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[Pacific-Explorers]

I'll do my quick: "You Americans whine too much" post now.

Where I live, we pay US$1.00 per cubic foot.... for oxygen.
We pay US$2.40 a cubic foot.... for balloon grade helium.
We can special order UHP helium, and they will quote a price.

We'd kill to pay US helium prices.

OMG man...
Don't want to get off track with the post but...seen the reference to Balloon Gas and before anyone gets any funny ideas cause prices are going up...
Don’t think about using that balloon grade crap for tri-mix .... they interchange the same cylinders with nitrogen fills at the plant depending on demand, and to make things worse they do not purge the cylinders before they fill them. As the cost of Helium is so expensive they PURPOSLY have Nitrogen in balloon gas cylinders. I've seen balloon grade so poor it didnt floated balloons (high nitrogen content). And it goes without saying there are no cert sheets with the cylinder. So...depending on the mix... you just may end up Narc'd out of your brains with balloon gas.... lol, might as well just put argon in your tank and mix up a good old tank of "argox" and get messed up on the tailgate of your truck :cool2:

As for O2, truth be told... medical and industrial are filled off the same bank. The only difference (other than price and missing cert sheets) is the med 02 is just drained and the cylinders are internally inspected more often. Whereas the industrial 02 may have rust, general crap, maybe some mould in the tank as some welder may have left the empty bottle open outside prior to going back to the plant. They however are not interchanged for use with other gases and 95% of the time would test just as well as Medical or Aviation grade for purity and mosture content. (its the 5% thats the scary part)

(and I'm not pulling anyone’s leg here... in a past life I was manager of BOC Gases for many years... and had to endure the wrath of a pissed of parent returning a bottle of ballon gas that wouldnt float balloons for there 5 yr olds b-day party... I had a chat with the fill plant...)

P.S. One more tidbit of info that I'm sure will make everyones day... in my past life the cost of the product in a "T" size O2 cylinder was $8.50 (and that was about 8 yrs ago)

 

[Sas]

The article just goes to show how much we are being raped by the gas suppliers. They are getting it .075 cents per cubic foot from the government. My cost is about .42 cents per cubic foot. Talk about a profit.

Oh boo hoo

Think about those who don't live in the US It's 7c per litre here though I won't be doing trimix until next year... giving me plenty of time to save

 

[Pacific-Explorers]

With the cost constantly going up, using every last oz. out of the helium tank is kinda important... that "squeezomatic" may be getting built here soon as a real booster pump is way too pricey...Trans-fill system?

 

[rjack321]

With the cost constantly going up, using every last oz. out of the helium tank is kinda important... that "squeezomatic" may be getting built here soon as a real booster pump is way too pricey...Trans-fill system?

Hey that's my argon booster! Still works great I had to replace the seals a few years ago. I lube them with silicon but they still don't like running "dry" since its really meant to have hydraulic oil in there.

I don't use it for He, you'd need ALOT of pretty high pressure drive gas to make it work and that would take alot of compressor time & filters. Better is to just continuous mix via a stick on the compressor. My oil lubed compressor is fine running 100% He through it, although I try to keep that at moderate pressures. Or up to 18/45 up to higher pressures like 3500psi. I try to avoid CBing 15/55 after Aainslee blew up his Alkins CBing that at >4000psi.

 

[PfcAJ]

OMG man...
Don't want to get off track with the post but...seen the reference to Balloon Gas and before anyone gets any funny ideas cause prices are going up...
Don’t think about using that balloon grade crap for tri-mix .... they interchange the same cylinders with nitrogen fills at the plant depending on demand, and to make things worse they do not purge the cylinders before they fill them. As the cost of Helium is so expensive they PURPOSLY have Nitrogen in balloon gas cylinders. I've seen balloon grade so poor it didnt floated balloons (high nitrogen content). And it goes without saying there are no cert sheets with the cylinder. So...depending on the mix... you just may end up Narc'd out of your brains with balloon gas.... lol, might as well just put argon in your tank and mix up a good old tank of "argox" and get messed up on the tailgate of your truck :cool2:

As for O2, truth be told... medical and industrial are filled off the same bank. The only difference (other than price and missing cert sheets) is the med 02 is just drained and the cylinders are internally inspected more often. Whereas the industrial 02 may have rust, general crap, maybe some mould in the tank as some welder may have left the empty bottle open outside prior to going back to the plant. They however are not interchanged for use with other gases and 95% of the time would test just as well as Medical or Aviation grade for purity and mosture content. (its the 5% thats the scary part)

(and I'm not pulling anyone’s leg here... in a past life I was manager of BOC Gases for many years... and had to endure the wrath of a pissed of parent returning a bottle of ballon gas that wouldnt float balloons for there 5 yr olds b-day party... I had a chat with the fill plant...)

P.S. One more tidbit of info that I'm sure will make everyones day... in my past life the cost of the product in a "T" size O2 cylinder was $8.50 (and that was about 8 yrs ago)

"Balloon Grade" isn't really a defined "Grade" of gas, from what I've seen.

I think it depends HIGHLY on the supplier and their practices, and a blanket statement like that isn't really accurate.

FWIW, I've dived balloon grade before, and the Helium and Oxygen analysis was spot on (filled the same way as any other grade of helium). That kind of invalidates your statement.

If you're going to lose a lower "Grade" of gas, you better know whats in it.

 

[Pacific-Explorers]

Hey that's my argon booster! Still works great I had to replace the seals a few years ago. I lube them with silicon but they still don't like running "dry" since its really meant to have hydraulic oil in there.

I don't use it for He, you'd need ALOT of pretty high pressure drive gas to make it work and that would take alot of compressor time & filters. Better is to just continuous mix via a stick on the compressor. My oil lubed compressor is fine running 100% He through it, although I try to keep that at moderate pressures. Or up to 18/45 up to higher pressures like 3500psi. I try to avoid CBing 15/55 after Aainslee blew up his Alkins CBing that at >4000psi.

Ya would take a PILE of drive gas, need a shop with a cascade system to make it feasible. BUT, Brilliant idea! basic hydraulics 101!

 

[rjack321]

Ya would take a PILE of drive gas, need a shop with a cascade system to make it feasible. BUT, Brilliant idea! basic hydraulics 101!

Be cheaper to breathe that drive gas and continuous blend the He into it.

 

[Pacific-Explorers]

"Balloon Grade" isn't really a defined "Grade" of gas, from what I've seen.

I think it depends HIGHLY on the supplier and their practices, and a blanket statement like that isn't really accurate.

FWIW, I've dived balloon grade before, and the Helium and Oxygen analysis was spot on (filled the same way as any other grade of helium). That kind of invalidates your statement.

If you're going to lose a lower "Grade" of gas, you better know whats in it.

Just sayin... I was the supplier and what i wrote above is industry standard (and probably have more knowledge on the subject. p.s. there really is only 2 suppliers or mfg's of He in North America).
But feel free to use Balloon GRADE He or industrial O2! And when your not feelin so well, we can have a discussion on partial preasure and contaminants in your breathing gas

 

[PfcAJ]

I'm sure you do have more knowledge. What supplier did you work for?

 

[Pacific-Explorers]

British Oxygen Corp (BOC).