My Worthington E14157 failing hydro - what do I do now?

[guruboy]

It might have failed anyways. We’ll never know

 

[Scuba-74]

Sorry @Scuba-74. I must have missed it.

Well that is real sad. Fail a tank cause they don't want to follow the recommendations? You have my full sympathy.

Most likely they had no idea about these recommendations. Neither did I. They seemed like nice enough people, but when I started asking about "pressurising to 89% twice" that I myself learned about 15 min before picking up the tank, they looked like I was speaking gibberish.

 

[Compressor]

Well, then a visit to the place is needed and a talk with the manager. Go with printed documents. Yes it may have failed anyway but that is relatively rare. A good shop will take a hit and reimburse you for the tank. You can even offer to pay some percent of the replacement cost if taking this route as a gesture of good will. You have nothing to loose. And as they say, if you don't ask you will never know.

Most likely they had no idea about these recommendations. Neither did I. They seemed like nice enough people, but when I started asking about "pressurising to 89% twice" that I myself learned about 15 min before picking up the tank, they looked like I was speaking gibberish.

 

[Rooster59]

Life happens, move on, erase the whole thing from your mind. Tomorrow's a new day

 

[guruboy]

Well, then a visit to the place is needed and a talk with the manager. Go with printed documents. Yes it may have failed anyway but that is relatively rare. A good shop will take a hit and reimburse you for the tank. You can even offer to pay some percent of the replacement cost if taking this route as a gesture of good will. You have nothing to loose. And as they say, if you don't ask you will never know.

Scuba tanks are a small part of a hydro shop’s business. They don’t care. They followed the regulations.

 

[BRT]

Thanks Compressor, this document is already referenced here twice, in my OP, and in one other post.

I'm sure they didn't follow this recommendation (a.k.a. "the round out"), but several other posters wrote that this are not the required procedures, but mere recommendations from the manufacturer.

Had I known about them beforehand, I of course would have insisted on them. Heck, had I known about them beforehand, I would have never risked bringing the tank to a non-scuba focused facility. But alas. Hindsight is always 20/20.

I send mine to an industrial gas place that also does fire extinguishers. I asked first about the round out and the guy laughed and said they always do that. No failures so far.

 

[Scared Silly]

The permit stamps are marked out. No hydro shop should be willing to test it.

Another shop may be willing to test it and give one the results on paper but nothing more.

I thought that they are required to get the owner's permission before condemning a tank?

Not for a re-qual (hydro) test, but for a VIP one should get/give permission. However, a re-qual shop needs permission to physically alter the cylinder so that it can not hold pressure.

Is it normal to stamp the serial numbers out if it fails hydro??

The approved method is stamping XXX's over the DOT specification number and the marked pressure, or stamp CODEMNED. The serial numbers should never be marked out.

CFR 180.205.C
(2) When a cylinder must be condemned, the requalifier must—

(i) Stamp a series of X's over the DOT specification number and the marked pressure or stamp “CONDEMNED” on the shoulder, top head, or neck using a steel stamp;

(ii) For composite cylinders, securely affix to the cylinder a label with the word “CONDEMNED” overcoated with epoxy near, but not obscuring, the original cylinder manufacturer's label; or

(iii) As an alternative to the stamping or labeling as described in this paragraph (i)(2), at the direction of the owner, the requalifier may render the cylinder incapable of holding pressure.

Most likely they had no idea about these recommendations. Neither did I. They seemed like nice enough people, but when I started asking about "pressurising to 89% twice" that I myself learned about 15 min before picking up the tank, they looked like I was speaking gibberish.

Given you do not know what they did and they did not appear to understand the round out process I would take the cylinder and the Worthington guidelines back to the shop and talk to the owner/manager. Use it as opportunity to educate them. Who knows what they might do. Perhaps refund the hydro cost ...

 

[Scuba-74]

A quick update on my story. I called the facility today, and managed to speak with a gentleman in charge of hydro testing for the first time. The person I was dealing with before was I believe a general manager of the facility, and because they also do a bunch of other things like sales, maintenance, and installations of fire systems, the previous guy had no real idea about what was being done with hydro tests.

So I asked the hydro manager if they did the round out at 90% for my tank, and right away he answered that yes they did, and that it is a part of their standard procedure for all galvanized tanks, or "the galvies" as he referred to them a couple of times. He said that he has been doing hydro testing for scuba tanks for decades, and that his shop is fully aware of these recommendations and follows them. He also said, without being prompted, that he knows that some shops consider it "cheating", but his shop doesn't, as he understands the rationale behind it. He sounded like a very knowledgeable and thorough person, so I didn't press him for the record of the pretests over the phone.

When asked what he would attribute the failure to, he said that it could be things like overfills, hot fills, or simply the age of the tank that would affect the structural integrity and elasticity of steel. Overall, although I'm still obviously upset that this has happened, at least I have some peace of mind that perhaps the tank legitimately failed the test, as opposed to just being needlessly condemned by someone who hasn't got a clue.

 

[2airishuman]

61.5 (I believe) on REE test instead of 59.5. Don't have that in front of me right now.

Couldn't even answer my question of what are the units of measure for these numbers... Pretty mad at them and myself right now...

REE is measured in milliliters.

It is vanishingly rare for cylinders to fail on REE.

With the PST and Worthington galvanized cylinders, there is always some risk that they will fail hydro even if the cylinder is perfectly good.

 

[Scuba-74]

REE is measured in milliliters.

It is vanishingly rare for cylinders to fail on REE.

With the PST and Worthington galvanized cylinders, there is always some risk that they will fail hydro even if the cylinder is perfectly good.

With my luck, my other two cylinders are galvanized PST 100s, and they are due for hydro next year. Good news is that these will be their 3d hydros, not first, and that I already printed out PST bulletin D100 that I will bring with me when I drop them off.