Tank boot..yes or no??

[madmole]

Tha main reason to have a tank boot is to protect the paint and anodising of the cylinder. Dragging and standing the tanks on the non protected base will soon remove the protective coating. Thats fine if you cave dive and the corrosion also gets scraped of being dragged through a cave or dive regularly enough to rub it off.

Corrosion under the boot normally takes acouple of years to penetrate a good coating. Its takes days to get under an existing scratch in it

Also if you dive aluminium tanks then a 2mm score is a test failure (it is in the UK), as Aluminium is so soft thats easy to do without a boot.

I tend to put boots on my back tanks as its handy to stand them on things to put them on. My stage tanks do not have boots

Boots are removed and fresh water flushed after each dive (or better yet, I take em in the pool). I have tanks up to 48 years old (Siebe Gorman 40 cuft 120 bar), most are 15 years old. All easily passed inspection this year (Hydraulic and visual)

 

[The Chairman]

So I keep boots on the tanks... they wouldn't let me use their pools if I didn't! Al on ceramic is NOT a good mix!

 

[SM Diver]

No boots, no boat ride.

 

[Tibbs]

No boots, no boat ride.

No boat ride - no money!

I've found that many hard and fast rules that skippers and shop owners have are abandoned when faced with people who are willing to pack their stuff up and go somewhere else.

I've had quite a few of these - filling Nitrox into tanks with just the O2 clean sticker and bootless cylinders are the two most common. I dive the way I want to, and I've found that being willing to pack my stuff up and dive another day is a very good way of getting what you want. To date I've never actually had to miss a day...

I think some in the dive industry need to wake up to the fact that good customer service will pay dividends! We have an increasing number of boats over here in the UK that are fitting electric tail lifts to their boats to make it easier for divers to exit the water. These boats are pretty much booked up every weekend, and for the neap weekends some are booked up two years in advance

Goes to show what listening to your clients does for your business...

Chris

 

[SM Diver]

I do not run a charter business, or otherwise profit in any way from people being on my boat. I happen to have an extremely high-end 34' twin engine center console that cost more than I like to think about. The people that dive on my boat are by invitation only; I don't even ask for gas money (although I don't turn it down when someone slips me a couple of twenties).

HOWEVER, if I were in the industry, I wouldn't think twice about requiring boots. I think the key would be to give notice in advance, or I'd probably just keep spares (can't disagree with you, it'd be dumb to turn people away, and maybe my first post sounded that way). So, maybe now you understand why I can be a little cavalier about my policy.

 

[Uncle Pug]

tampascott once bubbled...
don't even ask for gas money

Wouldn't an extremely high-end 34' have twin tuborcharged diesels...

 

[SM Diver]

UPug, I've had the diesels, this is a different animal. Gotta laugh at myself at how arrogant "extremely" sounded. But thank you for underscoring it just to make sure I didn't miss it.

It's a Venture 34, made with one thing in mind: Getting there now! It's a tournament boat (kingfish, one day Florida Middle Ground Runs, etc.). Bascially, it's a battleship with 500HP between the two motors. The guys with twin diesels will laugh at my at the pumps, but I'll be there 3 hours ahead of them.

If you ever get your butt out of the great NW, your welcome on my boat anytime.

 

[Uncle Pug]

tampascott once bubbled...
If you ever get your butt out of the great NW, your welcome on my boat anytime.

Now where did I put those tank boots?

Hmmmm...

Oh yeah... nailed them to the wall to hang hoses and ropes on...

Hmmmm...


Now where did I put that crowbar?

 

[raxafarian]

just removed the boots from my brand new PST LP95's... still had water trapped in them from being filled 3 days ago


How did that go in that one Seinfeld episode?
"No boots for you" (or for me )

 

[Uncle Pug]

I just popped the boot off a 40 year old steel 72... and you know what I found? Nothing but beautiful gray galvanizing.