O2 Cleaning advice?

[lostinlobsterville]

OK, I need some advice and maybe tips, I recently 02 cleaned the valves on all of my steel tanks, They are all less than a year old and a good friend told me that I would need to clean the valves and not the tanks becauce they are so new. They helped me with the first four, and I did the other four and had them inspect the last four before I put the cristol lube on and sealed the tanks up. When they inspected the tanks in the treads they found lube from when I bought the tanks, So i had to clean the tanks, not a problem, Untill I was ready to go diving i got about ten feet down and could taste the simple green and isopropyl alcohol so i surfaced and changed tanks. How would this affect me if i would have finnished the dive on that tank?

 

[PhilEllis]

OK, I need some advice and maybe tips, I recently 02 cleaned the valves on all of my steel tanks, They are all less than a year old and a good friend told me that I would need to clean the valves and not the tanks becauce they are so new. They helped me with the first four, and I did the other four and had them inspect the last four before I put the cristol lube on and sealed the tanks up. When they inspected the tanks in the treads they found lube from when I bought the tanks, So i had to clean the tanks, not a problem.....

To properly clean a cylinder and valve for oxygen service, you must follow a pre-designed, tested, and proven process that can be expected to yield a level of cleanliness suitable for oxygen service. In the absence of any inexpensive way to test for "oxygen cleanliness" in a cylinder or valve, the tested and proven process is the only protection you have. I can't outline for you here the exact steps of that process, but there are commerical companies such as Global Manufacturing that resale written instructions on the procedure. It includes pre-cleaning grading of the potential of the cylinder, the exact chemcial process to be used, and the testing procedure to determine if all residue from the cleaning process has been removed. When done properly, you should NEVER taste or smell ANYTHING in your cylinders.

Untill I was ready to go diving i got about ten feet down and could taste the simple green and isopropyl alcohol so i surfaced and changed tanks. How would this affect me if i would have finnished the dive on that tank?

You would NEVER continue a dive if you taste or smell anything in your cylinder. You did exactly the correct thing by immediately terminating that dive. I am at a little bit of a loss in understanding why you were using isopropyl alcohol in your cleaning operation. That stuff is a pretty potent fuel, and is completely contrary to the original intent in the first place.....to remove fuels from the valve and cylinder.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Phil Ellis

 

[oxyhacker]

Rinsing is 9/10ths of cleaning - there's no use in emulsifying or diluting contaminants if if you don't then get them the hell out of the tank or valve. A washing/drying rack, which allows inverting the tank while blasting hot water into it, is essential.

re: alcohol, do you know what the WW2 V2 rockets used as fuel?

 

[pescador775]

I don't do any of that stuff, not even rinsing. The procedure? A quart of ENSOLV is poured into the tank, sloshed around, drained and the tank interior is forced air dried. That's it. Screw Global and their dishwashing detergents, loose marbles (pun), tumblers, heaters, racks, anti-rust junk and the rest. Alcohol? Yikes!