Rhino Lining a Tank!

[JaredWaites]

Can you rhino line a steel/alum tank? I think it would be nice to keep the tank from getting banged up. Even an aluminum one.

 

[pollywogg]

I don't see why you couldn't rhino line it. However, for every vis and hydro the lining would have to be removed to check for corrosion, so it would prob get ridiculously expensive in the long run.

 

[spectrum]

Neat idea but no good can come from it. there is a litany of threads about finishing aluminum cylinders. The bottom line is that any coating will eventually break down and trap corrosives doing more harm than good. A bare aluminum, cylinder is entirely rinseable and will tae on a nice patina.

The Rhino lining in particular is so unconventional that it's bound too raise eyebrows at inspection time.

Pete

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

Can you rhino line a steel/alum tank? I think it would be nice to keep the tank from getting banged up. Even an aluminum one.

Sounds like a good idea at first but there is good reason why manufactures and consumers alike have taken preference in unfinished aluminum cylinders.

Steel tanks need only a good galvanizing to look nice and that is a durable finish.

 

[crpntr133]

As mentioned above it won't pass viz with it on. Repainting is bad enough.

 

[Stu S.]

Something similar was tried by US Divers and did not work. I got their 1960's vinyl coated tank from a friend. It had a tough coating inside and out.

When it went bad it was real bad. The inside coating had somehow failed and the steel was rusting beneath the vinyl. A regular tank could have been tumbled, not this one. The tank was about 10 years old.

The first owner wanted it back, and I let him have it.... no charge.

 

[JaredWaites]

Ok since I always rent tanks...how often do you have to have them visually inspected and hydro'ed?

So if you have a faber white tank, your telling me you have to strip all the paint off for the visual and hydro?

 

[AuburnFan]

Ok since I always rent tanks...how often do you have to have them visually inspected and hydro'ed?

So if you have a faber white tank, your telling me you have to strip all the paint off for the visual and hydro?

Viz is once a year and Hydro is every 5 years

 

[pollywogg]

So if you have a faber white tank, your telling me you have to strip all the paint off for the visual and hydro?

I could be wrong, but as I understand it, factory paint is permissible, but aftermarket coatings are not.

 

[oxyhacker]

There's no written-in-stone law about when a tank coating gets too thick or too obscuring, but the rule of thumb is that it has to be thin enough that an inspector can satisfy him or herself that there is no corrosion going on underneath it. Corrosion will almost always give itself away when under a fairly thin layer, like conventional paint or stickers, since it creates bubbling which is fairly easy to spot. Heavy coatings like powder coat or Rhino or the vinyl found on many steel 72s, on the other hand, are thick enough to often completely hide it.

So by putting an improper coating on, you don't necessarily doom your tank to automatic failure, you just increase the chance of hassle somewhere down the road, something I personally like to avoid.

Oh, another problem with Rhino is a lot of inspectors won't be able to tell it from powder coat, and powder coat is always problematic as it involves baking.

o if you have a faber white tank, your telling me you have to strip all the paint off for the visual and hydro?