To Rent Or Buy, That is The Question?

[squidster]

Dont Have A Tank Yet, Since I Have To Get Fills At LDS , Is It Worth It To Own One?
Is It Worth Having A tank Around The House Filled With Air Just In Case/
Or Is That A Bad Idea To Let Tank Of Air Set Around For A Extended Amount Of Time?

 

[REII]

How often do you dive, and how available are rental tanks nearby? You may be better off renting the tanks.

TOM

 

[mattroz]

It might not always be an economics thing, I don't use my tanks enough to justify their cost (maybe 25 dives on each of them a year) but having those tank have given me longer more trimmed out dives. AL80 isn't suitable for all diving either.

 

[Jibeho]

Dont Have A Tank Yet, Since I Have To Get Fills At LDS , Is It Worth It To Own One?
Is It Worth Having A tank Around The House Filled With Air Just In Case/
Or Is That A Bad Idea To Let Tank Of Air Set Around For A Extended Amount Of Time?

Just work the TCO numbers for buying and renting. Example:

To own
AL80 about $140
Yearly VIP $12 here with a free fill
Hydro every 5 years $30

Total to own one tank for the first five years $188

Fills are $4 here for air $7 for Nitrox

So assume you dive this tank 20 times a year 20x5=$400 in air fills over your first 5 years. TCO for first five years would be about $588 a tank for a AL80

588/100 is $5.88 a dive owning

Rentals are about $8 here 8x100 $800 to rent.

These numbers assume 20 dives a year.

I have a 3rd grade education in math so if I dorked this up please let me know

My tanks sit just 2 months out of the year sometimes full sometimes not depends if my last dive of the year is washed out.

 

[REII]

It might not always be an economics thing

I agree. That's where I was going with the question about availability. Based on where he is, he may not have a LDS around the corner that has tanks to rent.

I dive on my own boat in the Keys and in the Bahamas and many times shops will not rent out tanks when they are expecting to have a lot of divers on their own boats for fear of running low.

TOM

 

[mattroz]

never mind i'm an idiot

 

[JohnW]

I own 5 Tanks(3xS100's,S120 & AL40), and am about to buy a set of Twins. Rentals for me are a hassle as my LDS is 45 min from my home and the nearest Dive Site is 45 min in the other Direction.

I feel if I had to rent, I would Dive alot less. Having my own Tanks means that I can get them filled at my leisure and not have to run back to the LDS on Mondays to return tanks, also I'm not scrambling to get tanks for the weekend. The other nice thing is some weekends where I didn't think of Diving, I all of a sudden can because I usually have at least 2 Full tanks.

 

[squidster]

How Long Will air Keep?and still be safe?

 

[Ron Brandt]

It depends on the cost of fills or the hassle to drive to lds,rent tanks,go to dive site,cancel dive due to conditions and get charged for rental.

I have owned my own tanks and gear since certed 25 years ago. The more gear you own the more often you will dive..

Ron

 

[spectrum]

You really need to look at your diving if you are going to make it a numbers thing.

If you tend to make multi dive days in probably means owning several cylinders per diver unless fills are avialable and you are brave enough to plan around a surface interval fill.

Renting means 2 vists to the LDS per outing and they need to be within the bounds of the rental period. This can be a logistic nightmare.

If spontaneous local diving is n the cards having cylinders standing by is very liberating.

IMO having a cylinder when cleaning regulators at the end of the day is essential and that further confounds the logistics of renting.

IMO the numbers hardly matter, it's a need.

Pete