"lemon" made in china tank valve

[archman]

I bought a new tank 5 years ago, marked with a generic "VX5000" on the front, and with tiny "made in china" written on the back.

This tank has had chronic blown o-rings, so bad that early on, a nice dive boat crew gave me a small pile of o-rings and lassoed them to the dust cap. Replacing blown o-rings became a regular occurrence, yet manageable with all the spares handily looped to the valve.

Now this week, I find my tank empty of air. A dive shop inspected it and found a leaked burst disc. Argh.

These chinese tank valves seem to have a bad reputation in our area. Several shops have heard about them.

I had the burst disc on my crummy chinese valve replaced. But now I am thinking that I should just replace this valve outright with one of higher quality. I would like to know how to shop for a high quality tank valve. Is there a manufacturer or manufacturers to focus on? Will the manufacturer having identifying markings on the outside of the valve?

 

[BoltSnap]

Is the tank (and the valve) made in China or just the valve?

 

[archman]

The tank is a Catalina Al80. It is just the valve that is made in China.

 

[runsongas]

get a taiwan made convertible valve from dgx. or just look for a used sherwood valve if you want to stick to yoke as those go for peanuts.

 

[DEdiveguy1]

I'm a valve repair tech, and work on a lot of valves. Haven't seen problems (so far) with the VX5000s that have come through our Shop. Sorry to hear you're having problems. If you're in the market for a new valve, I recommend Genesis KA-70 for folks that are using the tanks for Nitrox as the valve ships in a sealed bag with a tag that states the valve is oxygen cleaned - and no disclaimers of using the valve with nitrox mixes > 40%.. If you're diving only air, and besides the Genesis valves,Thermo, Sherwood, XS Scuba, and Blue Steel Scuba(Faber/Kaplan) valves all hold up well and parts are readily available and economical. You're looking at $60-$80 for a new valve.

 

[archman]

Thank you for the tips! I have replaced the chinese valve with a new Sherwood. I dove it last week. Was SOOOO nice not having to fret over blown o-rings.

 

[gopbroek]

The shop I dive with has a bunch of Chinese valves (yoke) that use a -013 O-ring as opposed to a standard -014 O-ring, perhaps that was the issue.