Nitrox banding options?

[simbrooks]

I just got back from dropping my doubles off at the LDS i fill my singles at. My singles are AL80's, have the nice pretty green and yellow nitrox bands, my doubles dont. Doubles are HP120's, they have been certified as nitrox clean and have the little punch taken out of the VIP sticker, but i never bothered to get the big stickers as i had heard they were a place where rust could start. I mostly use them in the springs/caves, but soon i am thinking of taking them out in the ocean. Around cave country they dont require pretty bands, just a stamped VIP sticker and they fill away, but this LDS (and most recreationally based LDS's around here i am sure) said that they would fill them this once, but i should really get pretty bands on them. He used this whole, people might fill them with the wrong stuff issue, which to mean is rubbish as i know where they are, who is filling them and what they are filling them with. But just to appease these guys (if indeed i fill my tanks anywhere outside cave country or fill express) i might have to get something to denote them as nitrox.

So what are my options? Big fat stickers, painting on green and yellow bands, just painting on certain areas - like the bands rather than the tanks? Anything else to consider? Besides not using these cowboy operations who just want to sell stickers.

 

[The Kraken]

Why not make a plastic tag with a place to write on it what %O2 to fill with and hang around the valve?

 

[simbrooks]

Why not make a plastic tag with a place to write on it what %O2 to fill with and hang around the valve?

I think they wanted something bigger, bolder, in line with PADI and NAUI regs. The VIP's say they are clean, if they dont think that is enough, what would a tag do extra? If needed i will put on the mix and MOD on some duct tape and stick if on the bands to show what i can and cant use it for - however most times i get a fill, and use it within a few hours, not several days later where this might be useful (due to bad memory). If i have just had them filled i and my buddy know what the mix is, MOD etc. The LDS's should know they are ok by the VIP stickers, but that doesnt seem to be enough for them.

 

[The Kraken]

Don't know the answer to that, Simon.

One could buy some of those nitrox stickers and put them on a tank that had never been cleaned.

It gets back to the problem that our whole working society seems to be "dummed down". The person filling the tank doesn't have the mental wherewithal to read an obvious sticker.

We have to work to the lowest common denominator.

 

[simbrooks]

One could buy some of those nitrox stickers and put them on a tank that had never been cleaned.

In that case i think once they see the big shiney sticker they look at the little one, but if i tell them what i want in it they really should know what to do with it.

It gets back to the problem that our whole working society seems to be "dummed down". The person filling the tank doesn't have the mental wherewithal to read an obvious sticker.

We have to work to the lowest common denominator.

Of course i completely agree, this guy runs the store, branch manager of that store in a chain. The stickers on my AL80's are already torn to shreds from mounting my BP on them, but i dont mind it on the AL80's as much as i do the steel. I gave him this "you have got to be kidding?" look and told him of the cave country fills. Worst case is i keep moving around shops until i find someone with a brain or just wait till i get to the site and fill there, but that isnt always an option.

 

[The Kraken]

Life's tough all over, Buddy . . . got any spare change???

 

[OneBrightGator]

If the fact that it's clean and has the O2 % and MOD marked isn't enough for him then you need to find another shop, hell, I don't even mark the O2 % or MOD cause I only put one mix in mine.

You put those BA stickers on your doubles and I ain't diving with you.

 

[murphdivers286]

Simon, I personally don't mind the BIG Nitrox stickers on my tanks. It is the fact that my tank, and my wife's tank, sometimes slides down becuase of the slick new sticker.

Just my 0.02.,

 

[simbrooks]

If the fact that it's clean and has the O2 % and MOD marked isn't enough for him then you need to find another shop, hell, I don't even mark the O2 % or MOD cause I only put one mix in mine.

You put those BA stickers on your doubles and I ain't diving with you.

You see people, this is what i will get - exclusion from the cave country! They will laugh at me doing the rec weenie thing when i go get fills up in cave country.

Still looking for solutions.... Maybe just a big perm marker pen across the bands "NITROX ONLY"?

 

[chickdiver]

Ai yi yi- I hate this discussion. I got into this arguement with a shop in NC last summer. If you are interested I can enumerate for you the reasons I gave the shop owner detailing why those bands are not only stupid looking, but also useless.