Use your CO analyzers

[gopbroek]

I was able to tour one of the two main fillers / blenders last week in Cozumel, I went with a shop owner to pick up a couple bottles and not as part of a tour. They were using bottles of, what looked to me as medical grade O2 (it wasn’t marked as ABO), and they had a very impressive and technology advanced instrumentation and control board at the Nitrox section of the facility, I have been BS’d before but they seemed to be very proud, open and up-front about the facility and their capabilities, plus I breathed their gas all last week. Cozumel is one of the most heavily dived areas in the world; these guys knew what they were doing with Nitrox and Tri-Mix. If they didn’t you could get a lot of really good deals on semi used scuba equipment at the local ‘estate’ sales.
I also found out the Blue Angel and other medium to large outfits can do their own Nitrox fills, with the newer technology separation / compressor systems. If you have concerns please check your equipment over several vendors’ gas mixes, to verify the meters accuracy, and if only one shop or 3^rd party filler/blender is showing the high CO, please share that information, before anyone gets hurt. I cannot imagine any filler on the Island that would not want to know of a potential problem, so that it could be corrected immediately.

 

[DandyDon]

I was told by someone working the desk at the ProDive shop that they do their own Nitrox, too, yes. I have no reason to believe that is not true, but I didn't personally confirm it by asking to look at their station...

Ok, maybe so - thanks, and maybe others do as well? A little off topic maybe.

Bottom line: You can test the tanks or dive on faith. If you don't want to own a CO analyzers, rent one for your trip from Carbon Monoxide Tester | Carbon Monoxide Analyzer Rental

 

[Angry Turtle]

Who filled them?

Meridiano 87

We did speak with our operator in the afternoon, and he said that he discussed the issue with Meridiano and they said they do have inline analox CO monitors.

 

[ktomlinson]

I was able to tour one of the two main fillers / blenders last week in Cozumel, I went with a shop owner to pick up a couple bottles and not as part of a tour. They were using bottles of, what looked to me as medical grade O2 (it wasn’t marked as ABO), and they had a very impressive and technology advanced instrumentation and control board at the Nitrox section of the facility, I have been BS’d before but they seemed to be very proud, open and up-front about the facility and their capabilities, plus I breathed their gas all last week. Cozumel is one of the most heavily dived areas in the world; these guys knew what they were doing with Nitrox and Tri-Mix. If they didn’t you could get a lot of really good deals on semi used scuba equipment at the local ‘estate’ sales.
I also found out the Blue Angel and other medium to large outfits can do their own Nitrox fills, with the newer technology separation / compressor systems. If you have concerns please check your equipment over several vendors’ gas mixes, to verify the meters accuracy, and if only one shop or 3^rd party filler/blender is showing the high CO, please share that information, before anyone gets hurt. I cannot imagine any filler on the Island that would not want to know of a potential problem, so that it could be corrected immediately.

The explanation we received was that the tanks must have been contaminated by the gas leaking out and boat exhaust getting in...(cough)...the dive op told us that after speaking with the fill station. The op was very supportive and apologetic for the situation, and I don't think that they could have handled it any better than they did. I was at first surprised by the high CO reading and did wonder if my analyzer was malfunctioning. To verify that the analyzer was working properly we tested more tanks and got a few with 0ppm, then came back to the tanks that were reading as contaminated and they read the same each time. We did this multiple times analyzing clean tanks in between and received consistent results. When we came back to the dock to pick up replacement tanks Angry Turtle was able to find 3 replacement tanks that were acceptable, but not before analyzing many tanks (I didn't count, but estimate 8 or more and want to be very accurate with any information I give).

 

[jfcl01]

Thanks to Angry Turtle and ktomlinson for posting about this

 

[theduckguru]

I find it amazing that bad air is routinely reported in Coz and yet people keep going back for more.

 

[Mossman]

Fail, false, caca talk...

The sky is falling Dandy Don, make sure you're not under it!

 

[DandyDon]

Meridiano 87

We did speak with our operator in the afternoon, and he said that he discussed the issue with Meridiano and they said they do have inline analox CO monitors.

Which they seem to ignore?! Did he have any explanation as to why CO was getting thru? I am not educated on how to set those up, how to maintain them, how to adjust settings, etc. If I owned a compressor, I'd have them, and I'd learn - confident that Patti and Analox would be very helpful. Their compressors should not produce any CO without auto cut-off, but just guessing - their alarms may not go off until 10 ppm? Maybe the operator was away when it happened, or maybe he knew but didn't think it'd be enough to be noticed?

IIRC, they add pure, bottled O2 to a tank first, then add O2 clean air to it next from the compressor or bank of tanks - so the air part had to be even higher.

The explanation we received was that the tanks must have been contaminated by the gas leaking out and boat exhaust getting in...(cough)...the dive op told us that after speaking with the fill station. The op was very supportive and apologetic for the situation, and I don't think that they could have handled it any better than they did. I was at first surprised by the high CO reading and did wonder if my analyzer was malfunctioning. To verify that the analyzer was working properly we tested more tanks and got a few with 0ppm, then came back to the tanks that were reading as contaminated and they read the same each time. We did this multiple times analyzing clean tanks in between and received consistent results. When we came back to the dock to pick up replacement tanks Angry Turtle was able to find 3 replacement tanks that were acceptable, but not before analyzing many tanks (I didn't count, but estimate 8 or more and want to be very accurate with any information I give).

Boat exhaust getting in - the tanks?! :laughing: Thanks for sharing, but that's comical. The dive Op was stuck in the middle of the issue of course.

I find it amazing that bad air is routinely reported in Coz and yet people keep going back for more.

I bet it happens as often or more in most dive locations. If you're going to dive, you just have to test the tanks, all of them - even tho it gets boring if you get clean tanks all week. The tainted tanks look & smell the same so you never know when you will get a reading. Do you have a CO analyzer and test tanks where you travel?

 

[ggunn]

Yes, it was confirmed as a CO death.

Can you cite a source for that information?

 

[Brules]

The fact that any dive op does their own fills means little to nothing in reality......their system could be just as compromised as anyone elses or their employees could be just as lax as anyone elses.......

I'm not saying they in fact are, but the chances of getting a bad tank are inherint with anyone. So test away if you have the ability and dive with ops who test and double check every day.