The Great local dive shop vs. online debate

[nyresq]

there is alread a couple of guys here in NY who decided that if you can't buy your fills online, then just open a fill business. they have better prices for mix fills and will do every thing from air to trimix. its run out of homes, and the only overhead is the initial cost of the equipment. you drop off your tanks and pick up the next day for mix or just make an appointment to sit and wait while they fill your tanks.
most of them also have deals with the charter boats to rent tanks or have a customers tanks delivered filled to the boat before a trip. you can rent tanks with the fill for only a little more than the price of a mix fill from a LDS.
these guys know where there is money to be made, and where its lost, so no shop, no bs with the manufacturers of dive equipment, no stupid people to answer questions about gear they bought online but don't know how to set up.....

if I had a garage with enough space, I'd think about doing something like that...

 

[VTernovski]

in NYC? where where!!!

 

[nyresq]

captain Zero of the john jack runs a place on SI called, I think, diving gasses unlimited is the name. look on the john jack website, he lists prices for fills and a number to call him for info. most of the time you have to leave your tanks over night or a couple of days in the busy times for any mixes, but air I think he will do while you wait.
there is also a guy in suffolk who runs the same type of operation but I can't find him on the web. I know a few guys on the last boat I was on, said he was always right on with mixes and the prices couldn't be beat by any shops in the area.

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

nyresq once bubbled...
there is alread a couple of guys here in NY who decided that if you can't buy your fills online, then just open a fill business. they have better prices for mix fills and will do every thing from air to trimix. its run out of homes, and the only overhead is the initial cost of the equipment. you drop off your tanks and pick up the next day for mix or just make an appointment to sit and wait while they fill your tanks.

By law to produce or make Nx or Tri-mix your supposed to have a manufacturing liscense. I'm sure this is the first most of you have heard of this and it will probably end up starting a bash session. But just beware of this when you run it out of your house and begin to sell it. Someone may rat you out if you don't have all the proper permits & liscensings. Not to mention NY uncle Sam and other states now require sales tax on air and Nx and Tri-Mix. Which I think is total BS but it's real.

Not to mention who would want to pose risks to their families of having these high pressure cylinders and the high pressure cylinder or cylinders on the compressor that house the filter(s). These items blow on rare occasions and I for one would not want it in my garage next to a room where a family member or myself might be.

If your going to do it this way, get the proper permits, etc. and do it away from the house in a shed. And if you can get away with screwing the govt. More power to you, I'm for it!

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

nyresq once bubbled...
captain Zero of the john jack runs a place on SI called, I think, diving gasses unlimited is the name. look on the john jack website, he lists prices for fills and a number to call him for info. most of the time you have to leave your tanks over night or a couple of days in the busy times for any mixes, but air I think he will do while you wait.
there is also a guy in suffolk who runs the same type of operation but I can't find him on the web. I know a few guys on the last boat I was on, said he was always right on with mixes and the prices couldn't be beat by any shops in the area.

I hope these guys are carrying insurance in the unlikely event they give you bad air or a catastrophe happens like a tank blowing or a filter canister on the compressor blowing or they get water in your steel tanks. Do these out of house guys have a tumbler on site in case they rust up your steel tanks? If not they need to get one or make one.

 

[RichLockyer]

CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...
Do these out of house guys have a tumbler on site in case they rust up your steel tanks? If not they need to get one or make one.

Would your shop give me a free tumble if it rusted my tank?

All of the potential problems you cite can happen in a full-service shop, commercial shop operating out of a home, or the guy doing garage mix.

It has to be done right, and if it isn't, then it shouldn't be done, period.

If my tank rusts, the guy working out of his house is going to tell me the same thing the LDS is going to tell me... he doesn't know for a fact that he's the only place that's filled my tanks.

 

[Genesis]

was when I allowed a shop to fill it.

They disavowed responsibility, of course, but would have been happy to sell me a tumble. Funny that only the tanks they filled, and none of the others I filled off my own compressor during that same time period had any rust in them.

Funny also that I don't fill in a water bath, and they do......

Hmmm.....

I built a tumbler and tumbled my own tanks, then re-O2-cleaned them. And I won't be back there for fills either.

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

RichLockyer once bubbled...

Would your shop give me a free tumble if it rusted my tank?

All of the potential problems you cite can happen in a full-service shop, commercial shop operating out of a home, or the guy doing garage mix.

It has to be done right, and if it isn't, then it shouldn't be done, period.

If my tank rusts, the guy working out of his house is going to tell me the same thing the LDS is going to tell me... he doesn't know for a fact that he's the only place that's filled my tanks.

The answer to your question is hell yes. Shops can't survive without supieror service like a free tumble to help a brother out. If I know that the shop never filled these tanks then sure I'm going to charge 12 bucks for a 4-6 hr. tumble.

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

Genesis once bubbled...
was when I allowed a shop to fill it.

They disavowed responsibility, of course, but would have been happy to sell me a tumble. Funny that only the tanks they filled, and none of the others I filled off my own compressor during that same time period had any rust in them.

Funny also that I don't fill in a water bath, and they do......

Hmmm.....

I built a tumbler and tumbled my own tanks, then re-O2-cleaned them. And I won't be back there for fills either.

Building a tank tumbler is probably the easiest and the best thing a tank owner could do.

I own 1 steel tank (1959) and of course filled it up all last summer. I sold two steel tanks to ckh. He got them filled thru me all last summer. One day I learned his tank had flash rusted. He took them over to the other shop and had them tumbled. I guess he didn't want anything else to do with me. I offered a free tumble but I never saw his tanks. I offered this free tumble knowing my steel tank and the other steel tanks from other customers that I filled never did rust. Point is all shops are not responsible but a free tumble is not a bad thing to offer now and then. I think CK may have gotten water between his first stage and the tank valve. But of course I could have done the same thing when filling his tanks.

 

[nyresq]

By law to produce or make Nx or Tri-mix your supposed to have a manufacturing liscense.

who regulates this law? is it a federal dot reg? the tax thing I can understand, but what agency is the license to make trimix from?

as for tumbling, I've never heard of a shop saying "sorry for rusting your tanks, I'll give them a tumble..." but I have heard many of them say "how do I know you didn't get a fill of bad air someplace else, I'll do it, but it will be $15 plus another $10 for the VIP, but the rust can't be from me...":upset: