REC TriMix

[Tom Yerian]

There used to be one t-mix course in the 80's with Billy Deans! That one course covered everything in the 5 or 6 courses you had to take! EVERYTHING!! He charged approx.600$ plus gas costs. How much did you have to pay to get the highest cert in mix from all those mix classes you took. Its the greed factor!! Take one mix course, break it down into five more, ( expensive), courses.Plus your gas costs, plus all the unnecessary other b...,s... you had to pay for.When the recreational orgs. realized the big money in tech.diving, they created all the really usless classes you now have today. I think it is a shameless practice, to gouge divers with a lot of stuff that is a duplication from other courses. I bet they sat up late nites trying to add **** that sounded good, and convincing, to new generation of divers that were prior to the 80's
People are paying for a lot of stuff taht isn't really needed! The name of the certs sounds awsome, and thats why you have all those courses. You will have someone say its to get the needed experience,and thats why we added all these courses. I ask, are your divers today less capable than the pioneering divers who didnt have all those courses? My friend, its all in the numbers,( MONEY), and (MORE MONEY)!!!

yid: Capt. Tom

 

[Tom Yerian]

I agree with you completely! I think these org. should dump a lot of unnecessary courses. yid: Capt. Tom.


This message to myself is in error.It was a response for a different member but ended up here instead?...Sorry

yid:...Capt. Tom

 

[Tom Yerian]

I am running a travel gas as well. I made those arrangements with the instructor when I started the course back in February and am happy that I am doing that.

Safety reasons are predominant for me. The sooner that I get off of that helium on the way up, the happier that I am. Accelerated deco on my deep stops is nice as well. Deco in 40 degree water gets cold, even in a drysuit.

I could more easily use my reg from one bottle to another if I needed to in the event of a reg. failure and still have all of my deco gas available to me.

Yes, handling that extra bottle is a bit of a PITA, but it is one that I will have to learn anyway when I get the opportunity to do a full trimix course. Why not start now and make that course easier?

PS I am running a travel mix of EAN36 and doing deco on Oxygen.

Than at least use a 50%02 mix as travel and it will serve double duty. as a deco. of 1.6 po2 at 70fsw ( OPTIMUM, offgas po2) at your stops to 20fsw where you said you use your 100%.Then your using a gas that is doing something for you. Yid: Capt. Tom

 

[Tom Yerian]

A little he in your mix higher up on the ladder has a similar effect as o2.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Added note:

Standard gasses are not 'Best Mix' blends. They do, however, allow for easy team gas planning. The standard gas blends make getting fills easier when fill stations bank their 18/45, 21/35, 30/30, ean50, ean36, and ean32. They can fill faster and spend less labor doing the fill.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying but that's not really hiw it's done. You bank 32%...shoot 21% he in and top with 32% and you have 21/35, put 18% He in and top with 32% and you have 18/45...and the same for 15/55 and 10/70. I don't know about that omrphadite 30/30 though. LOL

If you like your PO2 and END to be spot on at MOD, then Blending will give you better results. It will be more expensive and take longer to fill though.

Spot on to what?

The other problem with standard gasses is what to do with the left over gas after the dive. You could own one set of tanks for each standard gas, but that can get very expensive. To receive banked gas you would have to dump the unused mix if your dive required a different standard gas. Or, you can blend down or up to get the desired mix for the next dive. If you are going to have to 'fix the mix', then why not go for the 'Best Mix' anyway (barring team planning where you don't have a telephone ). I dive with the same buddies all the time, so we concur on a mix prior to going to our relative fill stations. It may be standard, or it may be precise.

What you do with your unused mix depends on what equipment you have and what kind of dive you're planning next just like always. If you were diving 18/45 and you only used half of it and you want more...you just fill the void with 18% He and top with 32% just like always. Sure a booster could still come in handy but...

Dong it without standard gasses might require you to pump in He and O2 and then air...air being the only one that's easy to get in without a booster. Notice that with standard gasses and a 32% bank you only have to boost Helium (no O2). If you want to end up with a different mix then you aren't in an tougher a spot than any one else. You need to do the math and decide what you can top and what (if anything) you need to dump.

 

[padiscubapro]

Part 1

Cost of 30/30 in a set of double AL 80's at 3000psi at $0.22 for O2 and $0.55 for He:

$17.00

Cost of 30/12 in the same doubles:

$31.00

QUOTE]
I do not understand how less helium is going to cost more.
I read you post to be
30% o2 /30% He =17 bucks
30% o2 /12% He =31 bucks

do you have those backwards?

I'd like to know what grade of Helium your shop is using.. If they are using one of the proper grades (at minimum UHP 5.0) $.55 per cuft is less than it would cost most shops to buy that grade of gas..

Last week I ordered some He (luckily I am on preferred pricing not the list price which most people pay - pricing has jumped enormously recently), UHP 5.0 was $218 (list) per T cylinder with UHP 6.0 grade almost double that.. (I used to use UHP 6.0).. The only way a shop could be selling He that cheaply (and make a profit) is to be using industrial or balloon helium (Unless they are a very large customer and get preferential pricing) (each major grade the pricing about doubles) except for balloon to Industrial there isn't a tremendous difference there..

Normally industrial He has a reasonable quality, however there is no testing done on the purity and no extra filtration and it can have some nasty contaminates (some not so nasty).. CO, CO2, Neon, Argon, multiple hydrocarbons (remember most helium is extracted with natural gas!) to name a few are all a possibility.. CO even in low concentrations can be deadly..

I wonder how many store realize they may be contaminating their oxygen clean booster pumps when they Use indstrial He..

 

[alemaozinho]

which agencies have a "REC TriMix" course

iantd

 

[mempilot]

Air Grade OCA (IANTD/ANDI 1993)
Oxygen Grade ABO (Aviators Breathing Oxygen)
Helium Grade UHP (Ultra High Purity -- 99.999%)
Argon Grade HP (High Purity -- 99.9%)

These prices are for banked.

Nitrox 32 $0.07 / cubic foot
TriOx 30 / 30 $0.30 / cubic foot
Trimix 21 / 35 $0.30 / cubic foot
Trimix 18 / 45 $0.40 / cubic foot
Trimix 15 / 55 $0.47 / cubic foot
Trimix 10 / 70 $0.56 / cubic foot

Custom blended is $0.75 / cubic foot. That adds a couple of bucks to the previous calculations. I can get it cheaper, but this is from my fill station.

 

[Charlie99]

Mempilot has the advantage of being near Fill Express. Here's their pricelist for fills.

 

[padiscubapro]

Mempilot has the advantage of being near Fill Express. Here's their pricelist for fills.

fill express has a contradiction on their helium

from their site..


Helium$0.75 / cubic foot Grade HP (Ultra High Purity -- 99.999%)


HP grade is not Ultra High Purity, Its High Purity a major grade below UHP..