16 Year CF Tank

Bogview,

I had some questions on carbon fiber tanks and the life span and failure rates, if you check the thread that I started titled Carbon fiber tank failure it covers a lot of info about the tanks and their lifespan.

Jim

Look at a company called Digital Wave. They have regulatory permission to re certify carbon fiber tanks. They did 40,000 for the Navy. Very low failure rate.

Bogview, I remember the price of $375 on the digital wave web site for re-certs but when I bought an extended life tank from Pyramyd Air, the paperwork I received with my tank showed that the cost for recertification is the cost of a current hydro, plus shipping. I don't know if that's because Digital Wave is partnered with Pyramyd or what's going on but the price seems to be a bit confusing. You should probably look into it to make sure of pricing.

One other thing, Digital Wave has a buy back program for carbon tanks that have an expired life span. I think they will pay something like $300 and up for each tank that needs re-certification. After they buy them, I'm sure they just recertify them and re-sell with a little mark up. Everyone's happy. I don't remember any of the numbers exactly so don't quote me but I did look everything over a bit when I bought my tank from Pyramyd Air a while back. If they would buy your tank for recertification and re-sale, you could use the $300+ towards the cost of a new tank. That would be a big help towards a new carbon tank. Like I said though, I haven't been on the Digital Wave website in a while so you need to verify what I think I remember. lol

I hope I remember things correctly and you can sell them your tank for $300+ or get yours recertified for the cost of a Hydro. In any case, it's worth looking into.

Stoti

The web site is a bit misleading. They will buy back your tanks but it doesn’t list a price. What they list is the price to sell you old tanks that have been recertified. For a standard 45 minute 66 cu ft tank it’s like $350. Plus you need to supply your own valve. I’d say the money you get selling them your used expired tanks is under $50. 

Has anyone actually found the cost to recertifiy a tank bought from PA at the 5 year point with MAE testing? The DW web site lists $300, but that’s for the initial recertification and the PA tanks would be going in for a re-recertification. “Cost of a hydro” means what? $30 here in San Diego. 

It’s up to you. It’s just me, and I don’t recommend this to anyone, but if it were in good shape and I knew it’s history, you have your own compressor, and it passed multiple hydros, I would use it. 

But if that Drager is not too expensive I’d buy that one since it has 6 more years service, and hydros are cheap. Should be about maybe $150 to $175?

The way I’m reading it is when you buy a LE tank, and you come up on a 5year rehydro, one has to ship it back to digital wave to have that hydro test done. I don’t know how much the shipping and insurance is going to cost to do that but it will add up. Maybe Pyramid Air should post on here and clear up some of these questions.