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Tech Gas Cost
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Sooo your saying I should just buy a rebreather got it....I will let my wife know right away lol
It’s a viable option if you have the money to buy all the gas blending equipment. Same same. Except for one little problem:
You are going to end up buying a haskel and having at least O2 at the house anyway...unless you live in cave country.
Sorry, but let me get this straight - they want $35 to fill a 2L (or 15cuft) rebreather tank? Even at 100% He @ 15 cuft is 29.35. That's nuts, I might go to them to fill my 100s, but I think I'd find someone else to fill my dil tanks (or of course I'm missing something).
That’s sort of normal rush hour traffic here. I’m 50 miles each way from home, 35 from work. It’s well worth it even with gas for the car and time figured in.
A lot of folks do that...minimum charge for blending. Some are more expensive than others. Thus why a lot of CCR divers have boosters.
I bank 10/70 and 21/35 in my old OC doubles. That way when I’m on the road I can transfill from those(boost if needed) and I bring my own O2 and booster too. If you travel a lot to dive, it’s nice to be mobile with your full capabilities....especially since getting boosted O2 is the exception vice the rule in most places.
Many businesses and lines of work have minimum costs. Why should it be any different for a dive shop? Chances are, places that aren't boosting and mixing are going to pass more of the operating costs onto customers. Lots of divers who are consistently diving CCR have their own boosters specifically to combat this.
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to add to what @JohnnyC said, for anyone who isn't familiar with how gas boosters are usually set up.
They are typically run from the scuba compressor on banked air that is the same as what you're breathing because there is little point in having an industrial compressor in addition to the scuba compressor and if your banks are big enough, you don't always need the compressors running while you are boosting.
The boosters do allow you to transfill through them, but on average it takes the same amount of air to fill an al80 as it does to run the booster to pump up a 3l. Take the O2 cost from most of them, then add in an air fill and you have the real consumption of the boosters.
Many/most shops that do a lot of boosting just factor that into the @/cf of the boosted gas, but some do it by charging a minimum fill cost to help offset their actual running cost.
They are typically run from the scuba compressor on banked air that is the same as what you're breathing because there is little point in having an industrial compressor in addition to the scuba compressor and if your banks are big enough, you don't always need the compressors running while you are boosting.
The boosters do allow you to transfill through them, but on average it takes the same amount of air to fill an al80 as it does to run the booster to pump up a 3l. Take the O2 cost from most of them, then add in an air fill and you have the real consumption of the boosters.
Many/most shops that do a lot of boosting just factor that into the @/cf of the boosted gas, but some do it by charging a minimum fill cost to help offset their actual running cost.
KentB
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that travel time is savage!!!!
i hear ya on the condo thing though so your basically stuck with the travel.
my LDS is 45 min away and I justified a compressor - my switch just went so I had to go to the shop for my first fills since apr 2017 and **** i took the convience for granted!!
iI hopefully picking up my nitrox stick in the next couple weeks and doing a blending course. i don't fell a compressor on air will EVER pay itself off on $$ costs alone with nitrox it will take a long ass time but i think when you start using trimix its gonna pay itself off no problem over time.
the ability to fill your own tanks whenever you want is awesome,
Michael Guerrero
Contributor
1. Here's a link you can price things out. Most of the specialized fills are priced per cu ft. Training, Services, Regulator service, tank service, Hydrotesting
2. I usually get two dives out of a set of doubles in the 150 - 200ft range with a 20 - 25min bottom time per dive. These are either properly filled LP85s (i.e., filled to 3,600 psi) or HP133s filled to 3,600 psi. I also usually get about 2 hours of deco from one set of AL80 filled with 50% and an AL40 filled with 100%. This ends up usually being two dives. If I'm a little short on the back gas, I'll usually transfill them with a whip to top them up a bit. I usually only get a single dive off a trimix stage in that stated depth ranges.
3. I think if you're diving a lot of helium and not affiliated with a shop then it absolutely makes sense to look into getting your own setup to blend O2 and trimix. You probably get more bang for the buck on trimix, and you'll want a booster most likely, which will take a while to get an return on investment back. For air, I'd just go to a shop. $10 to fill doubles. You can partial pressure fill your stuff and then take it to a shop to get the air put in too, and that's probably the most economical. That said, I think you need to be diving trimix fairly regularly (a few times a month probably) for that to make sense. The other approach is a rebreather, which should pay for itself after a hundred or two dives (depending on your costs for the unit, training, etc.).
All that said, if you're just wanting to visit some wrecks on occasion, then just buy gas from a good shop. Life seems always to get in the way of good diving. However, having the knowledge and skills you learn in technical diving will improve your recreational diving and give you options to see things others can't/won't due to their training/comfort limitations.
2. I usually get two dives out of a set of doubles in the 150 - 200ft range with a 20 - 25min bottom time per dive. These are either properly filled LP85s (i.e., filled to 3,600 psi) or HP133s filled to 3,600 psi. I also usually get about 2 hours of deco from one set of AL80 filled with 50% and an AL40 filled with 100%. This ends up usually being two dives. If I'm a little short on the back gas, I'll usually transfill them with a whip to top them up a bit. I usually only get a single dive off a trimix stage in that stated depth ranges.
3. I think if you're diving a lot of helium and not affiliated with a shop then it absolutely makes sense to look into getting your own setup to blend O2 and trimix. You probably get more bang for the buck on trimix, and you'll want a booster most likely, which will take a while to get an return on investment back. For air, I'd just go to a shop. $10 to fill doubles. You can partial pressure fill your stuff and then take it to a shop to get the air put in too, and that's probably the most economical. That said, I think you need to be diving trimix fairly regularly (a few times a month probably) for that to make sense. The other approach is a rebreather, which should pay for itself after a hundred or two dives (depending on your costs for the unit, training, etc.).
All that said, if you're just wanting to visit some wrecks on occasion, then just buy gas from a good shop. Life seems always to get in the way of good diving. However, having the knowledge and skills you learn in technical diving will improve your recreational diving and give you options to see things others can't/won't due to their training/comfort limitations.
Michael Guerrero
Contributor
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