Tank and weight rentals on Maui

[KrisB]

Guys, try to stay with me here, An air fill is if you have your own tank or return and reuse a rental tank, a tank rental is just that and they come with air. MDS has a tank rental card as well as air fill cards available. The tank rental card is a pretty good deal if you use all of them.

OK.

Let's try this.

If you have your own tank, MDDC will fill it for $1 less than normal. Meaning a 10-fill card FOR YOUR OWN TANK is $30.

Now, if you take one of their tanks for $4 (assuming the 10-fill rate), return it in 3 hours and ask to take another, you'll be charged $4.

As you can see, the tank is just a vessel for the air -- much like the take-out box is at the Chinese food restaurant.

 

[Wildcard]

Not if you have it filled. with an air card. If you RENT another tank then yes thats true.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

If I get a 10 tank card from MDS, and take 4 tanks for a 2-person 2-tank dive, I would consider it renting tanks at $4 each. When I go back to MDS they give me different tanks for the next dives. If I get a 50 fill card from MDDC and take in my own tanks I would consider it buying fills for $3(?) each.

 

[Wildcard]

Exactly!

 

[Charlie99]

I am going to be on Maui for 2 weeks in July. Staying in Kihei the first week and Kaanapali the second week.
We plan to do a handful of boat dives and a handful of shore dives. Will need to rent tanks and weights (and probably a dive flag) for the shore dives. Any suggestions on the best bargains for tanks/weights & air fills?

If you will be doing shore dives on both the Kihei and the Kaanapali sides of the island, then a $40 10 tank rental card from Maui Dive Shop is probably your best bet. They have shops on both sides of the island. Other places have tank rental cards a bit cheaper, but you end up losing out unless you are going to use 10 tanks on both sides of the island.

The only real drawback to MDS is that you have a choice of either AL80 or AL80, or if you don't want that, an AL80. At some of the other shops you can get either an AL63 or AL50, which are nice for shallow shore dives.

 

[KrisB]

If you will be doing shore dives on both the Kihei and the Kaanapali sides of the island, then a $40 10 tank rental card from Maui Dive Shop is probably your best bet. They have shops on both sides of the island. Other places have tank rental cards a bit cheaper, but you end up losing out unless you are going to use 10 tanks on both sides of the island.

The only real drawback to MDS is that you have a choice of either AL80 or AL80, or if you don't want that, an AL80. At some of the other shops you can get either an AL63 or AL50, which are nice for shallow shore dives.

Or an AL100 if you want longer time underwater...

I've heard that getting tanks at some of the smaller MDS shops can be difficult -- might want to call them ahead of time and make sure this plan would still work.

 

[DiveMaven]

We rented tanks late in the day at the Whaler's Village MDS and they were out of everything, except tanks. They scrounged around for weights for us, so we were covered, but it was amazing how they had zero BCs and regs left! Up the road a bit, the Kahana store is typically better stocked than the Whaler's Village shop since they do a lot of training out of Kahana. I haven't a clue about the Cannery Mall shop though.

 

[Charlie99]

We rented tanks late in the day at the Whaler's Village MDS and they were out of everything, except tanks. They scrounged around for weights for us, so we were covered, but it was amazing how they had zero BCs and regs left! Up the road a bit, the Kahana store is typically better stocked than the Whaler's Village shop since they do a lot of training out of Kahana. I haven't a clue about the Cannery Mall shop though.

I was picking up a tank a couple days ago at the Kamaole (aka Denny's) Shopping Plaza store MDS and overheard them sending another customer up to the Kihei outlet store since they had only 1 reg left and he needed two. I also vaguely remember some other case where they were sending people to the outlet store for BCDs or something.

OTOH, I've burnt through 7 or 8 10-tank rental cards at that store over the last year, usually just one tank at a time, and there was only two times they were out -- once because the compressor at the outlet store was down, and the one other because a whole bunch of tanks were rented at once around Christmas, and the truck with replacement tanks hadn't yet gotten there from the outlet. By the time I finished eating my cinnamon roll from the shop next door, they had tanks again.

If you are in West Maui, Pacific Dive and Lahaina Divers are more likely to have complete sets of gear. In South Maui, B&B and Maui Dreams have lots of rental gear.

OTOH, Maui Dive Shop has tanks available in lots of different locations on Maui and are often the most conveniently located nearest the dive sites. They are open longer hours than most other dive shops -- for example, 7AM-9PM for the Denny's shop.

BTW, the Shops at Wailea MDS does NOT rent tanks, which is a bummer because it is located right between Ulua and Wailea beaches.

 

[kidspot]

Before I got my own tanks I kept an MDS tank card in my wallet because of their hours - 'course the Cannery Mall location usually only had 6 tanks/day available at the time and they were frequently out till they got them filled (from Pacific no less - lol)

About 50% of the time when I went in for a tank there they were out - very little Scuba, mostly snorkeling ... but a nice backup plan that "might" work and save a dive here and there

 

[Charlie99]

My post above must have jinxed me.

Make it THREE times in the last couple of years that the Kamaole Shopping Center MDS was out of tanks. I got 2 this morning for an Ulua dive with a visiting SB member. No problem. But we decided to do another dive and when at 10AM or so the MDS branch was down to just 1 tank out of the 12 they had started with this morning. (The outlet shop 2 miles away had tanks, but since Polo is shallow, I just used the leftover air from the Ulua dive although that limited the dive to 48 minutes).

Thinking back, I realize that almost always I'm picking up tanks at 8AM or 9AM. Just like finding a parking spot at Ulua, your luck at getting tanks isn't going to be as good when you try at 10 or 11AM.