Scuba tank shenanigans

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SlimChance

Member
Dec 31, 2018
88
3
Georgia, United States
I started my quest for a used tank on Craigslist. Old tanks well out of Hydro were $150, or the seller wanted to sell all of his 20 year old equipment as a lot. Ebay wasn't much better. Out of Hydro and $40 shipping charges. Today, I drove to a dive shop just north of Atlanta. No used tanks, but I was offered ten fills free with a new tank purchase. I brought home a new tank and now I just need to wait on my fill adapter to come in.

I know a new tank is expensive, but I have a known quality item. If I had a buddy into PCP airguns close, a co-op arrangement might work.
 
I have an aluminum tank. I never use it, as its maximum recommended PSI is about 3000 psi.
For my CF tank, 4500 PSI is the max recommended. This works much better for me, as I often fill my guns to 250 bar. This is about 3626 PSI.

The dive shop I used -- until I got my own compressor -- could never approach that level of pressure -- i.e. 4500.
 
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Had no idea these used scuba tanks go for so much... Just today I took 4 of my (out of hydro for 15 years) good shape alum tanks, 1catalina 3 lux, to the hydro shop. They gave me $90 for 3 tanks and they are hydro'ing my 4th tank for me included. I get back the hydro'd Catalina 2moro and they're cleaning the valve too.

The Hydro guy said he could fill my scuba tank to 3300+psi resting in a cool state after I told him what I was doing with it. He said its plenty safe that they test them to much much higher... Was thinking about getting a steel 3422psi, but 3300+ on my 80 alum is fine with me. He said he'd refill for $5 whenever I needed it...

I haven't dove in many years and will probably never again so won't miss the tanks. Got to sell my other dive stuff, got a ton of high end stuff...
 
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Had no idea these tanks go for so much... Just today I took 4 of my (out of hydro for 15 years) good shape alum tanks, 1catalina 3 lux, to the hydro shop. They gave me $90 for 3 tanks and they are hydro'ing my 4th tank for me included. I get back the hydro'd Catalina 2moro and they're cleaning the valve too.

The Hydro guy said he could fill my scuba tank to 3300+psi resting in a cool state after I told him what I was doing with it. He said its plenty safe that they test them to much much higher... Was thinking about getting a steel 3422psi, but 3300+ on my 80 alum is fine with me. He said he'd refill for $5 whenever I needed it...

I haven't dove in many years and will probably never again so won't miss the tanks. Got to sell my other dive stuff, got a ton of high end stuff...
Click to expand...

~~~~~~~~~

If it works for charging airguns, fine.

I stand corrected.
 
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Had no idea these tanks go for so much... Just today I took 4 of my (out of hydro for 15 years) good shape alum tanks, 1catalina 3 lux, to the hydro shop. They gave me $90 for 3 tanks and they are hydro'ing my 4th tank for me included. I get back the hydro'd Catalina 2moro and they're cleaning the valve too.

The Hydro guy said he could fill my scuba tank to 3300+psi resting in a cool state after I told him what I was doing with it. He said its plenty safe that they test them to much much higher... Was thinking about getting a steel 3422psi, but 3300+ on my 80 alum is fine with me. He said he'd refill for $5 whenever I needed it...

I haven't dove in many years and will probably never again so won't miss the tanks. Got to sell my other dive stuff, got a ton of high end stuff...
Click to expand...

~~~~~~~~~

If it works for charging airguns, fine.

I stand corrected.
Click to expand...


No, not saying you're wrong at all. A 4500psi 80 tank would fill my Mrod to 3000psi hundreds? of times and its much lighter to lug around. Its a better option especially for the high end pcp gun that use 250bar 3600psi. But for me, my already owned scuba tank will probably keep me filled for months of air.... When I dug it out of the garage last summer it had about 3100psi after 15 years. I filled my gun 2-3 dozen times with it and it still had 2800 psi in it when I brought it to the hydro shop 2day...
 
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Mine is filled at 3300. I am in Rome, in NW Georgia. The dive shop was The Dive Shop in Marietta.
Click to expand...

Sweet. My yard for my company is off 285 and exit 12. I'm living in Cleveland ga right now so that's perfect for me. Can drop a tank off on the way out for the week and grab it when I come back. If they can fill to 4500 I'm golden.


 
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I just went through almost two months of scba tank craziness..
Every day, I was scouring Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Classifieds on here.. The plan was to find a used carbon fiber tank, and the bigger the better.
After calling around to every 'local' dive shop, they all wanted to recommend having any new to me tank re-hydro-tested.. Then they'd fill it..
But... None of them test. They send the tanks out to whoever tests, then they ship them back.. Umm.. Nope.. Way too much of a headache.

I ended up scoring a 9L or "90 cubic ft" tank [which is actually an 88 cf tank] on eBay
Then getting the needed regulator from a different seller on there, 
Then used Amazon for the smaller parts - male to male fitting - to hook the compressor to the tank, and an extra hose..
All said n' done, I was into the entire setup for right around $500 and change.. Brand New Everything.

I already have a Yong Heng compressor, so, I put it to the test..

Going with 10 and 15 minute run times, and cool down stops ranging from 15-20 minutes, 
all added up, it took 80 minutes of run time to fill my 88 cubic foot carbon fiber tank from Zero psi to 4,700 psi.
After the cool down, the tank psi drops back down to about 4500.

*Stoked*

Sam -
 
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Using scuba tanks can be a real savings over scba, but their certified pressure is less. My compressor is rated for 250 bar. My gun is rated for 250 bar, I charge my two aluminum 12 liter scuba tanks to 235 bar and in turn charge my gun from them. My gun regulator is set for 130 bar. I still get 70 odd shots without refilling the gun. Using a slightly lower pressure than rated is not an inconvenience. I recharge my tanks when they reach 190 bar. My tanks never see lower pressure than 190 bar, so tank flexing is a non issue. My Bauer 80 liter per minute compressor recharges my 12 liter aluminum tanks from 190 bar to 235 bar in 6 minutes. Yes, the CF scba tanks are lighter, but they are not as big. My 12 liter scuba tank will support 8 hours of shooting at the range without issue.
 
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Dive shops are experts at diving equipment sales but are the worst place to go for advice about fill equipment for PCP users. I feel bad for newbies who are trying to save money and don't realize that scuba tanks not only have less capacity because they're only rated to 3300 psi, but that they are a PITA to lug around. A 9 liter SCBA tank holds 5 times the fills of an aluminum tank and weighs 11 pounds vs.35 pounds or more for a dive tank. The 9 liter SCBA tank is also less than half the size of a dive tank.

Thank goodness the PCP industry has grown to the point that 4500 psi compressors for the individual user have become commonplace. I live in Charlotte, NC which is a fairly large city. When I depended on dive shops for fills it was nearly impossible to find a shop that could provide full 4500 psi fills or treated me like they wanted my business. In addition to the convenience and time savings I get filling my own tank, I don't have to deal with condescending dive shop employees who didn't want non diver business.

Guys using aluminum dive tanks eventually learn their mistake and appreciate the capacity and convenience of carbon fiber 4500 psi tanks even more. Buy once, cry once.
 
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