Nitrox bands

[dl348]

Your tanks are not Oxygen Clean (100%), they are Nitrox Ready (40%) which means any LDS that uses the Continuous Flow Method can fill your tanks with Nitrox. A LDS that uses Partial Pressure Blending shouldn't fill your tanks with Nitrox unless you first get them cleaned for oxygen service.

I personally do not have the green and yellow Nitrox bands on my tanks and don't have a problem getting them filled with Nitrox from any of the 3 shops in my area.

 

[sharpenu]

You would think that, but the tanks have the green and yellow visual stickers on them in addition to the bands and clearly say "Oxygen Service"

 

[Peter Guy]

A number of people have said "No way I'd put the band on my tanks" but I'm confused as to why? What is the problem of putting the band on the tanks? Or is it just a matter of "Don't tell me what I have to do!"

 

[JimC]

They can trap water and salt under them.
They cost money every time you do a VIP - becuase they HAVE to come off.
They provide no usefull information to a diver. Infact, can missinform.
They provide no usefull information to a shop. They shop still needs to look at the contents lable and vip sticker.

 

[MikeFerrara]

A number of people have said "No way I'd put the band on my tanks" but I'm confused as to why? What is the problem of putting the band on the tanks? Or is it just a matter of "Don't tell me what I have to do!"

It's primarily a matter of funtionality and a secondary matter of being stuck with useless expenses.

When I do a dive requiring the use of several different gasses and in water switches, all I or any member of my team needs to see is the MOD. However, we need to see it clearly, quickly and without confusion or the slightest possibility of a mistake. I mark my tanks with the MOD in BIG numbers usually in a couple of places...where I can see it and where a buddy can see it. The vip/O2 clean sticker is small and out of the way and the most recent mixing and analysis info is usually marked on a piece of tape but becomes useless once your in the water. The tape is removed prior to each time I fill the tank. In the water all that matters is the depth to which I can safely use the gas and that's ALL I want to see and I want to see it PLAINLY. My 20 ft bottle, 70 ft bottle and 120 ft bottles are generally dedicated cylinders and pre-marked but I usually have extra stick on numbers with me in case I need to press other thanks into service on the road. All I need on my back tanks is the VIP and current mix/abalysis information. A nitrox band is useless because it might be air (ean21), trimix or eanxx at any given time for any given dive.

The monster clutter of those big green nitrox bands serve no purpose other than to make some one an extra $10 and possibly obscure useful information in the water. The useful information is MOD not the general classification of the gas...ie nitrox, trimix or whatever other BS some idiot can think up to put on a sticker.

Assuming that a tank contains "air" because it doesn't wear a stupid sticker isn't even reliable from a systems standpoint. If there is the possibility of tanks with different contents in the same area you had better check and mark the MOD yourself. If anything those big stickers may convey false and potentially dangerous information even by their absence. If you are on a boat diving rental tanks, some with stupid stickers and some without, the last thing you want to do is to assume that the unmarked tank you grabbed contains 21% O2 because it doesn't have a sticker. Ignore the stupid sticker (or lack of one) and check the tank.

 

[MikeC]

They can trap water and salt under them.
They cost money every time you do a VIP - becuase they HAVE to come off.
They provide no usefull information to a diver. Infact, can missinform.
They provide no usefull information to a shop. They shop still needs to look at the contents lable and vip sticker.

Jim, if you rinse well and inspect your gear minor hassle. As for "they HAVE to come off." read the post below.

I got no arguement with the PSI protocols, but have never been able to find where they say that ALL old stickers (as opposed to just all old inspection stickers) MUST be removed each inspection.

As it happens, I was trying to get clarification of this very point at DEMA this year, and discussed it with several people at the PSI booth. I was told that the PSI protocols do not specify that all stickers must be removed, but only that the inspector must do whatever is necessary to satisfy him or herself that the exterior of the tank meets the standards. It could be argued that it is impossible to do this without removing the stickers, but if this is what PSI means it seems odd they don't come out and say so.

The Luxfer protocols, probably the second most-used, say only that "If labeling may hide or is suspected to hide a cylinder imperfection, remove label".

Here's the thread.

 

[oxyhacker]

Wraps and bands make sense if you have lots of dedicated tanks, and want to make them instantly distinguishable from a distance. As NOAA probably did, when they came up with the idea.
They don't make as much sense for the individual divers, who has just a few tanks which may be used with air, nitrox, or trimix depending on the dive and gas availability. Since the wraps cannot be easily be removed and replaced each time the contents change (as the smaller tape contents/analysis labels preferred by most tech divers can be), and the average diver cannot afford to have separate dedicated tanks for each gas he/she dives, then it is inevitable that a tank which has a nitrox band on it to conform with diveshop policy will contain mixes other than nitrox at least some of the time, which quite defeats the whole purpose of the stickers.
Some people will argue that the main point of the wraps is to keep other divers on a boat from accidently using the wrong tank and endangering themselves should they exceed the MOD. But since shops as well as individual divers seem to regularly use nitrox-banded tanks for air when they run out of unmarked tanks, any diver these days must be taught to always look for a current contents label, and not go by the band.

So bands are for the most part meaningless if not even misleading. I agree nitrox tanks should be clearly marked in a addition to the contents, but don't see any reason why the labeling has to be so big and expensive. We prefer a reasonably conspicuous, but not necessarily band-sized sticker, saying something along the lines of "WARNING MAY CONTAIN MIXES OTHER THAN AIR. See contents sticker for current mix and MOD". Or maybe "VOODOO GAS Do Not Use Unless You Are Familiar With The Necessary Incantations Or Are Prepared To Meet The Dark Lord".

Re trapping water this does not seem to be a very common problem but if it happens, rinsing is not going to do much good - salt has a gift for getting into very small spaces, from which it is very hard to get it to come back out. And once it's there, gathering any available moisture to help it do its dirty work. So if salt water gets behind a sticker, rinsing it not likely to get it out.

 

[StSomewhere]

We prefer a reasonably conspicuous, but not necessarily band-sized sticker, saying something along the lines of "WARNING MAY CONTAIN MIXES OTHER THAN AIR. See contents sticker for current mix and MOD". Or maybe "VOODOO GAS Do Not Use Unless You Are Familiar With The Necessary Incantations Or Are Prepared To Meet The Dark Lord".

Vance if you ever decide to market a Voodoo Gas sticker anything like that I will be your first customer.

 

[SDAnderson]

and order a couple of hundred:

 

[Dan Gibson]

That sticker would look great next to my fill station.

and order a couple of hundred: