I was on a liveaboard in the Gulf of Oman last weekend. I always test for CO with my cootwo. I have found numbers as high as 2ppm but usually somewhere in the .3 to .9 range if any is detected. On this boat there were tanks from two different suppliers and there were about 60 tanks on board as they didn't have an onboard compressor. On the third tank I found 5 ppm so I kept checking.
I grabbed the organizer of the trip and he jumped into action. We tested every tank on board. about 20 tanks ranged from 5ppm to 7ppm. Two of the tanks jumped up to 25ppm and started flashing a TOO HIGH! message and didn't give readings again until the unit was flushed out with clean air for a while. I suspect the readings would have been higher than 25 ppm but the unit seems to top out and goes into an alert mode above that level.
We dove the tanks that read less than 5ppm and I only dove the tanks that read under 3 ppm and for deeper dives only dove those that read less than 2 ppm.
I have had people on boats tell me that they don't need to test their tanks because mine read fine so theirs will be too but I know better. Compressors can put out one bad tank in a string of acceptable ones or can put out good ones until it starts to run hot or the filter gets overloaded or the truck pulls up near the intake and sits idling while loading or unloading. TEST ALL TANKS!
@DandyDon Thank you for alerting us to the danger and the need to test all tanks. I'm pretty sure you and your crusade saved someone from getting very sick this last weekend on the other side of the world. They would have never known why they got sick because the other people on the boat were fine......
I grabbed the organizer of the trip and he jumped into action. We tested every tank on board. about 20 tanks ranged from 5ppm to 7ppm. Two of the tanks jumped up to 25ppm and started flashing a TOO HIGH! message and didn't give readings again until the unit was flushed out with clean air for a while. I suspect the readings would have been higher than 25 ppm but the unit seems to top out and goes into an alert mode above that level.
We dove the tanks that read less than 5ppm and I only dove the tanks that read under 3 ppm and for deeper dives only dove those that read less than 2 ppm.
I have had people on boats tell me that they don't need to test their tanks because mine read fine so theirs will be too but I know better. Compressors can put out one bad tank in a string of acceptable ones or can put out good ones until it starts to run hot or the filter gets overloaded or the truck pulls up near the intake and sits idling while loading or unloading. TEST ALL TANKS!
@DandyDon Thank you for alerting us to the danger and the need to test all tanks. I'm pretty sure you and your crusade saved someone from getting very sick this last weekend on the other side of the world. They would have never known why they got sick because the other people on the boat were fine......