Outrageous cost for nitrox vs. air

[meagicano]

Here in Ontario, the cost for EANx is usually about $15 to $18 Cdn per fill, so pretty high. Some bank 32%. One shop charges .60 per cubic foot O2, not sure what that averages out to per 80 cf tank.

I pay $4 (on the 10 fills with my "dive club" membership) a fill and then $7.50 after that. 32%, banked, in Ottawa.

 

[redacted]

One shop charges .60 per cubic foot O2, not sure what that averages out to per 80 cf tank.

That's about $5 for 32% plus the cost of air unless it is in addition to a service charge.

 

[tracydr]

Geez, from the price of nitrox at some of the places you'd think we were still back in the 90's with voodoo gas. Or, the cost of oxygen was almost the cost of helium!
although, I just wish some of the places in CA that we love to dive would even carry nitrox. I hate going on a 3-4 day boat trip or shore diving trip, knowing that I will have to dive air because nitrox is just unavailable. We love diving Catalina and Channel Islands but sometimes its hard to find nitrox. Unfortunately, they don't offer nitrox at the air filling station on Catalina, although you can get it in town. You'd have to lug tanks and that gets old real quick, unless you just dive one dive each trip to the dive park.
The dive boats owned by Truth Aquatics don't have nitrox either but they do such a good job getting to good dive sites and making a great dive trip.
Is it that expensive to have a nitrox system installed? I thought it was pretty easy to install the nitrox stik system. I see prices around $2,000 if you already have the air compressor.

 

[Abdullah]

But I dove nitrox to avoid overpaying for air. Have you got a better word for it than "FREE"?

"All inclusive", "package price", "no extra fees". It would seem they are amortizing the EANx costs across all tanks they fill, rather than confining those costs to the EANx category. It's a neat way to cover extra materials costs while maintaining competitive pricing across their fill product line.

 

[elan]

If I remember correctly they were charging $15 for any mix below 40%.

32% is cheap because they have a membrane system that banks 32%.

Ah yes, it's very far for me, but I see that on their website. $10 per EANx fill is for 32% only. Any other mix more than 21% is $15. And any mix besides 27%, 32%, 36%, 40%, 50% or 80% costs an additional fee of $10. So the 28% that I have in my tanks right now would cost me $25 per fill at Aquarius if I didn't know to request 27% or 32% instead.

---------- Post added July 28th, 2013 at 06:41 PM ----------

Sharkey's ?

I pay $4 (on the 10 fills with my "dive club" membership) a fill and then $7.50 after that. 32%, banked, in Ottawa.

 

[tanksforthememories]

I find it interesting that people say LDS's should accept we will buy bargains online and should look toward other business plans in order to stay in business. Then when they do, IE. increase fees for a product unavailable online, EANx, we are aghast. The LDS owners have bills to pay, equipment to maintain and need to provide their own retirement funds... I am not a LDS owner, nor am I advocating gouging, but I try to cut them some slack for trying to make a profit in what has proven to be an unprofitable industry. I bought my own $3000 compressor due to my LDS burning down. A month later a kayak store invested $12,000 in a commercial compressor. My friends ask me to fill their tanks but at the $8/tank the Kayak store charges it is not worth the 30 minutes/tank of my time, or the $2/tank worth of filter usage, not to mention the DOT air quality testing or liability issues. I figure at $8/tank, 1500fills will be required to recoupe the new LDS's initial investment, let alone wages, filters, oil, liability insurance, and rent etc. in short, I won't compete for the limitted market my town provides because the financial upside is just not there and I want the new LDS to be there when I need them. The truely Sad thing is the old LDS was unable to get his premises insured due to having compressed air on site (according to the owner), as he lived above the shop this hit him very hard. If you don't want to pay what they are charging, shop around, dive air, or let them know. The market will dictate the price. But as more shops go out of business those remaining will be free to charge what they like...

 

[meagicano]

If I remember correctly they were charging $15 for any mix below 40%.

32% is cheap because they have a membrane system that banks 32%.



---------- Post added July 28th, 2013 at 06:41 PM ----------

Sharkey's ?

Exactly. For those in Ottawa - Sharky's Scuba Supply on Wellington St in Hintonburg. The Dive shop is in the basement of Morris Home Hardware but the nitrox is at the loading bay. It's easy - I pull into the back, they fill my tanks and I leave. It's the same price as air, so why wouldn't I die nitrox?

 

[gcarter]

Sharkey's ?

Would have to be. It is where I get my fills.

Membrane system, banked 32%. $75 for a 10 fill card, air or banked 32%. Team Sharky membership for $40 gets you a 10 fill card, a tshirt, discounts on rentals and training.

Buy a tank from Mike and you get the value of the tank in fill cards thrown in. Ie., buy a $300 tank and he includes 40 fills.

I feel spoiled. I just came back from Cape Ann, and I had to drive an hour to get nitrox. Cost me $15 for an 80 and $16.50 for a 100. Took an hour and a half to get 4 tanks filled, PP blending.

Went to Sharky's Friday. Filled 4 x 80's and 2 x 100's for $7.50 each with 32% and was out of there in less than 1/2 hour.

 

[XS-NRG]

My Caribbean dives were unlimited free Nitrox, Australia I either paid $10 for air or $15 for any EANx I wanted, so a $5 upgrade wasn't too bad I guess. When I dove in my own country (Canada) I think it was something like $15 or $20 for a Nitrox tank. If I was going to do 10-20 dives I'd negotiate a Nitrox fill card personally and pre pay up front. Probably able to get a better deal that way.

 

[Rhone Man]

In my experience dive ops price nitrox in different ways: it is generally cheapest when people offer it as a means of making their overall diving package more attractive and wanting to attract more overall customers. It is usually most expensive when either there is no competition and they want to make money off something that is hard to get in their locality, or where they have to source it externally and it is a PITA that they try to avoid unless someone makes it worth their while.

When I was last in Cayman they quoted me a pretty steep price for Nitrox and were a bit surprised when I said OK. Then pretty much every day of the holiday they told "yeah, sorry - there was a bit of an issue getting the nitrox tanks today, but hopefully we'll have them tomorrow". In the end I didn't dive nitrox a single time.