buddy fill tank

[Mr303]

Interesting thread.
When I was a Scott SCBA tech I had to have our department bottles recertified (about 300) yearly simply because of their duty cycle.
As an individual you can get a hydro test done on personally owned bottles. I did it for a C02 bottle for beer brewing and it cost almost as much as a new bottle, but it was good for 5 yrs. A scuba shop might be willing to fill if you can show a current hydro.
I’ve seen videos of CF propane tanks for vehicle fuel being shot with a 30-06 and they leak through the exposed wrap without shrapnel or explosion.

 

[Sawney Bean]

Interesting thread.
When I was a Scott SCBA tech I had to have our department bottles recertified (about 300) yearly simply because of their duty cycle.
As an individual you can get a hydro test done on personally owned bottles. I did it for a C02 bottle for beer brewing and it cost almost as much as a new bottle, but it was good for 5 yrs. A scuba shop might be willing to fill if you can show a current hydro.
I’ve seen videos of CF propane tanks for vehicle fuel being shot with a 30-06 and they leak through the exposed wrap without shrapnel or explosion.

I've had CF tanks hydroed before as well as visually checked by dive shops. For the hydro you drop it off at the dive shop and they send it out to the hydro test facility but they usually do the viz check in house. I never had a problem with either one. The only problem I used to have was getting good fills. Dive shops don't usually fill scuba tanks much higher than 3500 psi, so when you show up with a 4500 psi tank you'll be lucky to get 4000.

 

[Mr303]

My dive shop can get tanks to 4100-4500.
The bottle needs to cool down after the initial fill to get the higher fill pressure.
I’ll leave my bottle and come back after they get the higher pressure .