What Color Tank Should I Buy?
- Thread starter Ez E
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OP
Hopefully these 2 tanks breed. It would save a lot of money!!!!
ScubaBunga
Contributor
OMyMyOHellYes
Contributor
Them little tank bastards cost you even more money thassfersure.,
It really depends on what you prefer. A colored tank can help with visibility underwater and give it a cool, personalized look. Some divers like bright colors like blue, red, or yellow for easy spotting, while others go for a more classic or neutral look. Just make sure the tank is durable and meets your needs, whether that’s for visibility or just for looks.
Skip the painted ones. Anodized only if you want colors, I personally just went with plain aluminum bc I’m not gonna be hanging out admiring my tanks.
Why I say no paint is: When you get your tanks inspected, the tech has to remove any bubbled paint or stickers to check for damage underneath. They charge you for every individual patch they have to remove.
A naked or anodized aluminum or stainless doesn’t have that issue
CT-Rich
Contributor
My tanks are unpainted, except for my initials, which I stenciled on the side. My kid's AL tanks are black and metallic blue, which makes telling them apart much easier when reaching for a them when one is empty. The paint is pretty beat up at this point.
Yellow is a good color choice on the surface... of course you are floating face down... but, body recovery is helpful in providing closure.
Yellow is a good color choice on the surface... of course you are floating face down... but, body recovery is helpful in providing closure.
Belzelbub
Contributor
I would agree for the most part. One caveat is there is a big difference between the types of paint used. I have mostly HDG steels, but I still have two AL80s in the garage. These were both purchased painted. Bought the first one in 1997 or 1998, and the second a few years later.
The oldest was a blue Catalina, and the other was a black Luxfer. I say were, because both are now stripped. The Catalina needed to be stripped as there were a lot of paint chips, light scratches, etc. The Luxfer was actually still in good shape. I probably could have left it as it was, but decided to strip both.
The stripping process showed a huge difference in the paint used. I used Citristrip gel. Brushed on, and then waited. Instructions said to wait 30 minutes and check. After 10-15 minutes, the Catalina was showing significant bubbling. The Luxfer was not. I waited the 30 minutes, and then got a plastic scraper to see how it worked. Catalina came off cleanly, with a couple small spots needing a separate application. After that, it was 100% stripped to bare AL. Luxfer required A LOT more work. Citristrip kind of softened it after leaving on for a couple hours. It took several applications and finishing with a pressure washer to get all the paint off.
I do have all my tanks marked with an identifier. Mainly to differentiate them from all the others at the dive shop. I picked up a stencil of Cthulhu's head and I sprayed the back of each tank with this identifier. Easily stripped and reapplied as necessary.
OP
I got brushed aluminum. Its purdy!!
OMyMyOHellYes
Contributor
If I were to buy new bottles (which I've only got maybe a half dozen that were bought new), I would only get the bare ones. Probably not even brushed, just plain extruded. And never likely shot-peened.
The painted ones over time will look like caca del toro with scratches, abrasions, chips, the inevitable scraping near any imperfection during VIP look-over, and removal of all stickers. (I know there are some extremely lazy (and IMNSHO) out and out BAD inspectors that do not remove stickers. That right there immediately disqualifies them from doing a competent visual inspection and serves to eliminate ANY credibility when the say sh!t like "Kain't use 20 year old tanks! My safety as a fill operator comes first!" - note - if it did, you'd actually bother to find out what's safe and what's not, mudder plucker. [I can agree that safety should come first, but establish it using science, not myth and superstition] Sorry, sore point with me and a somewhat local shop. Well, a few local shops. Please share with me your formal tank inspection training: agency doing the training, standards to which they taught, and recurrent training/periodic re-certification).
Old, bare aluminum cleans up/polishes up quite nicely if you get wrapped up in aesthetics (which I tend to do).
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