Neutral al80’s anyone?

[Marie13]

I was thinking more of just the weight and big heavy things hanging in front on land. Not that that bit of weight is the big difference in cold water diving, but in warm water for say a teen it might be an easier path.

The weight of 50s is nothing. If I can walk out of the water with them clipped to me, a teen should be able to handle them no problem.

 

[MichaelMc]

The weight of 50s is nothing. If I can walk out of the water with them clipped to me, a teen should be able to handle them no problem.

You lift weights, swim regularly, do various other things to stay in shape for the scuba you do..... Absent that fitness training, it is not as if they are a loaf of bread each to deal with while learning how they are rigged and how all the hoses lay. I'm thinking of rigging up on land absent a bench.

I'd add one AL19 to my micro-sized sidemount list. Particularly as it would be useful later for sidemount travel when you do not want to be diving two AL80s.

 

[SavDiver]

How much gas do you want?

AL40s: easy to rig/unrig on land, need to readjust underwater as empty,
LP50s: tad heavier on land, more efficient on gas/weight and more gas, just stay put underwater.
AL72s: slimmer than AL80s
ST72s: good gas for weight
AL80s: available all over
LP85s: more neutral steel, good if can get cave fills
HP100s: lots of gas and very gas/weight efficient

Thanks guys. I do own a pair of hp100s, guess I could get one valve swapped to a right. Need to consider that idea.

Tbone- earlier i meant “thanks” for the straight opinion. Truly appreciate all you guys taking a moment to give a few cents.

MichaelMC - great summary chart for me to consider. thank you. My gut tells me to purchase and practice (locally) with tanks that are the most commonly rented else where.

Great post on gas volume but we are forgetting some key differences. The average al80 is normally around 2.5lbs buoyant at 500 psi. Some fellow divers and myself, I'm not gonna say the name of the tanks, 5 hp100 tanks and they all arranged at around 16lbs full in the water with regulators. At 450-500 psi we noticed that the weight on the hp100 varied by about 2-5 lb difference per cylinder at around 9-11 lbs. We also did lp85s and although with a cave fill (I am not cave certified wish me luck in 4 weeks for my intro to cave and cavern) they are heavy as **** and you are gonna be overweight at the end of the dive they were completely neutral and they were luxfers. We had 4 lp85s to test, now with that being said I did dive with the hp100's and did notice towards 1500 psi on both tanks my trim check would have me tilting to the right and facing sideways. I personally believe that lp85s are a better choice for sidemount than hp100s. With that being said it is your tank and your choice and I am not gonna tell you what to dive.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

One of my friends, an NSS-CDS cave instructor uses them almost exclusively for cave diving and loves them.

 

[Wibble]

Great post on gas volume but we are forgetting some key differences. The average al80 is normally around 2.5lbs buoyant at 500 psi.

To that you need to add the weight of the regulators, hoses, SPG and mountings. So whilst they are light on the bottom, they tend to float neutral or just slightly heavy.

 

[rjack321]

I have Catalina AL80s and I really like them. They're better for doubles, they're better as single tanks, and they're better for my SM set up.

Same, all of my 80s are Cats and they are fine. I like to think the people who insist they're terrible just don't know how to dive them

 

[Tom_Ivan]

... I do own a pair of hp100s, guess I could get one valve swapped to a right.

Steve Martin has a good video on how to setup sidemount cylinders with standard valves. You'll have to subscribe to his website I think to view it though.

 

[SavDiver]

Steve Martin has a good video on how to setup sidemount cylinders with standard valves. You'll have to subscribe to his website I think to view it though.

I would assume its just flipping the tank so the regulator is facing out instead of in and putting the bungee on the valve instead of the manifold

 

[Marie13]

I would assume its just flipping the tank so the regulator is facing out instead of in and putting the bungee on the valve instead of the manifold

Manifold?

 

[SavDiver]

Manifold?

Sorry about the confusion I'm too used to calling it that, I believe it's called stem extension or something I can not remember. Attached is a picture of the circled area I am talking about.