Tank handle or no tank handle

[Capt. Bas]

Whats wrong with carrying an AL80 over your shoulder with a hand on the valve?

Michael

More or less everything.
I've read a lot of remarks about the extra obstruction/entanglement points for the handle.
Carrying the cylinder on your shoulder at 5ft high is not the best option when you slip and release the cylinder out our your grip. dropping a 15kg piece of that height on the cylinder valve with 200B behind it.

The cylinder in the pictures looks like a long steel 12ltr 200 or 300B cylinder with the double valve. (Comparing the location of the topic starter and the style of garage floor tiling and drain confirms this)
The average weight of this cylinder is 14.5kg/ +/-33lbs empty and with that particular style of valve very awkward to handle.
Never had a problem at my 2 12ltr with handles.

Bas

 

[Zef]

The cylinder in the pictures looks like a long steel 12ltr 200 or 300B cylinder with the double valve. (Comparing the location of the topic starter and the style of garage floor tiling and drain confirms this)
The average weight of this cylinder is 14.5kg/ +/-33lbs empty and with that particular style of valve very awkward to handle.
Never had a problem at my 2 12ltr with handles.

Bas

Good eye. It is a long steel 12L 200 bar cylinder with a double (H style) valve. The location the picture was taken is the compressor room of the dive the club on the base I work at here in Belgium, though the tile is similar to that of my garage at the house I rent. I just weighed the cylinder and it is 14.8kg with 35 bar in it.

The handle is still mounted as there is little chance of line entanglement in the quarries and lakes where I routinely dive and I do not believe the handle would make for more of an entanglement hazard than what my regulator, wing, the valve, the cylinder, my pony bottle, or my body itself presents.

I dive with a relatively conservative mindset. I don't dive in overhead environments, I rarely ever push to the edge of no-deco limits, and I routinely surface with more than 50 bar in my cylinder. I carry a trilobite line cutter on the waist belt of my harness and another on my right wrist/forearm attached to my the bungee of my computer mount, and frequently have a set of EMT shears in the thigh pocket of my drysuit. As a former competitive swimmer (a few lifetimes ago), swim instructor, and coach, I am very comfortable in the water. I can comfortably doff/don my gear underwater, and expect that in the event of entanglement that my dive buddy and I would exercise some effective crisis management and work through the problem without panicking.

Of course though one never knows exactly how things will unfold until the s$%t actually hits the fan. I understand that complacency and cockiness can kill, and attempt as much as possible to take a cerebral approach to how I dive in an effort to challenge my biases and effectively manage risk.

-Z

 

[Bearded Diver]

I like my handles very much, just as much as the orange knobs. So far they haven't been a source of entanglements.
I carried tanks without handles for several decades, I tried crappy handles and went back to no handles....then I saw this more solid ones and like them. I'll keep using them.
I do me, you do you. One way is not intrinsically better that the other, is simply preference.

May I ask what brand those orange tank knobs are, and the company that makes the carry handled?