Portable air tester?

[softballer]

I was reading about the danger of toxic air in your tank. Are there any testers available to check your tanks before a dive?

If so, could someone point me the right way.

 

[ajduplessis]

I don't think so, but sure someone will point out if it is the case.

Air is odourless, thus when checking your air pre-dive (smelling & breathing), you should not continue if the air have a smell/funny taste.

It is also important to note where the filling station is located (more importantly the air inlet for the compressors) as “bad” air will be sucked into the system and therefore end up in your tank.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

In my experience, very few air stations with any customers have the air inlets in a place that would intake air that the multiple filtration of the system would not easily handle.

I know of bad air episodes from some of the most respected air stations in the world. If your filters are near their hours limit and the weather turns to monsoonish, a dive shop not used to monsoonish weather might not change the filter early, which is procedure when humidity is high, AFAIHH.

How many divers have had serious consequences from bad air?

 

[Scared Silly]

There are more and more incidents of CO poisoning:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ned/324039-carbon-monoxide-tanks-cozumel.html

Many people, myself included now have a CO monitor that we use to check cylinders.

My tester is a ToxiRea3, Analox is looking at bringing one to the market place specifically for divers. Currently, the only tester specific for diving is by Oxycheq and it runs $400. The ToxiRae runs $150. The instrument need calibration. Do a search and you will find lots more.

 

[MichiganScott]

I was reading about the danger of toxic air in your tank. Are there any testers available to check your tanks before a dive?

If so, could someone point me the right way.

Member Lone Frogman suggests this might be what you're looking for.
Order the Pocket CO SCUBA - Carbon Monoxide Detector

 

[pasley]

Air is orderless and colorless, but then so is carbon monoxide. There have been reports of SCUBA Divers deaths allegedly attributed to CO2 poising.

I agree that most shops with any customers should not have a problem and that is particularly true here in the lawsuit happy USA, where liability and inspections help keep things in order. That is not as true in other countries where the laws are different and lawsuits less of an issue and less government regulations or inspections. In these tough economic times it might be tempting for an unscrupulous or informed of the dangers operator, to use less expensive air filtration media not designed for the equipment they are using it on to save money. A dive op may be legitimate but due to a shift in the winds, or bad design or perhaps a poorly maintained vehicle parked in a red zone put there to mark off the air intake area, idling and spewing CO2 that is being sucked into the nearby air intake while they are pumping air. Who knows, many ways for Co2 to get into the air. The closest dive shop to me is in a shopping center next to a freeway. Is there lots of Co2 in the air there? Where do they put the air intake? Since the pump is on the side of the building I would guess the air intake is there. Another dive shop near me has their pump on the back of the building on the alley where no parking is allowed. But what if the store next door is getting a delivery and the driver just parks there for a minute while they unload?

End of the day additional testing is additional safety measures and that can't be bad. Do I have a tester? No, do I want one? yes. This is perhaps more important if you are traveling and using air sources you are not familiar with.

 

[bleeb]

If you dig around Scubaboard a bit in some of the air quality threads, you'll also see anecdotal reports that the labs that do the actual air testing report a 3-5% rate of there being some issues. And that's from customers predominantly in industrialized countries where regular testing is commonplace and there are relatively strong regulations and liability laws, compared to many vacation spots.

 

[diverdude74]

it sounds like you guys are talking about two different things, Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide. Which is the problem or which one is more common?

 

[bleeb]

The posts talking about CO2 (carbon dioxide, a non-life supporting gas, like nitrogen, with some longer-term secondary problems) are probably actually referring to CO (carbon monoxide, toxic in small quantities). It's common for people to get confused and call the problem gas CO2.

Tanks getting filled with too much CO2 is probably vanishingly infrequent. It takes at least several percent to be a problem (5+%), and it's tough to pull that much from the atmosphere. CO on the other hand, can start causing problems with a few parts per million.

 

[diverdude74]

So the problem is to much CO2 in the tanks...i know CO2 is colorless odorless and tasteless, but shouldn't you notice something is wrong once you get in the mater and take a few breaths? Because breathing CO2 cause headache, drowsiness, and shortness of breath. So if you start breathing from you tank and start to feel like you cant get a full breath of air or get a headache wouldn't you know something is wrong and call the dive minutes after getting in the water?