're saying "Should I get a booster and my own supply tanks and rely on a shop for air?"

1) Would your shop do air top offs? Many will not
2) An OC sized booster and a compressor to drive it is going to be at least $4K
3) At $2/cf that's like 150-200 OC dives - unless your gas supplier charges you $3/cf in which case you have lost $2K vs. buying from your shop

There are some shops in Northern Virginia (OPs area too) that charge for gas based upon the volume dispensed, rather than the size of the tank filled (top offs significantly cheaper than standard fill cost). I don’t think that’s all that common though in this area.

 

[broncobowsher]

Since changing to a rebreather I got myself a booster. The fills were the drive an hour each way, twice. 4 hours of driving for a fill. Only know of 2 places in town that do it, a town of 6 million that is. I own bottles for He and O2. I am about to go buy more He for the first time in 18 months. I've really needed it for about 6 months but diving and travel are hampered this year.

Air I get from the local dive shop. My old steel 100s are still in service for clean air transport.

The Haskel mini booster lives in an Apache case (Harbor Freight Pelican clone). Drive gas at home is from my shop compressor (2-stage IR 60 gallon 5-HP) which is way larger than needed to run the booster. I need to get a garage toaster over to dry out the desiccant beads. But that steel 100 will drive the booster for the hotel parking lot fill. Doubles would be better, that single 100 gets pretty cold with the rapid pressure drop.

The mini booster is perfect for doing 3L rebreather bottles. The AL40 isn't bad. The AL80, OK that isn't good. I did make deep bail out bottle and starting with very full supply bottles the baby booster wasn't working that hard. Absolutely need a shop compressor for that much drive gas. I won't be doing another AL80 for a long time.

A full blown compressor, I have no need. But the booster has been great. I consider a booster one of the hidden expenses of owning a rebreather. You generally don't plan on one when you are getting the rebreather, but shortly after you get it you will be wanting one.

 

[100days-a-year]

A few people have brought up time spent driving to and from a shop in the past and that's another cost benefit. The nearest shop is 15 minutes each way, at my wage rate it's even more sensible to have one at home. Even at the IRS mileage rate for wear and tear, it is.

Then there is the yearly savings of having a local shop VIP my tanks, some won't fill a tank with generic VIP stickers even when you have more technician and blender certs than they do. Some barely honor local competitors.

As far a gasses go I've always used welding grade 02 and balloon HE. Pretty easy to find around here.

 

[abnfrog]

its nice to able to blend anything i want to breath, but as a facility its a must have i have owned a compressor for over 25 years it has its ups and downs , if you run it ever 60 days change the oil / filters when you need too its pretty economical ...that said its a machine , and they break down. So keep that in mind

 

[Miyaru]

Some advice when buying a compressor...

• Brand: Bauer
• Type: K 14
• Build: before 1990

Back then, those compressors were built to last. Small maintenance every 500 hours, large maintenance every 1000 hours. Filter replacement usually every 50-70 hours. If you can pack these yourself, the costs are much smaller.

3-stage compressors built after 1990 will break down much sooner.

Running helium through a compressor - make sure the compressor manual specifies this. You wouldn't be the first to successfully run trimix through it, only to find out the compressor is jammed after cooling down.