The elusive "PLUS" rating?

[KD8NPB]

I talked to the fellas at the local hydrostatic testing place... Flame Tamers in Paw Paw, Michigan. They primarily do fire extinguishers, but they do my shop's SCUBA tanks as well. I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone who needs a hydro, their turnaround was one day for the LP72 I had just bought as "scrap" (Yes, "scrap" ).

Long story short though, the owner of Flame Tamers does NOT do plus ratings. He seems to remember there being a Michigan state law that makes it illegal to bring a tank back into a plus rating at a new hydro.

I'm curious if anyone could shed some light on this?

 

[Scared Silly]

No clue but the testing is Federal so I am not sure what they are thinking. Call another shop.

 

[captain]

If MI has such a law it is superseding federal law. The plus rating can be given at any hydro if the tank passes the requirements for such.

 

[Sleepdr]

Can anyone kindly provide a link to the official documentation for that, please? I know it's doable, but would like to be able to supply an explicit copy of the rules when my steel tanks are up for hydro this next year. I called guy the hydro facility used by the LDSs to see if they will + a steel. He didn't inspire any confidence, somehow assuming at first that I was trying to get a + on an aluminum tank. When I tried explaining that mine were steel cylinders and even have the REE stamped on them, it was as if we spoke different languages.

 

[Wookie]

Can anyone kindly provide a link to the official documentation for that, please? I know it's doable, but would like to be able to supply an explicit copy of the rules when my steel tanks are up for hydro this next year. I called guy the hydro facility used by the LDSs to see if they will + a steel. He didn't inspire any confidence, somehow assuming at first that I was trying to get a + on an aluminum tank. When I tried explaining that mine were steel cylinders and even have the REE stamped on them, it was as if we spoke different languages.

I don't know if Mike even owns it any more, and I know Kelly is long gone, but Dive Magic did not have retards there years ago. They should know the rules....

 

[Sleepdr]

Mike still is there. He did my nitrox & some regulator service for me this year.

My call was directly to Norco, the local pressure testing company.

 

[captain]

Most all of the federal regulations come from the Compressed Gas Assoication's technical publications. Seems any hydro shop should have a copy of them and the federal regulations. The problem is most of the commercial gas industry has no reason to + rate cylinders.
The folks who buy commercial gas pay by the cubic foot so unlike divers who pay by the tank they have no interest in having as much gas as possible in a tank. When one tank goes empty they just grab another tank. The plus is a remnant of World War Two when getting as much gas in a tank ment more gas could be transported to far away places in fewer tanks.

 

[halocline]

I talked to the fellas at the local hydrostatic testing place... Flame Tamers in Paw Paw, Michigan. They primarily do fire extinguishers, but they do my shop's SCUBA tanks as well. I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone who needs a hydro,

Long story short though, the owner of Flame Tamers does NOT do plus ratings. He seems to remember there being a Michigan state law that makes it illegal to bring a tank back into a plus rating at a new hydro.

I'm curious if anyone could shed some light on this?

First thing would be to stop highly recommending hydro places that don't know the rules and are willing to just make up something to cover their ignorance.

If your tank is a PST, there's a document floating around that lists the R.E.E. number that the shop would need to give the tank a plus rating. If it's not, you might be out of luck.

Basically the way it works, and I still can't believe so many professional shops don't seem to know something that anyone (like me for example) can find out with a couple of computer clicks, is that during the test, the tank expands, and they measure the expansion. If the expansion is equal to or less than the R.E.E. number, then the tank qualifies for the plus rating. This can happen at any hydro test.

For the tank to pass hydro, it has to return almost to it's original size; only 10% of the expansion can remain. So they have to measure the expansion and record it anyway.

 

[Luis H]

Most all of the federal regulations come from the Compressed Gas Assoication's technical publications. Seems any hydro shop should have a copy of them and the federal regulations.

All licensed hydro stations are required to have paper copies in the shop of all the relevant CFR (code of federal regulations) and the applicable CGA documents… that doesn’t mean that they actually read them. I have dealt with some hydro operators that didn’t seem to understand what they were reading even if they did read it.

I am lucky to have an LDS who has their own hydro station and they have learned how to use it. They do plus stamping. I have helped them with some of the calculations and at times have helped them locate some of the REE numbers.

 

[akdeepdiver]

A friend of mine took his tanks to a local hydro shop, and they told him that there were new federal rules that stated only a manufacturer can requlify with a plus. He smelled something fishy and called me (I used to run a hydro shop in Anchorage, AK, and am in the process of opening a new one in Hawaii.). After I told him that it was not the case (I also called the DOT to make sure) he went back. The hydro shop then admitted they told him that story because they did not want to do the extra work. Got to love it, lie to the customer because your lazy.