Nitrox banded cylinders

[spectrum]

Not to hijack the the Analyzing Nitrox thread let me ask this..

LDS has a number of Nitrox banded cylinders in the rental collection. You reserve a cylinder for an air dive and are handed a nitrox banded cylinder. No sticker of analysis is on the cylinder and you are assured it only has air. (lets assume it's the last one on hand)

We had this situation locally. The shop in question did not have nitrox capability but one 20 miles down the road does. As the consumer you don't know when it may have bee filled with enriched air, if it got used, how far down the tank was drawn after it's last rich mix, etc.

Makes me glad I own my own.

Your thoughts?

Pete

 

[mike_s]

as a nitrox diver, you're responsible for analyzing your nitrox mixes each time. Nitrox tanks filled from the O2 clean whip with air, or 21% nitrox still should be checked. if you had 36% in the tank before it was filled, then even if you fill it with air it should still be checked. for exmple, the MOD (max operating depth) for 28% is around 130-135 feet.

As a dive shop, they should be responsible not to give non-nitrox certified divers tanks with anything other than air in them.

 

[miketsp]

I'd probably be pragmatic about this.
If the planned dive was below 20m then I'd accept their word on the basis that even with a prior partial fill of 40% I'd be within MOD.
OTOH if the planned dive was deeper I'd ask to see an analyzer reading.

 

[Michael Schlink]

choice 1) If you know how to analyze and you don't mind then confirm that you can dive what's in the tank and go
choice 2) Don't take the tank and find something else

The 3rd option would be taking the tank without knowing what's in it, and that's not really an option now is it?
As far as the diveshop handling the shortage of rental tanks in this manner seems like they could have come up with something better than "Here take this one, naw don't worry about that pesky little sticker, you'll be fine...........where'd ya say you were diving??-M

 

[Rick Inman]

Nitrox is becoming so common, and so widely used, and in some circles taught that it's the only gas to breathe, that I believe that it's use should be incorporated into Basic Open Water class. I believe, that is the future. I also believe that analyzing every tank every time will become the norm, and that analyzers will be a part of an OW diver's standard equipment.

We might as well start thinking that way now.

 

[mike_s]

Rick... while I agree that it's becoming so common that it "could" be incorporated into open water classes, there is a lot of info by itself to soak up in that class.

I think most divers should get a few other dives under their belts before taking Nitrox.

In theory new divers won't be diving deep enough to get full utilization of nitrox on their first dive after OW anyway.


Ironic though that 10 years ago this was all sill "voo-doo" gas.

 

[Rick Inman]

Rick... while I agree that it's becoming so common that it "could" be incorporated into open water classes, there is a lot of info by itself to soak up in that class.

I think most divers should get a few other dives under their belts before taking Nitrox.

In theory new divers won't be diving deep enough to get full utilization of nitrox on their first dive after OW anyway.


Ironic though that 10 years ago this was all sill "voo-doo" gas.

Eh, just cut out the section on how to color coordinate your fins. What is there? PPO, EAD and MOD? The basics in 15 mins. The details in two hours.

Instructor today: "Here's the table, ya gotta learn it to pass the test, but then you'll just rely on your computer."


Instructor in the future: "Here's the tables, ya gotta learn them to pass the test, but then you'll just rely on your computer."
eyebrow

 

[mike_s]

Eh, just cut out the section on how to color coordinate your fins.

Heh.... yet they'll spend an entire section on whether to keep your mask on your head also

 

[Jason B]

One more reason why the big NITROX bands are worthless.

 

[StSomewhere]

while I agree that it's becoming so common that it "could" be incorporated into open water classes, there is a lot of info by itself to soak up in that class.

PADI has an online Nitrox for Dummies class (Discover Enriched Air Nitrox IIRC) where most of the material is taught by rote memorization vs. instilling true understanding. That much material could easily be worked into their OW class, IMO, then the important thing for any Nitrox class would be to show the students how to properly analyze a tank. If nothing else OW students could learn to analyze a tank to verify it's 21% for air.