Puffer Fish:
Thank you sandersondiver.
The two issues here are:
1. The dive shops are ripping us off (they are all so rich, it is just greed)
2. Is a visual inspection really needed?
The first is silly, as dive shops are going out of business left and right.
The second would be on no value, if every tank was filled at the same place, with known quality air. It is the vary nature of diving that they travel around and get filled by all sorts of places.
And it only takes one "mistake" to kill someone.
The fact that you can buy your own compressor and fill the tank with whatever you want, means that one should inspect tanks..
The fact that the dive shops are going out of business is even more reason they would want to get $20 per customer's tank per year. Plus if they fail it, a certain percentage will buy a new one right there. The reason they are going out of business is because most of them are stubborn and refuse to change their business model in light of their more educated customers (this thread is a perfect example of information being passed along via internet that wasn't available back in the heyday of dive shops), but that's another thread/argument all together.
As for number two, all I can do is just repeat my argument over again. The CGA (who is the leading authority in the world on everything compressed gas, including storage, and is recognized by the laws of the United States and many other countries as such) says that 5 years is fine. Just because the SCUBA industry says it should be one year doesn't mean it NEEDS to be one year!
The only rebuttal to the CGA's recommendation that I've had is "it's life support equipment" and therefore needs to be inspected more often. That's just simply an emotional based response and is not based on any research or evaluation of real risks... things the CGA do as a professional organization. Again, I ask... how many of you have your brake lines in your car torn apart and inspected for cracks every year? How many of you have your airbag systems evaluated ever year?
To put the whole thing into perspective, let's look at a snapshot of how absolutely paranoid the diving community is regarding cylinders. We'll do this using the whole 6351 alloy issue because it has been scientifically studied for years and the true dangers of it are well understood.
REAL SITUATION: Some cylinders made with the AL-6351 alloy exhibit sustained load cracking in the neck area. These cylinders were made prior to 1990 by various manufacturers. As far as SCUBA goes I believe the majority of them were made by Luxfer which stopped using 6351 in June 1988. CGA says that these cracks take many years to develop, and
"the 3-year periodic qualification period for composite and 5 year qualification period for all metal 6351 aluminum alloy cylinders provides ample opportunity to discover neck cracks before they lead to leaks." (Compressed Gas Association Pamphlet C 6.1, pg. 16, 2002) It then notes that the SCUBA industry has chosen to inspect all cylinders yearly regardless of material, manufacturer, or production date. Then it says that these inspection intervals are not required.
DIVE INDUSTRY'S PARANOID INTERPRETATION OF REAL SITUATION: Oh my god, we're all going to die if we fill a cylinder older than 15 years old! I don't care about you or your cylinder, or the fact that my job is to put air in cylinders in the first place. Nor do I care that we visually inspect cylinders FIVE TIMES AS OFTEN AS WE NEED TO. I'm going with my emotions and refuse everything because I want to come home to my wife and kids, even if there is absolutely no evidence to support my viewpoint or fears. I had to argue with one guy to get him to fill a Catalina cylinder (which never even used 6351 at any time), that was hydroed and visualed a month prior to this! And it wasn't even 15 years old. It just "looked like it was 15 years old."
