Nitrox question

[Don Burke]

sylvester once bubbled... Can I use my normal tank for nitrox and air fills? what do you mean by a "inline filter"?

If a tank is to be used for partial pressure nitrox blending, it needs to be O2 cleaned and maintained clean. That means air that goes into the tank needs to be "nitrox compatible". You can either buy air at shops with nitrox compatible air or get a filter. I just use nitrox shops.

Your gas consumption will change very little, if at all, with enriched air.

Your existing tank might not be big enough to support the longer bottom times with nitrox. Unless you are ending dives with a lot of air, a bigger tank will probably be needed.

I rented nitrox tanks for a while before I started getting my current tanks cleaned and buying more tanks.

BTW, not all of my tanks are nitrox tanks. I don't need them all to be.

 

[Epinephelus]

DeepScuba once bubbled...
Just to stir it up a bit.....
I regularly used my non-O2 reg for pure O2 breathing. Sure they're clean, sure I've since overhauled them..using same o-rings, just cleaned and re-lube with Christo-Lube.
I'd almost bet, right out of the box, any reg can be used with pure O2.
No wait, I would bet, there's no "Almost" about it.
Get Vances Harlow's Oxy-hacker and Reg repair books and do away with the myths!

Those of us who have seen oxygen burns know better. I have read Vance's book and nowhere does he advocate the casual handling of pure oxygen suggested in this post. Pure oxygen is dangerous in the extreme; anyone who tells you otherwise is ignorant of the facts, and if they're actually using pure oxygen in the ways expressed they are potential Darwin award candidates, trusting to luck.
Oxygen is serious stuff.
----
Premixed Nitrox (40% and below), on the other hand, requires no super special precautions in its handling (ANDI, by the way, disagrees with me here - they are even more conservative - and to be fully informed you should read what they have to say too) and you should be able to use all your regular equipment with it.
But I say again, pure oxygen demands the utmost respect and care in handling, or eventually you will get burned.
E.

 

[Epinephelus]

Don Burke once bubbled...
If a tank is to be used for partial pressure nitrox blending, it needs to be O2 cleaned and maintained clean. That means air that goes into the tank needs to be "nitrox compatible".

It's "oxygen compatible" air that's required for PP blending. It's a nit, but an important one.
E.

 

[DeepScuba]

Well EP:

I must be one of "THOSE" people, as I work with O2 everyday. For only 10 years though, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Teheheh

Sure I treat it with respect. But it ain't near as hard to deal with as you guys think. If it was, shops would be blowing up all over the place, and since they're not............


Don Burke's post was quite right. Right out of the box, with Buna o-rings. The argument goes both ways, so I just anually clean the regs and re-lube appropriately. No problems, end of story.

Read the books, they dispell the rumours quite readily. No where did I say treat it like it's just air. What I am saying is, don't go getting all loopy and stupid by spending loads of extra money to make yourself "Feel" better about "clean" gear. Just clean the stuff you already have, and then dive it.

It ain't rocket science.

P.S. If your shop is that marginal on air fill quality, that you have to have separate tanks for air/nitrox, I'd suggest a different shop.

There again, we use all our tanks for whatever mix we want.

It's just silly to adhere to scare-mongering.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
we need a FAQ for this.

To much entertainment value in this:

New folks ask the same questions over and over and get the same old wrong answers from the usual suspects.

 

[pipedope]

Can a diver really mix their own gas at home?

Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[Uncle Pug]

... we just climb back down out of the tree after we blow ourselves up and continue with the fill like nothing happened.

Actually.... skip the part about blowing and climbing....
... that part hasn't happened.

 

[Don Burke]

Epinephelus once bubbled... It's "oxygen compatible" air that's required for PP blending. It's a nit, but an important one.
E.

...and a valid one. Nice catch.

 

[spurtill]

an in-line filter is a cylnderical tube about a foot long. It contains activated charcoal or at least mine does.

You attach it to your bottle and the the compressor to the other end. The filter removes any oil from the air going into your bottle, hence keeping it O2 clean. they cost about 100 euros (guess that about 100 dollars) and they are good for 200 fills of a 12l cylinder. I just replace mine every year, you can buy refills for them in the chemist.

so you get your cylinders O2 cleaned once a year and use the filter to keep them clean through out the year. its that simple.

As for filling your own Nitrox. all you do is oder a cylinder of O2 and buy the whip to connect it to your bottle. Put the O2 required in the bottle and top it up with air from a normal filter.

You should do the course on blending nitorx though is you are even thinking about blending your own.

 

[sylvester]

Thanks, do those filters do anything else besides trap oil?