Scuba Tech Tips: Servicing A Scuba Tank - S03E04

I divers Alec Pierce again from scuba mm tech tips there we go with some more ideas that might make your diving a little more fun a little bit easier or at least if nothing else so give you something to think about teach you something I hope some of these tech tips are useful to you if they're not useful I don't watch but if you get some ideas other than I'm a happy man okay today we want to talk about tanks scuba tanks it is and you know people think the tanks are the most important part of a scuba system and I guess a pretty vital because of the air in them nor other parts that's debatable but certainly the scuba tank is an awfully important part of scuba diving it is what in fact gives you the air supply there we can skipper that so I guess they're pretty important okay we agree on that however scuba tanks are also sometimes a source of problems it can be a source of problems that they're not properly taken care of many divers so they don't even own their own tanks if you're a diver the travel south mainly dives not does not dive locally here in this case with me in Ontario if you don't dive locally then perhaps you don't need to own a tank if you travel south of course you don't take tanks when you travel when you fly anyway if you're diving locally you can rent tax is very inexpensive do anything you're meditating for $15 a day if you own a tank your truck's you $10 to fill it so you really only rent in the tank for $5 at NU and you applied all this concern about the tanks themselves however that decide let's take a look today at tankers and sometimes a little confusion a little bit of mystery about scuba tanks there's nothing mysterious so it's a aluminum bottle steel or aluminum bottle container if you like and with a threads in the top you put a valve in it and you can put your regular on the bail and we put air in to enter these models into these tanks compressed air and then you use it up when you're diving very very simple concept let's take a look at the tank yourself this is a pretty standard in fact this is the standard tank today what's commonly called the 80 cubic foot aluminum tank it's been the standard now since about the mid 80s and and it pretty much is what you will find everywhere in the world now when you're renter buy and this is most likely what you'll see 80 cubic foot aluminum tank couple ninety factors only one or two in North America only a three or four around the world because there's an obviously quite a process to make an aluminum tank like this that I don't need is safe to use but meets all the government standards and everything else so they're not too many companies that make them it's a big investment this particular tank was made by Catalina one of the largest manufacturers of scuba tanks in the world and let's take a look at it just see what's involved in maintaining the tanks you buy a brand spanking new tank off you go lots of their scuba diving what do you have to do to keep the tank in good condition well let's take a look at that there are two tests that have to be performed on a tank on a regular basis the one test is called the visual inspection now the visual inspection is is is unique to scuba other high pressure cylinders oxygen cylinders for medical purposes or or acetylene cylinders or propane tanks they do not need to have a visual examination as unique to scuba as unique to scuba because scuba is a marine sport meaning it takes place near water and often the salt water which is very very hard on anything and is he hard on metal as well and the other reason sorry about this but scuba divers are not noted generally many of you may be but they're not noted for being really fastidious really careful with your equipment so because these tanks are used in a marine environment and they're used by sports people who may or may not take care of them there has developed over many many years this this industry protocol of having a visual inspection every year a visual inspection of something that every 12 months you need to do the visual inspection is really a simple process you take it to a professional it does have to be a licensed professional or certified professional visual inspector and quite frankly what he does is a complete visual inspection of your tank inside and out to be sure that it is not suffered any abuse that there's no corrosion that the threads and everything about that tank are seek to use and if they are you get a sticker and on your goal if there are not you may be able to correct any problems that otherwise a tank tank could be scrapped so what's involved into visual examination well it's pretty very simple first of all the instructor will take the air of the tank open the valve and all their detach and then next he would take their valve where the tank valve look just like this and this is a pretty standard is used on any high-pressure type of device any high pressure cylinder with a couple of exceptions the scuba valve has what's called a dip tube there's a little extension on there the dip tube is on there very simple reason scuba sellers by their very nature are user they're mobile they're carrying around on a batch and as possible for scuba cylinder to be in this position which means that there was any rust or corrosion or a moisture or anything inside the tank that is not supposed to be there is not good that would all run down and run right through the hole and come out through the opening and into your regulator not good so scuba cylinder valves have a dip tube so any material runs down and cannot get into the hole the hole is at the end of the dip tube very simple idea not a good idea as well but this is generally what a valve looks like on a modern scuba cylinder this particular valve we call a converter valve because it's rather interesting you see it has a standard o-ring with the opening for the air but if you are using a didn't regulator and we can talk about that some other time at dim regular which does not use a standard scuba yo you can take a center out of this valve and it turns into it didn't or threaded if you like valve now add in regulator which has threads on it well now thread in and seal it doesn't have a yoke to clamp around the back so this particular valve convertible but we use your scuba mm all of our tanks is handy that way not a lot of people use den valves in North America but some do and this valve allows both divers both styles of regulars to be used with this tank okay small thing about valves now the valve comes up the inspector during the inspection actually inspects the valve as well make sure that it's working properly not leaking there are two o-rings on the valve the big oil ring that seals in the neck looks like this and a small hole ring that seals in the face this is one that seals the regulator looks like this those two o-rings are always replaced even if they're in good shape we don't even look at them we take them out and they are trashed actually they're kept until the customer sees them and then they're thrown in the trash and replaced these cost couple of bucks just isn't worth it early twelve months we just replace them okay so that's the first step in doing the visual examination of course the inspector has already looked at the tank to see that there's no abuse no dents no scratches the boot is actually taken off to look underneath the boot make sure there's nothing hidden the bottom everything then he inspects the threads up here it's possible that the threads the threads into which the vel is screwed can get damaged too so they're inspected very carefully older tanks in particular the