Luxfer frustrations.....

[OneRestlessNative]

My dad handed me down a few tanks from his collection if 12 when I got certified 6 or so years ago. It has been about 3 years since I have been in the water and deciding I'm way overdue to get wet, so I bring all my gear in for service. Everything checked out good, just normal services needed. 3 luxfer 80's went for service as well. 2 were viz and one was hydro'd. Trip was planned and off I went. Went to a place in West Palm and wanted one fill. I was told about the luxfer recall and a shop explosion. They made it shop policy not to fill anything older than 89' I believe is what he stated. The tank in question is an 83 lux aluminum which was the one that got the hydro not less than a week prior. I was pretty frustrated since I was not from the area and wondering what now??? with an early morning dive planned the next day. Fortunately the charter service filled it and had no other issues on the trip. I have read some and will look deeper into the serial numbers with the tank in question. Upon returning home I stopped by my local shop and they said there were no problems with that tank and they would gladly fill it until it was no longer serviceable.

My questions are....
1) If this tank does not fall into the recalled category should I be concerned, finish the year and replace it?

2) Is this the service I can expect from many shops concerning this issue and plan accordingly for trips? borrowing or renting ect....

3) If this is a bad tank does anyone want a cheap scuba tank lamp? =P

I think that shop policy might have been a little on the harsh side of safety and painting the issues of explosions and recalls with a HUGE brush. I would also think my shop would advise me if I was in possession of an unsafe tank as well. I will check the stamps for myself, thanks to the posters in other threads! I'm just looking for some non-dive shop experiences and advise.

Any thoughts, comments, and opinions are greatly appreciated.

 

[dannobee]

This has been covered ad nauseum. If your local dive shop won't fill them, you have two options, get rid of them or get your own compressor.

Their concern may or may not be valid on the old Luxfer tanks, but it is what it is. They are the ones who will likely be injured, maimed or killed if the thing blows up when filling, not you.

If it's a 1983 Luxfer, it falls into the suspect tank category.

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

Luxfer switched to a different alloy around 89 depending on the size of tank and what not. There is a chart floating around the net with specifically which months and years the tanks changed to the new alloy.

Many shops have instituted this rule and like dannobee said you're pretty much stuck with 2 options.

Despite the reality that sustained load cracking (or enough to cause problems) doesn't happen over night.

It's basically a good example of CYA in practice.

Personally, I would but a compressor...

 

[OneRestlessNative]

My local shop has no issues filling and servicing this tank. I totally understand the filling dangers. I saw the chart and will check my tank. My concern is the actual service/filling outside my shop when traveling and I am trying to get a few other opinions on my dive shops advice as well as others experiences with this tank issue.

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

My local shop has no issues filling and servicing this tank. I totally understand the filling dangers. I saw the chart and will check my tank. My concern is the actual service/filling outside my shop when traveling and I am trying to get a few other opinions on my dive shops advice as well as others experiences with this tank issue.

If your tank is a luxfer made before 1989 it is most certainly made form the lesser quality alloy. (though its actually a great alloy, just has a bad rep)

Every shop is going to be different with what rules they use on this particular subject. Legally the shops are free to fill them if they pass a visual and eddy and are up to date on hydros but for whatever reason they don't like to.

 

[rstofer]

You can expect nothing but grief from older aluminum tanks. It's ignorant but it's a fact of life. FWIW, the Luxfer Al 80 changed alloy in Jan '88. My Mar '88 tank should be fine. But sooner of later, I'll run across some shop that won't fill it. Fortunately, I only use it in the pool and I would never take it on a trip where I wanted it filled by an unknown shop.

Then again, I've had the tank for 20 years and it only cost about $150. At $7.50 per year I have probably gotten my money out of it.

Richard

 

[Stu S.]

This tends to be a local problem, and I had it in the Orlando area. There was nothing wrong with my tank, just reputation. It was not a problem for an eBay customer in Tennessee, and I sold it for more than I expected.

Good luck with it.

 

[OneRestlessNative]

Thanks for your reply's and insight. I guess this will have to be just a local tank only until its done. I'd rather have invested the money for the hydro/viz in a newer tank to eliminate the hassle. I was more concerned with my shops willingness to service and fill this tank. They are an awesome shop, well established for 50 years. I am a mechanic by trade and will let no one work on my cars so it is just my personality to question the details and service.

 

[Gombessa]

FWIW, the Luxfer Al 80 changed alloy in Jan '88. My Mar '88 tank should be fine.

According to Luxfer, 6351-alloy tanks were produced in the United States until mid-1988 (not just January). Further, some Luxfer tanks (not as common to see in the US) continued to use 6351 well into the mid-90s.

Over 1% of Luxfer 6351-alloy tanks exhibited SLC (that's almost 14k tanks showing cracking). This, combined with the difficulty/hassle of being able to actually determine whether a tank is made of the affected alloy (as you can see, we can't even arrive at 100% consensus on dates here), and the fact that various other manufacturers also made 6351 tanks and swapped alloys at different times, is why some shops simply make it a policy not to fill AL tanks prior to 1990 (or some other approximate year).

Whether ignorant, lazy or justifiably conservative for purposes of safety, the general consensus is that "it is what it is." You're going to save yourself a lot of hassle by getting a more recent AL tank than wondering/arguing when a shop refuses to fill it.

It's also a good reason to be wary and educate yourself prior to buying used AL tanks.

 

[rstofer]

According to Luxfer, 6351-alloy tanks were produced in the United States until mid-1988 (not just January). Further, some Luxfer tanks (not as common to see in the US) continued to use 6351 well into the mid-90s.

True but the Al S80 stopped using 6351 at the end of '87. So sayeth Luxfer and DOT.

Luxfer: Technical Bulletins: November 12, 2003
Luxfer: Technical Bulletins: October 17, 2002

There is a lot of information here:
Luxfer: Support

There is nothing to indicate that Luxfer wasn't out of the 6351 business by the end of '89.

There was a lengthy discussion last week with all kinds of links to the DOT documents.

Richard