Question about Regulator and HP Tanks

[WaterFox]

Quick regulator question from a new diver. I apologize if this was asked before, but I searched and did not find anything.

Rented some equipment over the weekend from dive shop. They rented me Titan LX yoke style regulator and gave me the option of renting aluminum or some HP steel tanks. I chose the steel ones as I have not dove with steel tanks before and I just wanted to see how I liked them. Anyway, when disassembling the gear, I noticed that 3300 psi was stamped on the regulator first stage. hmm... the tank's rated pressure is 3442 psi and the shop had filled it to 3515 psi according to my computer. Got home and looked at manufacturer's website. For the Titan LX yoke style setup, the regulator is rated max of 3300 psi.

The shop is renting me and filling tanks to 3500 psi when the reg they are renting me is only rated to 3300 psi.... Is this safe for the regulator? Or better question is, is this safe for me when I'm diving cold northern california water???

 

[DA Aquamaster]

A yoke rated for 3300 psi is not going to self destruct with another 215 psi applied to it. The extra pressure (3515 psi=106.5% of rated pressure) will be well within the safety margin built into the design.

In practice, 3442 psi tanks are usually shipped with a convertable DIN/K valve designed for use with either DIN or standard yoke valves so it is common for them to be used with yoke regs.

There are some much regs with very thin yokes that may stretch under that pressure, but they usually have a very small diameter yoke screw and are half the thickness of yokes sold today.

Most regs available in a DIN version are rated to 300 bar or 4350 psi. So if the manual says the reg is rated to more than 3500 psi in its DIN version than the yoke is the only consideration and the reg itself will be fine.

 

[Luis H]

I have done some conservative structural calculations on the modern style yokes like in the AL Titan and they are way over built. They could easily handle 5000 psi without any issues.

In today’s legal environment (were anyone could sue for any reason) I would not expect anything less that a hugely overbuilt yoke…and for the same reason it is not surprising that it is rated at a much lower pressure that it can handle. It is all about CYA.

 

[Nemrod]

I have used my Titan LX on HP overfilled tanks, you have no need to worry about the the strength of the Titan yoke. Just as a matter of good practice I would not intentionally operate over and over and over beyond 3,500 but up to 3,500, no problem.

A a good practice always look the O-ring over, if it looks old, frayed etc, pop in a new one, always carry spares.

N

 

[Oxy]

Thank you all. I'm not there yet but would have freaked out had I run into this situation.

 

[cricfanSD]

Just curious, which dive shop rents Titan Lx in North CA ? That's a really good reg for rental.

 

[BeaverDiver1]

For some reason, most likely legal, in recent years the rating of the yokes has come down. There are a few people I know using yokes, a few specifically use the titan 1st stage. My Conshelf 14 is rated to 4000 psi, and it is from before the HP steels were in common use