02 Tank Explodes

[JamesK]

Amazing story. Some folks just have a courage that others can not even understand.

[scuba_shark_fart]

An absolutely incredible story. Proof one can truely do anything he or she puts their minds up to!

[sandy]

Great article - thanks for the post Tony.

[RGU]

The problem is the SCUBA valve. On smaller cylinders the handle sticks out beyound the side of the cylinder. No CGA valve does this. CGA bottles have the handle on top. No SCUBA cylinder is designed to use 100% oxygen. As I write this I have an aluminum 40 and a steel 45 full of oxygen about 30 feet away in the basement. I always keep them on their side and never stand them up.

[TracyN]

That was an inspiring article. God bless him and his family.

[Greenwood_60]

The problem is the SCUBA valve. On smaller cylinders the handle sticks out beyound the side of the cylinder. No CGA valve does this. CGA bottles have the handle on top.

That was my conclusion as well. There are FAR more medical o2 tanks in service, including a huge number in homes with people who have no formal training in handling o2. The tanks are essentially no different, but the valves are. There was one incident with a medical o2 tank where the valve failed closed, so the tech decided to back the valve out a bit with a wrench. BOOM. A possibly contributing factor is hand tightened scuba valves. Basically impossible with medical cylinders, but easy to do (and common) with scuba tanks. Of course this is all an issue because of how little heat is required to ignite aluminum.

My conclusion was to use a steel o2 cylinder. If I were going to use an aluminum tank I would use a short handled valve, torque it properly with a wrench, and ensure the threads on the tank and valve were flawless and spotless.

[TONY CHANEY]

I work in the medical field and another point to take in consideration is O2 cylinders are never pressurized above 2400 psi which I believe is the limit by the CGA.

[Greenwood_60]

I work in the medical field and another point to take in consideration is O2 cylinders are never pressurized above 2400 psi which I believe is the limit by the CGA.

The tank in Luraville blew while needing a fill.

[gasdiver]

The tank in Luraville blew while needing a fill.

It blew while being filled.

[TONY CHANEY]

Very true that one of them was being fill. We do not know about the one in NC. I was thinking of the stress of the metal over years and years of over filling them.