What to do with pony tank when not in use?

[eth727]

I was wondering if I was doing the correct thing when I've rinsed off my pony after a dive. I rinse it off with the valve off and remove the 1st stage. I've never used it and it's full of air. Should I take it to a pool and use the old air and refill it with new air? What do you guys think?

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Assuming the air was "good" when the pony was filled, the air wont go "bad" any time soon. It should be visually inspected annually however.

What I do recommend is that you practice deploying and breathing from your pony regularly.... maybe on the safety stop of the last dive of the day? This will make using it in a REAL emergency 2nd nature, allows you to test the regulator on the pony, adjust how you have it mounted and rigged, etc.

When I sling my AL30, I breath from it every dive, usually near the start of the dive, then re-stow the regulator and hose and continue with the dive.

Best wishes.

 

[eth727]

Oh yeah almost forgot 1 year VIP in 6 mths. Using it from the beginning of the dive is a good idea to make sure it works and at the end so you get more bottom time. I dive a steel 120 and have a AL30 pony so total combined is 150! How about if I dive 32 nitrox on my reg tank use that up and use regular air from the pony for safety stop?

 

[spectrum]

I was wondering if I was doing the correct thing when I've rinsed off my pony after a dive. I rinse it off with the valve off and remove the 1st stage. I've never used it and it's full of air. Should I take it to a pool and use the old air and refill it with new air? What do you guys think?

Periodically I'd plan to breathe it down in drilling with it. It's good to run air through the regulatior and be confident in the regulators behavior. I deploy mine every time it goes out. When it shows a little depletion I top it off with a transfill hose. If nothing else run it down prior to VIP.

 

[halocline]

I dive a steel 120 and have a AL30 pony so total combined is 150! How about if I dive 32 nitrox on my reg tank use that up and use regular air from the pony for safety stop?

If you're using a nitrox computer you should breathe nitrox throughout the dive. This would be especially true if you're using an entire 120 on a dive, which (for me at least) would probably be a dive pushing NDL, even with EAN32.

Taking a breath off your pony to make sure it works is one thing, using air during your entire safety stop on a nitrox dive is another.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

One thing I recommend is periodically, doing a full ascent from one of your deeper dives with s/s using your pony so you know (rather than guesstimate) your personal air requirements for a safe ascent. This will use up a good chunk of your gas and many dive shops will top you off for free. (The warnings about mixing eanx/air on a eanx computer are still valid)

 

[knowone]

I was wondering if I was doing the correct thing when I've rinsed off my pony after a dive. I rinse it off with the valve off and remove the 1st stage. I've never used it and it's full of air. Should I take it to a pool and use the old air and refill it with new air? What do you guys think?

How do you blow out your second and wake up your first.