Overweighted with steel doubles?

[cloudboy55]

Given my experiences with my steel HP 130 single cylinder, it's hard to believe that those diving with double steel tanks aren't doing so with a fair amount of air in their BC's or drysuits at depth.

I require some air in my BC at depth with a single 130 CF steel tank and no ditchable weight when I'm wearing a wetsuit. I haven't tried, but it's possible I would have a difficult time ascending without the BCD inflated. I will try this weekend.

How do steel doubles divers deal with all of the extra weight? Full 130 cf Worthington steel tanks are about 23 lbs. negative when filled with air, and that's without the bands, manifold, or backplate. That's more weight than I've ever had to wear on a weight belt. Maybe someone makes an independent buoyancy device for tanks?

Guess I'm going to have to invest in some redundant buoyancy if I plan to dive steel. They're new tanks, so I'm a bit surprised.

 

[espenskogen]

Given my experiences with my steel HP 130 single cylinder, it's hard to believe that those diving with double steel tanks aren't doing so with a fair amount of air in their BC's or drysuits at depth.

I require some air in my BC at depth with a single 130 CF steel tank and no ditchable weight when I'm wearing a wetsuit. I haven't tried, but it's possible I would have a difficult time ascending without the BCD inflated. I will try this weekend.

How do steel doubles divers deal with all of the extra weight? Full 130 cf Worthington steel tanks are about 23 lbs. negative when filled with air, and that's without the bands, manifold, or backplate. That's more weight than I've ever had to wear on a weight belt. Maybe someone makes an independent buoyancy device for tanks?

Guess I'm going to have to invest in some redundant buoyancy if I plan to dive steel. They're new tanks, so I'm a bit surprised.

Stick on a drysuit and you'll find its not so bad. At the start of the dive, you're normally about 6kg overweighted with twin 12's, but once you're at 35 bar, you're bang on neutral.

With a wetsuit, I guess you have to adjust a bit - Maybe aluminium backplate?

 

[cool_hardware52]

Given my experiences with my steel HP 130 single cylinder, it's hard to believe that those diving with double steel tanks aren't doing so with a fair amount of air in their BC's or drysuits at depth.

I require some air in my BC at depth with a single 130 CF steel tank and no ditchable weight when I'm wearing a wetsuit. I haven't tried, but it's possible I would have a difficult time ascending without the BCD inflated. I will try this weekend.

How do steel doubles divers deal with all of the extra weight? Full 130 cf Worthington steel tanks are about 23 lbs. negative when filled with air, and that's without the bands, manifold, or backplate. That's more weight than I've ever had to wear on a weight belt. Maybe someone makes an independent buoyancy device for tanks?

Guess I'm going to have to invest in some redundant buoyancy if I plan to dive steel. They're new tanks, so I'm a bit surprised.

If your are a "non floater" body type, and or not wearing thick undergarments, and are using heavy tanks you can end up overweighted.

There are lighter weight steel tanks, and of course there are AL80's. Heavy double steels in a wetsuit is not a recommended configuration.

Unless the water is pretty warm, you will likely need more exposure suit (drysuit) simply because the depths and lenghts of exposure that 260 cu ft of gas permit will be too long for your wetsuit.

Before you double up your 130's get the training you need use the tanks, and the gas volume safely.


Tobin

 

[Jim Baldwin]

Given my experiences with my steel HP 130 single cylinder, it's hard to believe that those diving with double steel tanks aren't doing so with a fair amount of air in their BC's or drysuits at depth.

I require some air in my BC at depth with a single 130 CF steel tank and no ditchable weight when I'm wearing a wetsuit. I haven't tried, but it's possible I would have a difficult time ascending without the BCD inflated. I will try this weekend.

How do steel doubles divers deal with all of the extra weight? Full 130 cf Worthington steel tanks are about 23 lbs. negative when filled with air, and that's without the bands, manifold, or backplate. That's more weight than I've ever had to wear on a weight belt. Maybe someone makes an independent buoyancy device for tanks?

Guess I'm going to have to invest in some redundant buoyancy if I plan to dive steel. They're new tanks, so I'm a bit surprised.

When I took my tech class I had set of PST HP 120's. I had a 7.5 mm neoprene drysuit and with no weight I would sink like a rock. I even switched to a plastic backplate to get rid of six pounds and I still sank. At 6' 175 I didn't have a lot of buoyancy to start with. As part of the drills during class I had to use my drysuit for backup buoyancy. At 100 feet I had to get horizontial in order for the air to stay trapped in my suit and actually hold me at that depth. If I went vertical the suit was so full that the air would come out of my seals and I would sink.

After making two long deco dives and using gas from stage and deco bottles I was able to hold neutral buoyancy at 20 feet with no air in my wing.

After the class I switched to a lighter set of doubles, PST HP 100's and my buoyancy and trim improved dramatically.