VIP sticker/ID #'s

[Beau640]

TDI may have changed it. All their website links take me to this page eventually if I follow them to sign up:

VIP Inspector | SDI | TDI | ERDI

which states it expires in 3 years. Although it seems cheap.

 

[tbone1004]

Visual Inspection Procedures Course | SDI | TDI | ERDI

that was the one I saw and no mention of the 3 year expiration. There is obviously no guarantee that this will get your cylinder filled though, so I'd call the shops you plan on using and ask if they accept TDI VIP stickers. I have heard of shops refusing PSI-PCI vip stickers as well and would only fill tanks with their VIP stickers on there. I can almost get that if they're PP blending bottles, but not for air/banked nitrox

 

[Rred]

Look at it this way. Here in the Colonies, the US DOT writes the rules about pressure vessels that are or may be transported across state lines. So there's this "DOT blah blah" number stamped in your tanks, right? And the DOT sets the rules for the hydro test that your tank gets every fifth year, right?

The DOT's official hydro test procedure, echoed by the CGA (Compressed Gas Association) dictates that the first step in every hydro test is a VISUAL INSPECTION OF THE TANK. That's right, if your tank was hydro'd, it was not hydro'd until after a VIP was done. So legally, a freshly hydro'd tank does NOT need a totally redundant VIP by your local SCUBA shop. The shop will tell you that hydro guys don't know how to do a VIP on a SCUBA tank, they're not competent to do it. Ergh...but you'd trust their hydro competency?

FUD. The industry is full of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. They create it so they can sell what you don't need, like a $40 "VIP Plus" on a freshly hydro'd tank.

I know some SCUBA shops that refuse to accept a VIP done by some hydro shops, because even though the hydro shop is DOT licensed...they undercut the SCUBA shops by dealing directly with the public. Oooh, isn't that terribly dangerous?

So each shop makes their own decision, can they look up an inspector number? Is the sticker from a shop they know? Does it look home made?

Yeah, a real VIP *is* a real matter of safety. But what we have here, is FUD. FUD and profit.

 

[RonMurray]

As a VIP inspector I would refuse to "certify" a tank with my credentials (or sticker). I do not feel that I am authorized to "condemn" a tank in the same way a "hydo" inspector would.

 

[2airishuman]

Thanks for all the information. Learning a lot from this.

If I want to VIP my own tanks, and lets pretend I've been trained to do it properly by some dive shop (pretend I previously worked for one or something but no longer do), would taking a course like the PSI-PCI VIP course allow me the greatest chance of a dive shop filling my cylinder if I self VIP'd? I'm worried that if I don't have a sticker with a specific dive shop logo on my tanks because I VIP'd them myself, it might raise some eyebrows or turn me away when I bring it in (no access to non LDS compressor. Shops around here always look for VIP sticker).

Getting fills is largely about relationships and trust. This goes both ways. They're trusting your cylinders, and you're trusting their air.

I get all my air at one place, which is part of the reason I have so many cylinders, because I've seen how that shop handles fills and I know how they deal with compressor maintenance and I know they test regularly. And they have a Rix. I'm planning to do my own VIPs starting this year. I don't anticipate that they will have any problem with that. They know me. They know I do my own reg maintenance, they know I dive a good deal. Few people around here have taken the PSI (or any other) class, and those who have don't usually get the renewals. That is true for dive shop personnel as well.

 

[boulderjohn]

I will also agree that PSI/PCI is pretty well excepted all over, and on a very few occasions have I ever had my personal shop VIP stickers questioned.

If I want to VIP my own tanks, and lets pretend I've been trained to do it properly by some dive shop (pretend I previously worked for one or something but no longer do), would taking a course like the PSI-PCI VIP course allow me the greatest chance of a dive shop filling my cylinder if I self VIP'd? I'm worried that if I don't have a sticker with a specific dive shop logo on my tanks because I VIP'd them myself, it might raise some eyebrows or turn me away when I bring it in (no access to non LDS compressor. Shops around here always look for VIP sticker).

I VIP my own tanks, and I am a PSI/PCI certified inspector. I do put my number on my stickers. PSI-PCI will tell you in their classes that they are the biggest and most recognized inspector certification agency in the world, and you would be a fool to go anywhere else. I had an interesting experience with this recently.

I go to South Florida for a couple months every year, and this year I decided to get my tanks filled in a new (to me) location--it is actually one of the most well-established dive shops in the region, but I had never used them for fills before. I bought a fill card giving me a discount on a number of purchases. The tanks I use for singles diving were due for a VIp, so I did the inspection, slapped on a PSI-PCI sticker, and put my number on it. When I took it in for the fill, the employee looked at it, clearly puzzled. He knew all the local inspection stickers, and he had never seen one like it. He had no idea what the number was for. It took him a minute to figure out how the date punches work. "Who inspected this?" he asked. I told him I had just done the inspection that morning, so it was pretty valid. He was confused. A customer doing his own VIP? I told him I was a certified inspector, and he eventually went ahead and filled it.

Two days later I went in to have the tanks filled again. There was a different employee this time. I went through almost the same thing again. Eventually they got to know me, but I was very surprised that a very busy and very established dive shop with clearly knowledgeable, experienced, diving employees would be so thrown by a customer-supplied PSI-PCI sticker.

 

[Beau640]

Makes a lot more sense. I guess at least with PSI-PCI you have an actual inspector # so there's some way to verify your training if somewhere starts to push you on it. Do any of the other places that "train/certify" you to do VIP give you a #? Or are you just slapping on random VIP stickers you buy online and telling them you're trained to do it?

 

[boulderjohn]

Or are you just slapping on random VIP stickers you buy online and telling them you're trained to do it?

We have had threads on this topic in the past. Yes, you can buy random stickers and slap them on your tanks. Yes, apparently lots of people do it.

 

[Boyette]

We have had threads on this topic in the past. Yes, you can buy random stickers and slap them on your tanks. Yes, apparently lots of people do it.

LOL. Lots of shops do it also. I bought an Aluminum 80 last year at a shop out of town while I was traveling. The price was great, and I needed a tank, so.

Anyway, I decided to buy it and I asked the kid if it came with a VIP. Usually when I've bought tanks in the past they shop VIPS it and gives you a free fill just because they're selling a tank. The kid was obviously there by himself and says, "uh...uh...Yeah it comes with a VIP." So after I pay he takes it in the back and I can see thru the door into the shop. Basically he grabs a VIP sticker off the shelf and slapped it on. That was his "VIP".

 

[Pavao]

@2airishuman With proper fill procedures there isn't much use in the VIP at all

I hardly doubt the amounts of salt water I've found in tanks comes from improper filling