Nitrox - warning for beginner divers

[eelnoraa]

How much is usually to clean a tank for a nitrox use after it was used for regular air?

You may NOT need to re-clean you tank or even clean it at all if you ask a few questions before you fill.
1. Ask if the shop do bank nitrox OR Partial pressure blend. If former case, any tank wth current viz and hydro is compatible. If later, you tank needs to be O2 clean, their air MUST be O2 compatible, so you should have no problem switching between air and nitrox.

If your shop bank nitrox, ask below

2. Ask if their air is oxygen compatible or hyper filtered is what they call it. If yes, no cleaning is needed between regular air and nitrox. If no, fill this air will viod your O2 clean status, and you will need to re-clean if you go into a PP shop

So I don't see any problem here most of the time. If your shop does PP, your tank is O2 clean, their air is O2 clean, you can switch between freely. If your shop does bank, your tank does NOT need to be O2 clean, and you don't care if their air is O2 clean, you can still switch freely.

The only time it maybe a problem is when you take your O2 clean tank to a destination where shops there does NOT provide O2 compatible air.

 

[cool_hardware52]

Texasguy............ I'd recommend against getting a Trimix cert.

Tobin

 

[boulderjohn]

We charge $25 to O2 clean a tank.

Including the valve? That's a reasonable price.

 

[mbs]

@ 8000' I need nitrox just walking around town

I have been diving Nitrox all over the world in the most remote places.

$100 per week on a live-aboard is well worth it.

We even have it up here @ 8000'.

 

[Texasguy]

Texasguy............ I'd recommend against getting a Trimix cert.

Tobin

I agree. I have to wrap my head around regular scuba first.

 

[Rhone Man]

Whilst the OP's comments might have been a little sweeping, he makes a point. Lack of availability of nitrox in many places can be a source of frustration.

I am used to having no access to nitrox at home, and frankly, most places I travel to in the Caribbean. I was flabbergasted when the dive op in Grand Cayman (where diving is like the national sport) told me they don't stock it as standard, and would need to special order it, before commenting that people rarely even ask him for it anymore.

The Utopian vision of "divers no longer diving air" is still a long way away.

 

[elan]

Texasguy............ I'd recommend against getting a Trimix cert.

Tobin

Are you trying to say that the tank fill will cost more than $5 ?

 

[mathauck0814]

Are you trying to say that the tank fill will cost more than $5 ?

In some places you pay $10-20 just to get the blender to hook up your tank... then you pay $1+/cuft for your gas. Which is why most people opt to do their own mixing.

Seriously though - to the OP - it sounds like you might have fallen victim to some incomplete training and typical LDS nonsense. That the shop convinced you to buy a dedicated tank for Nitrox and that they're charging $18/fill indicates that they're doing their nitrox blending via partial pressure fills. Partial pressure blending is the lowest cost method of making nitrox (which is good for the LDS) but it's very labor intensive and has some inherent risks that come along with it. It also requires you to have another tank that's dedicated for its use (vs. a membrane or banked system where you could use any tank you wanted). Locally, we have a blender that charges too much for partial pressure blending because it's a pain in the ass and he doesn't really want to do it. Not saying that your LDS is taking that tact, but it's not impossible.

It may be that you're in an area where there's not a lot of diving and/or not a lot of demand for nitrox so the investment on the LDS' part wouldn't make sense, but to declare that nitrox isn't worthwhile is foolish. Does it cost more? Sure. Why? Because it's better. Diving isn't cheap, nor do I think it should be. But it doesn't have to be as expensive or as hard as your LDS seems to be making it for you.

 

[eelnoraa]

Whilst the OP's comments might have been a little sweeping, he makes a point. Lack of availability of nitrox in many places can be a source of frustration.

I do agree somewhat. But I think the real issue here is NOT whether nitrox is useful to beginning or not, nor the availibility. I see OP's dive shop blindly sold OP a nitrox course without even explain the why or how. And it also seems they didn't teach OP the whole true about nitrox handling. By that, I mean how it is being filled, when is O2 clean tank needed, what will void O2 clean status .....

 

[cool_hardware52]

Are you trying to say that the tank fill will cost more than $5 ?

Price and availability, even before the current helium shortage Trimix fills were pricy and vanishingly few shops offered them.

If the OP has dives where Nitrox is a clear advantage he can do what most divers do that have trouble getting the gas they want, blend their own. A 3 tank O2 cascade is within reach for many.

Tobin