threads are inspected very very carefully to be sure they're over a period of time under sustained pressure they have not corroded or caused problems there's a special device for that an optical device this little device goes down into the cylinder I turn the light on and it has highly magnified I can see right into each one of those threads all the way around all the way up I can check each and every thread for any signs of distress any signs of corrosion or damage may be sure the threads in the cylinder are in really good shape I've already checked the threads on the valve so that issue is gone so now the inspector will having done all of that you will now take a look inside how does he do that well first of all you need a light so there's a special light it's called a visual inspection light now if they set up all night thinking on that name anyway this goes down inside the tank you can see it's very very bright and allows you to go around the tank and throw shadows and what we're looking for what we're looking for to be perfectly frank is anything anything because there should be nothing in it there should be nice smooth clean aluminum not glossy like this but otherwise smooth and clean so we might find particles we might find that's a chrome we might find a little black particles if the compressor where you've been getting your air is not perfect we might find that white powder which would be an indication that there's been some salt water in there hold anything we find a minute we have to inspect it carefully clean it up make sure that it's perfect on the inside and that's a fairly simple process but it does require training to be sure that what you're looking for is what you think it is and and and and then how to clean it and treat it as well so the tank and then be given back to the customer perfectly clean and ready to use once all that's done and the inspector is satisfied that the tank is in good shape he puts the valve back into the proper torque and then he he fills the tank to his proper pressure and he puts a visual sticker it's just a sticker that goes on so every year you're the sticker like this in this case of cents Cuba mm it may not always do that it could say paddy it could say a PSI or the store name as in this case but the sticker will show you that has had a visual inspection and it'll show the date so this one was done in February of 2016 you see and it had a marked out visual inspection because there are other procedures that can always be done on a scuba tank so this tank had the visual inspection in February of 2016 Chris we're ready to go good tank every year we do that now the other test that has to be done on scuba tanks by the way I should mention that the visual examination is relatively inexpensive you're looking at probably twenty dollars a couple of o-rings in an airfield probably 2530 dollars you're in and out once a year and then you know your tank is safe to use the other test that has to be done every five years every fifth year is called the hydrostatic test it's a little more involved in fact in most cases the tank goes out many years ago lots of dive storage in how to study test write in house not so many anymore the regulations the training the equipment it's messy and wet just a whole procedure is not very nice to have in a dive shop and be perfectly honest there's not much money in either so most cylinders now go out to a professional hydro testing station that's all they do rape test tanks so they can make it profitable so this tank goes out and and the valve is taken out air is taken out of course then the valves taking out the booster gonna and the cylinder alone the bare cylinder goes to hydrostatic test station and a hundred static test station how you study test itself is very simple they are testing the metal to make sure that it still is good and specifically to make sure it still is elastic you may or may not know this but when you fill your scuba cylinder it gets bigger then when you breathe old air it actually gets smaller you could measure it if you wanted to if you put a steel tape around this and measure you can actually measure that change it gets bigger that's smaller bigger then smaller every time it gets bigger kind of like a balloon or a last event and then gets smaller it shrinks back down but not quite to its original size almost but not quite it's a little bit bigger than it was before I suppose have you filled it and emptied it and filled it enough you'd have a eighty one cubic foot tank no it doesn't see it doesn't stretch that much a little wee bit anyway by measuring the stretch and then how close it goes back to its original size the hydrostatic test inspector can tell whether or not this metal is still elastic still good if the metal you see becomes hard and crystallized well what will happen then is you expand it it will stay there or even worse it'll crack not very good so that's what big test is the elasticity of the metal it's all they do and once they've done that determine the cylinder is good then they stamp it with an actual stamp right in the metal a little bit different so if you take a look at this cylinder you can see that this cylinder was made in the six month of 2012 so in 2017 this will have to have a hydrostatic test okay and over here we can see the pressure I usually underline these vital pieces of information on a customer's tank so they're easy to spot this tank is quite new take a look at this time I have down here in the floor and you'll see what can happen this tank was made so back in 1993 and then it was tested you can see there's new stamp on here in 1990 and 9 and then it was stamped a game very recently we just did this for the customer this was stamped in 2015 you're saying so this is a stamp it's right in the middle that it can't be peeled off it's not a sticker like your visual sticker so after you have the the hydrostatic test it's and stamp you have a tank good for another 5 years you're also to go to your tankers hypostatic leak tested and safe to use your tag is invisibly inspected and safe to use let's go diving fill it up with air and away we go so those are the two tests that had to be done annually and then every five years the hydrostatic test I want to mention as I did with the visual the approximate cost you're looking at about about fifty dollars by the time you get out of the store because the hydrostatic test itself is twenty or twenty-five and then you still we still do the visual so that's another twenty and a couple of old rings and air fill and so on probably forty fifty dollars at least for your Hydra study cursory front of years it's actually pretty cheap make sure your techs in good shape there you go I hope that answers a few questions and maybe you can clears up some of the confusion very simple visual examination over here I start out your strategy test every five years go to your local dive store they'll explain all this to you and help you with your tank hope this has been interesting and I will see you again very soon Alec Pierce scuba mm tech tips see you soon

Channel: Alec Peirce Scuba

Views: 31,979

Rating: 4.9045553 out of 5

Keywords: scuba tech tip, tech tip, scuba tip, underwater, scuba, diving, local dive shop, water, scuba diving, your local dive shop, tanks, scuba tanks, visual inspection, hydrostatic, annual inspection, annual visual, steel tanks, aluminum tanks, catalina, 80 cu/ft, service a scuba tank, tank service, tank inspection, annual service, inspection light, alec peirce, alec peirce scuba, scuba 2000

Id: s5QIay4mtKQ

Length: 13min 37sec (817 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 01 2016