Only ONE tank...

[The Kraken]

Pst E8-119

 

[Tom Winters]

I love my steel 125's as soon as my computer activates in the water. They're wicked heavy topside, especially with 165 cubic/ft of gas in one of them.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Seems like E8-130 is popular on this board, but I'd hate to be hauling that 43 pound monster through heavy surf. E7-100 at 33 pounds, 1 pound negative empty, looks pretty good to me. Lots more air than I normally use, and not a back breaker.

Dunno Charlie,

I've seen lots of divers in full 7mm wetsuits wearing single aluminum tanks and weightbelts that have between 20 and 30 lbs of lead weight (or more) on them.

It depends on circumstances, environmental among others, but with a heavier (single) steel tank you're generally not adding weight to the total package, merely displacing it off your hips. I'd rather wear a heavy tank and have only two 3 lb weights on a weightbelt than wear a much lighter tank and have 24, 28, or 30 lbs of weight on the weightbelt.

YMMV.

 

[jonnythan]

Dunno Charlie,

I've seen lots of divers in full 7mm wetsuits wearing single aluminum tanks and weightbelts that have between 20 and 30 lbs of lead weight (or more) on them.

It depends on circumstances, environmental among others, but with a heavier (single) steel tank you're generally not adding weight to the total package, merely displacing it off your hips. I'd rather wear a heavy tank and have only two 3 lb weights on a weightbelt than wear a much lighter tank and have 24, 28, or 30 lbs of weight on the weightbelt.

YMMV.

Well the 130 is 10 pounds heavier on land than the 100, but has the same empty buoyancy.

The 130 does not allow you to take any extra weight off your belt vs the 100.

I'd much rather have the 100 as a single

 

[D_O_H]

I do only own one tank, it's an E-7 100 and I wouldn't trade it for any other tank. It holds more than enough gas for my rec diving needs. It's also big enough to allow me to keep up with my very air froogle girlfriend or to allow my more hooverish buddies to keep up with me (when I lend it to them). Since I got it, I haven't had to end a dive due to being low on gas.

It also allowed me to drop 6 lbs. of lead and made me roughly 5 lbs. lighter on land compared to rented AL80s.

If I ever start doing dives that aren't limited by NDLs or me being ready to get out of the cold water after an hour or so, I may look into an E8-130, but until then, the 100 meets all my needs.

 

[mossym]

e7-100's, i have 2 as singles right now. they'll double up at some stage. as was said the weight of the two them together makes me respect those doubling the 130's, and i'm not a small guy...i guess it all depends on how much gas you need..

 

[bcsean]

How tall are you? I'm 6'-3" so I chose the E7-120's to get a longer tank and would never trade for E8-130's.

 

[mossym]

was that directed at me?

 

[Charlie99]

Dunno Charlie,

I've seen lots of divers in full 7mm wetsuits wearing single aluminum tanks and weightbelts that have between 20 and 30 lbs of lead weight (or more) on them.

. I'd rather wear a heavy tank and have only two 3 lb weights on a weightbelt than wear a much lighter tank and have 24, 28, or 30 lbs of weight on the weightbelt.

YMMV.

Dunno Doc, why do you use a strawman argument, and then use bogus numbers on top of that?

My recommendation was an E7-100 steel tank, not aluminum, but even your argument against AL tanks uses bogus numbers.

If you look at tank specs you will see that both the PST E7-100 and the E8-130 are the SAME 1 pound negative when empty. This means that the 10 pounds extra weight of the E8-130 is 10 pounds more weight.

If you compare E8-130 to AL80, you will see

E8-130 43 pounds dry weight -1 pund buoyancy empty. 43-1= 42 pounds net.
AL80 31.4 dry weight +4.4 buoyancy empty. 31.4+4.4=36 pounds net.
E7-100 33 dry, -1 pound empty buoyancy, 33-1 = 32 pounds net.

Even taking into account the weighting difference, an AL80 is 6 pounds LESS TOTAL SHORE WEIGHT than an E8-130, while the E7-100 is 10 pounds less.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Take it easy, Charlie, I wasn't trying to tie a knot in your tail.

My numbers aren't bogus, but they come from a different source:
http://www.lloydbaileysscuba.com/PST E Series Tanks.htm

And I'm aware that you recommended a steel tank, albeit a lighter steel tank, rather than an aluminum 80.

My point was that wearing any given diver, wearing given exposure protection, and all else being equal, will require W amount of weight to safely achieve equilibrium in the water.

X amount of that will be in the tank, and Y amount of that will be on the belt. Either way you want to go, you'll still need W amount total in the water.

That being the case, I'd rather be wearing a heavier tank (which by the way is also heavier because it holds 30 cu ft of gas more) and a lighter belt, than a lighter tank and a heavier belt. That same argument holds regardless of whether the lighter tank is made of steel or aluminum.

My basic point is that (given only one tank to select) I'd choose to optimize my rig for how it performs in the water rather than how heavy it is on the shore. As long as the heavier tank takes weight off my belt and gives me more gas in reserve, I'm happy with that trade-off. As always, YMMV.