DandyDon, just ordered one. Thank you! I will likely be ordering many more as Christmas Gifts this year for my dive buddies around the world!
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Interesting points. I think it's funny that we stress safety in training, equipment, diving, yet do so little to protect the most important equipment a diver carries: the breathing gas - unless it's Nitrox, then we test that. My nitrox tester cost twice as much; is it really any more important?I think teaching all divers to carry and learn how to shoot an SMB might be a much more cost effective way to prevent injuries and deaths (being run over by boats, being left drifting by the pickup boat etc).
Sounds like the intake is indeed your smoking gun - and filters/scrubbers may or may not clean up a problem. An inline CO monitor with auto shut-off would be better protection. See your personal monitor give a pass on the tank air would be the most reassuring I think.Don,
Great topic and investigation skills. This has been an issue I have wondered about for quite a while for a few reasons.
On my check out dives with a local shop I felt excessively tired after each and every tank I dove from that shop. I have never had an issue since except one time again when a buddy had his tanks done there, same results. To my knowledge no one was ever harmed from the air and maybe it's just me but while taking a good look at the shops compressor setup. Which was located in a small shack away from anything that might contaminate the incoming air. While there I noticed an odd situation, when the wind kicked up just a little you could smell the exhaust from the compressor, so I walked around the side of the building where the intake was located and sure enough the odor was overwhelming. In my opinion what was happening was under certain sitatutions the wind was carrying the exhaust to the intake side. I know this should be taken care of by the filters but if the filters where towards the end of their life expectency or maybe left in a little longer than they should have I guess it is possible. I discussed it with the shop owenr who kind of blew it off but I noticed they do very little filling from that setup anymore and use their other shops most of the time now.
You have been around here long enough to rememeber Carl, who brought up this subject quite often. He raised a lot of arguements for the use of something like this which if memory serves he took a pretty good beating for back then. His arguments where strong and had me thinking about it ever since, not to a point of obsessions but occasionally if I do not feel quite right after a dive it comes to mind.
Thanks for doing the research, I will be getting one of the testers for sure.
Regards
Haha, that'll be generous of you.DandyDon, just ordered one. Thank you! I will likely be ordering many more as Christmas Gifts this year for my dive buddies around the world!
Yeah, I tried to order one before I found this one, Scubatoys had them even cheaper, but - not available either source. I even had a phone chat with the guy who made them. He said he had one run, they didn't sell, and for him to make them today would cost him $150 each so we'd be looking at a higher cost at our end.While it doesn't have a digital readout, just go/no-go indicator, this product is much easier to use with scuba equipment and only uses a tiny wisp of air. Carbon Monoxide tester for scuba and firefighting
To see what the product actually looks like, go to the "order" link and click on one of the product names. It brings up a photo of all the models and the chemical capsule.