New Tank Question

[Couv]

….and I thought the first criticism was going to be on my mentioning his buddy's SAC.

By the way, if the OP needs to borrow an FX100, I have one to loan. It is a great tank, but imagine if he has a low SAC and uses the 100, his buddy has a high SAC and has an AL80, he will never be able to compare the end of dive buoyancy characteristics.

SAC, SAC, SAC…..what? I'm just practicing for the game.

c

 

[scubafanatic]

....while I'm a big fan of steels ( 7 HP, 2 LP ...plus 2 sets of LP doubles) remember this about AL80's.......they're way cheaper than steels, which are commonly in the $ 350 - $ 450 range EACH....plus if you fly to dive, there's about an 80 - 90% chance you'll be using AL80's anyway....at least with an AL80, you'll get more practice estimating the dive times/depths you can expect on your vacation dives...and you can really dial in your bouyancy/weighting requirements, especially using different thickness wetsuits, with the repeated 'home' practice too.

 

[shogan]

Man that really cleared things up for me.

Ok I will dive warm water fresh and shallow. Probably won't wear any wet suit unless I purely wuss out and get a shorty. Yeah it's cold below the thermocline but I won't go there much. DECO stops are not the issue. Diving all day is limited by my pocket book.

Yes I can buy 3 used al80'ls for $300 if I keep hunting.

Or 1 HP Steel 130 for $400 gives me the capacity of almost 2 al80's (yes?)

On one side you get more air for your fill charge with more cu feet and less space in the back of the minivan. And there is a chance I can't refill where I"m going. IFFF the fill station is open it's a good boat drive to to get there.

On the other hand 3 al80's for the same price but it cost me $15 local to fill up and $24-30 at the lake IFFF I can fill it up.

Considering most dive shops won't fille AL tanks pre 1990 that means they have a life span of 20 years regardless of the fill cycles.


And I"m torn torn torn. Add to that there seems to be almost no used scuba tanks in the area except some old AL80's that I can't get filled.

 

[Montana Diver]

I would suggest you try different tanks. I have dived with AL80's, and steel HP 100's, HP119's, HP120's. In MT we dive only drysuit so I choose steel tanks. Then I need only 14-16# with a SS BP/W. Love the trim characteristics of the 119 for me, however I am glad I have had the opportunity to dive various setups.

A concern with steel is the quality of fills. I recently VIPed a set of HP100 steel tanks and they were rust enough that they needed to be tumbled. The diver had traveled and obviously he picked up some less then ideal fills. The HP119's that belong to my instructor looked as good at three years old as they did when new. The have been filled with Nitrox or air that is nitrox clean. Certainly one additional component to getting 3500 psi fills is getting good clean fills.

I hope you are able to test out various tanks and find the best fit for your diving style.

 

[shogan]

A concern with steel is the quality of fills. I recently VIPed a set of HP100 steel tanks and they were rust enough that they needed to be tumbled. The diver had traveled and obviously he picked up some less then ideal fills. The HP119's that belong to my instructor looked as good at three years old as they did when new. .

This pushes me back to AL80 the air in town is most likely great but I filled up on the lake I guess there is more risk of less quality.