OMG! ...just bought my 1st AL80 tank!

[mike_s]

well the best reason to own a tank is for convenience.


I even take tanks on vacation so that I don't have to go rent them before dives, and have to go take them back to the shop after dives... all for convenience.


in your case you might want to pick up 2, so the hubby can have one also.

again new or used all depends on the deal you get and what tank it actually is. (not all AL80's are the same. for example you have neutral buoyant AL80's and ones made from 6351T alloy (which you don't want)).

 

[scubafanatic]

Thanks for an opening, ScubaFanatic, I hope you don't mind a question in your thread . . .

I know someday I will probably want steel tanks, but for now - and for at least the next six years hbrother: - I will be a vacation diver using rentals (99% sure AL80) everywhere I go.

My thought is to buy a ?new? ?used? AL 80 for messing around in the pool and such, and that way I'm not messing up my buoyancy and trim by swapping around from steel to aluminum every time I go diving.

Is this a good plan, and should I go new or used?

well, in the big scheme of things, given the expense of this sport generally, my buying an AL80 was one one of the cheapest gear items I've bought, even new @ $ 150, plus I wanted a certain specific 'finish' on my tank and the Thermo-convertable valve, which reduces the pool of used tank candidates....it wasn't worth my time/effort to save a few $ between used vs. new. I'd certainly say splurge on a new AL 80 for $ 150-ish, running back and forth returning rentals is a time killer, and as I have a sizable tank fleet I can do a fair amount of diving before I have to return to the shop for fills. And as previously mentioned, my main motive was to have a 'universal vacation type' tank in the fleet with which to dial in bouyancy when I test different wetsuits/BC's/fresh vs. salt water comparisons.

Also, I have a little spreadsheet in my log book where I always record, for each dive trip, what wetsuit/BC/BP/lead/location I ended up using, so the next time I go diving I have records of all the different gear combos I've used historically, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel all the time, and I don't have to guess/remember how much 'lead' I used when I dove a HP 100/7mm wetsuit versus an AL80/3 mm wetsuit, for example.

 

[StevenN]

I got my first AL80 from the free leftovers of a garage sale around the corner from my house a few years ago.
I left free cam bands and a doubles manifold behind, if only I'd known then what I know now...............