SCUBA Tank Questions

[Lone Gunman]

I am thinking about buying a SCUBA tank from eBay. What should I look for when buying a tank? Is there anything that I should look out for? Thanks a lot!

Edit: The tank I'll looking at has a hydro date of 4/99 and a 9/02 vip date. How would I have until I have to get it rehydroed and visually inspected? How much does hydro testing and vip testing cost? Thanks again

[Reo5th]

They may look cheap on ebay, but often after getting it hydrotested, a visual inspection, and paying for shipping, it can get pretty expensive. I had a friend who was visiting the Cape pick mine up for me new for 110 bucks. I must say, scuba's are a great thing to have around.

[paintball8869]

just keep in mind it is roughly $40 to ship one of these via normal mail. That's how much it was for mine, thank god i got mine for $140 shipped with a fill adapter (tank was brand new too).

[Severe]

I've been looking in to getting a scuba tank also. Great thing about being Scuba certified is it will be dual purpose.

I currently use a Crossfire 68/4500. How many fills could I expect to get out of an Alum80 or 120?

Thanks for any info!

Steve

[boggerman]

VIP has to be done yearly, hydro is every three on most tanks. Try to find a seller who won't bend you over on shipping, I bought my tank on ebay and only paid about $15 for shipping. Hydro, visual inspection and a new o-ring on the valve came to $26. I am into my tank for about $80 total. Of course you still have to get a fill adapter.

[acecl22]

i have a few scuba tanks but i dont have the fill adapter, i was wondering how hard or dangerous it is to fill your own hpa tank

[TheTramp]

Originally posted by acecl22
i have a few scuba tanks but i dont have the fill adapter, i was wondering how hard or dangerous it is to fill your own hpa tank

It's very easy and if you make sure to pay attention to what you are doing and not mess around, it's totaly safe.

Get youself a fill adaptor for $40-$50 and you'll be in business.

A 80ci 3000psi SCUBA tank should give fills over 2000psi for two people all day. At around $6 per SCUBA tank fill, this is a pretty good deal.

[blembiggity]

just to let u know that your tank will only fill to 3000. i used to run a 2 tank set up, one for fill and the other for top off. if u use one tank the whole time your fill level will decrease alot. it is good to have two tank but one will do for a day. if two of u are filling i would recomend two but thats just me

[Evil Bob]

Filling from a scuba tank is much safer then filling from CO2 due to the differences in the gases themselves.

With HPA you're working with a gas that doesn't change its state, it's always a gas that is measured in PSI, something that can be easily read from a gage.

With CO2, you're working with a gas that can be in one of three states that can change quickly from one to another. You fill when it is in a liquid state, but even with the best of scales, you're not sure precisely how much you put in as the states change quickly. You could have some solid CO2 in there that will throw off your measurements and leave you with an over pressured fill.

Scuba is definitely the way to go.

-Evil Bob

[Mapanggulo]

Originally posted by blembiggity
just to let u know that your tank will only fill to 3000. i used to run a 2 tank set up, one for fill and the other for top off. if u use one tank the whole time your fill level will decrease alot. it is good to have two tank but one will do for a day. if two of u are filling i would recomend two but thats just me

Everyone at our field that has a HPA setu usually sits there tanks in one spot...and we do the same thing...fill from one, top off from the other...until we don't have any more tanks to use...the field doesnt have HPA fills, but what do you expect from a Military run field. Buy new tanks is what I'd do...unless you get a screamin deal like me. Two 6month old tanks for $200 with two fill stations, sold the other station to someone else for $ 50...

[thecavemankevin]

http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2100&highlight=Can+the+person+that+posted+all+the+info+about+scuba+post+again