Which of the 18L tanks (130, 104) to get...

[elan]

I'm looking at progressing to Tech 1 withing a year or so... so I want to replace my HP100 with 7.5 tank factor doubles. Those would include LP 104, 108, 112 or HP130

Currently I'm looking at these 3 - Worthington HP130 , PST 104 or PST HP130 (e8-130) , I took OMS/Fabers 108 off the list as people say they are too tail light

So far I'm leaning towards e8-130 as it's not as short as x8-130 and not as heavy as LP104.

I'm 6' tall so a longer tank is better for me, although all of them I think is long enough.

I can currently trim very well AL80 with the steel plate and 11lb V-weight placed more close to the head. Getting overfills on LP104s is possible to 3000psi at the place where I fill them up.

Your advices , considerations are very welcome...

I want to replace the HP100 for the reasons other than gas volume, mostly that would be:
- tank factor cannot be divided by 2.5 (the stage tank factor) so gas management is more difficult (the team, I mostly dive with, tends all to have 2.5, 5.0 or 7.5 tanks),
- trim - they are too short for me,
- and then as they are short they always tend to trap the bottom of the wing under them when I put the tanks on the bench or on the car trunk

Thanks a lot

 

[rjack321]

As long as you are skipping the Faber 180s it doesn't matter much. You are splitting hairs over the minute differences which really don't have much bearing on how they dive.

Tank factor for all of these tanks is actually rounded to 8 (scuba math) and the tanks need not be divisible by 2.5 for stage gas management. Not to mention stage use is beyond tech1.

These tanks will kick your butt unnecessarily and wear out your body on exits and boat ladders. I would keep the hp100s and change to a different wing to help with trim and avoid the pinching.

 

[elan]

rjack321 thanks a lot, I'm not worrying about the boats as I still have 3 other sets AL80, LP72 and OMS LP85 for my other diving. 130 will only be used for the tech dives which will not be that many

For the tank factor, I know it is not required but seems to be very convenient sometimes, the team here seems to treat the back gas amount in number of stages. So a set of AL80 is 2 stages a set of 130 is 3 stages as they give roughly the same volume at 3000psi as 3 Al80 tanks. so a guy with Al80 doubles and a stage would have the same amount of gas as double hp130 a guy with AL80 dubs and 2 stages - would have the same as HP dubs + stage. seems to simplify the gas management a bit.

 

[Jimmer]

Hey Elan,

my double 130's are tentatively sold, just awaiting to arrange pickup and payment. If something falls through I will let you know.

 

[elan]

Thanks Jimmer!

 

[elan]

Decided to go with Worthingtons LP108, sold my HP100s and realized that I have no more HPs in the fleet

 

[Jimmer]

Funny with the sale of my 130's, I have no more hp's either. What price did you get the 108's for?