Removing tank boots?

[Marie13]

People keep telling me to remove the boots from the HP80s I’m using for SM. I see nothing but negatives. Harder handling them in/out of car trunk, no easy way to stand them up when attaching first stages, and I don’t expect they would play nicely with boat tank racks.

I’m doing open water dives in fresh water. No caves/caverns. Quarries and the Great Lakes.

The only reason I see to remove boots is to allow lower placement of tank band. That’s it.

 

[swimlikethefish]

Other than removing the boots for frequent cleaning and thorough drying, unless you are cave or wreck diving in narrow areas there isn't much advantage to removing them. I keep mine on for storage and transport. When I get to the dive site I kick them off. I use the boot below. I have cut a slit down one side of each boot. Then electrical tape the gap closed. This allows them to slide on and off with ease. Without being too loose to fall off on their own. I'll send a picture of one of my tank boots when I get home this afternoon.

Really it comes down to preference, as with most things diving related. Or if you drink the full pitcher of DIR kool-aid, or just half of it.

Edit: autocorrect was incorrect.

 

[northernone]

If you see nothing but negatives after numerous people sharing their experience and suggestions with you, what is it you are asking about tank boots?

The biggest danger I've seen in having boots on tanks is it encourages people to stand tanks upright. From that position they tend to fall down. This risk to both self, equipment, and people's toes and dignity nearby needs considered.

Increased maintenance requirements and potential for rust/undetected damage and entanglement are the other common disadvantages to adding a boot.

 

[tbone1004]

historically, you needed to remove them from Fabers on the regular because they had a really bad boot design that didn't drain so the bottoms would rust REALLY fast. They have since fixed that.
You also wanted to remove them from sets of 8" doubles in particular because the gap between the boots was small enough, especially with the octagonal "standard" tank boots, that line could legitimately get stuck between those tanks causing some exciting gymnastics to be required to get it out, or at least getting quite familiar with your buddy :-D
If you are doing true sidemount squeezy stuff, then you may want to remove them because the lips of the boots can get caught on stuff. It's not normally a big deal, but a lot of people remove them because it's less of a hassle in those situations.

Most people just echo information that they've heard and want to be part of the "cool" crowd so they are adamant against tank boots. I think it's ridiculous, but that's just me.

Now, if you have modern boots, and are diving sidemount, there really isn't a need to remove them unless you really want to. I have them on my HP120 doubles, my LP50's in my CCR rack, and any steel bottles that are set to be used as backmount singles *none at the moment, but have a stack of boots for them*. I don't dive boots on my sidemount tanks, but I also use them for sidemount restrictions in caves. If I was doing anything off of a boat, they would probably have them and many boats require tank boots to not destroy their decks.
If you're diving salt, I'd try to take them off pretty regularly *once a month ish* to clean them, but if you're diving fresh I wouldn't bother outside of vip

 

[The Chairman]

I leave them on my single and sidemount tanks.

 

[kelemvor]

It's one of the scuba "rules" that often gets parroted without understanding the purpose. Another example is "never hold your breath." Of course, those that bother to learn come to realize it's more like "don't hold your breath while ascending." Same deal with boots. Boots are good in some scenarios and bad in others.

 

[The Chairman]

Of course, those that bother to learn come to realize it's more like "don't hold your breath while ascending."

I teach that they can "pause" as long as they don't occlude their glottis or epiglottis. Everyone pauses. Just be sure to use your diaphragm and chest muscles to do the work and not your glottis or epiglottis.

 

[w3dge]

I took the boots of my twinset. Couldn't think of a good reason to do so other than it looks cooler Its a bit of a pain in the ass most times to be honest.

 

[Russell Bowyer]

My thinking is to never take the boots off. The last thing you want to happen is for you tanks to fall over and get damaged. The boot hardly adds or takes away from buoyancy and they are very light when out of the water, so leave them on, I'd say.

 

[Storker]

Boots are good in some scenarios and bad in others.

In my part of the world, I hardly ever (if at all) see a single tank without a boot. And I hardly ever (if at all) see a twinset with boots.

What's interesting is that most of the twinsets I see have scratched bottoms, often with some rust. I still haven't seen or heard about a single that has had to be scrapped due to rust under the boot, even if I don't doubt that those things do happen. But ISTM that if one is reasonably diligent about rinsing the tank(s) after diving in saltwater, rust under the boot won't be a significant problem.