Tank boot..yes or no??

[Scubamedicjoe]

well thats just shows us how cheap of a boot you put on your tanks first a good boot will have drains holes second any one with some good knowledge nows that once in awhile you pull the boot off and clean and rinse everything
well at least I do if you service and clean your gear properly it will last years

 

[madmole]

Couldn't resist it

Heres a picture of me in 82 removing a tank boot from a 40 year old Seibe Gorman 40cuft

Spot the state of the art kit. This was my first dive on a single hose, and I was wearing one of those new fangled ABLJ's (that were supposed to kill you instantly). Jet fins were still the best then as well as now

 

[Scuba]

raxafarian wrote:

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

medic13 wrote:

well thats just shows us how cheap of a boot you put on your tanks first a good boot will have drains holes second any one with some good knowledge nows that once in awhile you pull the boot off and clean and rinse everything

I recently got a PST steel tank with a boot that has plenty of drain holes, but I too was surprise to find the bottom of the tank wet a couple of days after thoroughly rinsing it in fresh water, standing upright. Will have to check and see how many days it takes to dry. Check for yourself medic13.

I think the key here is fresh water rinse and boot removal once in a while.

By the way, which evaporates faster, salt or fresh water?

 

[madmole]

Exactly the same, its ONLY the fresh water that evaporates. The salt gets left behind

 

[cavediver]

WreckWriter once bubbled...
There's no point to a boot on a flat bottom tank. Boots trap crap. You'll be happier without.

Tom

Ditto

 

[Mouth Breather old]

medic13 once bubbled...
well thats just shows us how cheaps of a boot you put on your tanks first a good boot will have drains holes second any one with some good knowledge nows that once in awhile you pull the boot off and clean and rinse everything
well at least I do if you service and clean your gear properly it will last years

Easy for you to say!

 

[JamesK]

In a cave where you are scraping the top of your tanksto get through a restriction, that extra 1/4 to 1/2 inch at the back of your tanks can make a HUGE difference in getting through without being stuck or pushed down into the silt bottom. That is why there will never be boots on my doubles, or stage bottles. As for O/W tanks, the boots don't bother me.

 

[The Chairman]

I can really see the need for no boots if you are a caver or even a tech diver...

I can really see the need for boots to protect various surfaces...

I have a harder time believing that they are a snag hazzard...

And I am not fully convinced that they make your tank look any better either...

So there really is no hard and fast answer... it's like Uncle Pug's underwear... "it Depends" :tease:
But not only on what type of diving you do, but also on your preferences. This is one of those areas where there are many who have a dogged opinion one way or another, but it really depends on a lot of factors. And the presense or non-presense of a boot has little to do with how safe a diver is. So to quote Shakespeare... "It's much ado about nothing..."

 

[DocRCH]

I two sets of dbl 98's with the boots on. My friends insist that thiss will ruin the tanks. Occassionally, I take them off and inspect the tanks. After about 5 yrs., no problem. Most of the people that I dive with who have removed the boots have worn thru the paint and/or galvanizing on the bottoms of their tanks. {A round bottom on a flat (usually rough) surface places a lot of pressure in a small area} Now most of them use duct tape to protect the areas that have worn thru and begun corroding. go figure.

Robert:doctor:

 

[Campana]

When teaching new divers, we always tell them to not walk off and leave their tanks standing up, because they will eventually fall over and damage our gear. I watched some booted steel tanks (which had been left standing on a tailgate of a truck) do a neat swan dive onto the parking lot and damage both DIN ports on the manafold.

Besides discouraging corrosion, not having boots on (round bottomed) steel tanks does not allow them to be left standing up. At first this is a nuisance because you always have to find something to lean them against but after you get used to it it's no biggie.

The corrosion reason is a good one too. I clean and tumble a lot of old 72's, and some of them are damaged under the boots and some of them are not. I hate to ruin good galvanizing, and therefore don't use boots, on the chance that it will improve the life of the finish.