Tank Valve Compatibility

[gnulab]

Hi,

I'm living in Indonesia, and now venturing into twin tank diving. It has been really difficult to lay my hands on renting twin tanks, so I'd to resort myself to buying my own equipment.

That's not sad enough. Since the market for twin tanks config is very rare, many dive shops do not have tank valves, manifolds, the whole rig in stock, thus I have to place my order from one of the members of Scubaboard.

The question I have are these: What are the questions I have to ask? I do not want the risk of buying a lemon and incompatibility, say the thread/length, etc. It is a long way between USA & Indonesia.

Advice sought dearly.

Henry

 

[300bar]

What are you looking for.
Just the valves/manifolds or complete rig.

 

[Luis H]

Take a look at the link below. The information in the last section should help you at least with the tank neck fittings commonly used in the US.

SCUBA Valves: Regulator Fittings, 200 vs 300 Bar FAQ and Cylinder Neck Threads - Dive Gear Express

Good luck

 

[Scared Silly]

Get a manifold for what every type of cylinder is being used most commonly in Indonesia. My guess is that your cylinders are coming from Australia which means they are metric. You do not want to put a 3/4" valve in a 25mm hole. It will appear to fit but once pressurized the threads will strip and the valve will blow.

 

[WD8CDH]

If the tanks come from Australia, they will more likely be 3/4"-14 NPS. The real danger is installing a 25mm valve in the 3/4" threads. It will be loose and dangerous. The other way will most likely be too tight to even start.

Here is an Australian equipment site:

Sea Hornet Scuba Regulators Cylinders Valves

 

[gnulab]

I'm thinking of getting the full set - left & right tank valve, manifold & steel band.

For the steel band, they fit nicely to halcyon backplate, regardless of the steel band manufacturer?

What do I have to look out for when buying used set, minus the steel band (since steel band is pretty straightforward visual inspection)?

Henry

 

[gnulab]

Take a look at the link below. The information in the last section should help you at least with the tank neck fittings commonly used in the US.

SCUBA Valves: Regulator Fittings, 200 vs 300 Bar FAQ and Cylinder Neck Threads - Dive Gear Express

Good luck

Thanks for the link! I've skimped through and this is the kind of information a newbie needs to read up before asking more educative questions.

Thanks once again!

 

[halocline]

If you buy new tanks, new bands, and a new manifold from the same source you can be sure that they will fit together with no problems. Since they will be shipped, they will probably arrive unassembled, which means you will install the bands and manifold. You can then be sure that the bands will line up well with the holes in your backplate. I assume you have two DIN regulators, correct? I would suggest that you get the 200bar manifold that has the convertible valves rather than the 300 bar DIN-only valves.

I'm just wondering what the shipping cost to Indonesia will be for two tanks. The alternative would be to buy two used tanks there and get your bands and manifold online for one of the vendors here. In that case, simply ensure that the tanks have 3/4" valves; that should be pretty easy to confirm. Once you've decided on the size tanks you want, you buy bands to fit the tanks. The manifold is adjustable for width.