How much to budget for fills for Trimix classes?

[Greenwood_60]

Once you have the cert, the cost of the gas is probably only going to be a small percentage of the cost of any given trip as well, so if you can't afford the mix, you probably can't afford the overall cost of technical diving.

For whom? I can make a 2 day trip, 200 miles to cave country, fuel, 2 nights camping, food, site admission, gas, etc. all for about $300 for two people if we dive air, or about $400 if we dive nitrox. Based on your estimates, it would be over $600 to dive mix. Not including much consideration of extra deco gas, number of dives (do people make repetitive 200' dives in a day?).

[NorthWoodsDiver]

I'm putting together a budget for deep training (Trimix). I'm not all that familiar with costs of fills and amount of gas I'll need other than it will be "two legs and a kidney" expensive. Anyone have recent experience on how much their training cost, just for fills? (and how many dives on Trimix that entailed)

Not sure if it helps, but I've taken AN/DP, so this will be Extended Range and Trimix through TDI. My eventual goals are to dive some of the deeper caves in north florida, when I get north of my Abe Davis in about 15 cave dives.

I'd be super happy if I could guess the total cost for fills for my classes to the nearest $50 or so.

2 LP104 cave filled =282 cuft of gas. Banked 21/35 at our shop is $.35/cuft or $.34/cuft w/ our VIP sticker. 282*.35 =$98.70 + 7% sales tax (6.91) = $105.61+/-

That's from empty.

AL80 Stage (empty) filled w/ 21/35 to 3200psi is 82.98cuft= $29.5+ Tax
AL80 Stage/Travel/Deco (from empty) with 32% =$8.29+ tax
AL40 Deco w/ 100% O2 at 3000psi $.3/cuft = $12+ tax

So your first dive, assuming everything was empty (wort case scenario) = $148.49+ Tax ($10.40)

I would say $160 for your first dive. Everything after that is top off. If you top with air you add almost nothing to the cost and split that price between 2 dives or more.

my guess is $250 would take care of all your gases for the class.

[DA Aquamaster]

For whom? I can make a 2 day trip, 200 miles to cave country, fuel, 2 nights camping, food, site admission, gas, etc. all for about $300 for two people if we dive air, or about $400 if we dive nitrox. Based on your estimates, it would be over $600 to dive mix. Not including much consideration of extra deco gas, number of dives (do people make repetitive 200' dives in a day?).

I have zero sympathy for local zip code and local zip code(ish) divers.

None, nada, zip.


With what you save on travel too/from cave country, suck it up and pay the mix bill.

[DA Aquamaster]

Do you need to take extended range before taking the trimix course. Seems silly to do 160 on air and then jump to trimix?

No. AN/DP is good enough as a pre-req.

In the TDI series, Normoxic trimix is just Extended Range with about 5 power point slides and 2 mix dives added to the course. Extended Range just needs to be eliminated.

[Greenwood_60]

I have zero sympathy for local zip code and local zip code(ish) divers.

None, nada, zip.


With what you save on travel too/from cave country, suck it up and pay the mix bill.

Forgot to check the OP's location?

[DA Aquamaster]

No. It's not relevant to your example of use diving in cave country.

The OP is taking a course. Once the course fees and incidentals are included, the mix is still not going to be a major portion of the overall cost. But the lack of sympathy still applies as even if he pays more than planned for mix, it's still a lot cheaper for him to complete the course without 2500 miles of travel to get to/from the dive site.

[Greenwood_60]

No. It's not relevant to your example.

The OP is taking a course. Once the course fees and incidentals are included, the mix is still not going to be a major portion of the overall cost.

Your example is just diving in cave country.

OK, Mitt... are we talking about "Once you have the cert" or not?

For those of us within a weekend trip distance of cave country, mix is a major portion of the overall cost of POST CERT DEEP DIVING.

[DA Aquamaster]

OK, Mitt... are we talking about "Once you have the cert" or not?

For those of us within a weekend trip distance of cave country, mix is a major portion of the overall cost of POST CERT DEEP DIVING.

In the past when I'd be in court 2-3 days a week, I always noted that when the defense attorneys did not have a case, they would resort to character attacks to try to reduce my credibility as a witness. It never actually worked, but it was the only argument they had...

We are talking about both as again it does not make a difference. As an example, I live 10 hours or so from cave country and am on the hook for gas, lodging and meals in and on the way to/from cave country.

That makes the cost of mix a low percentage of the total trip and per dive costs.

And once again, for the apparently slow people in the class, I have no sympathy for local zip code divers - with the reduced per dive costs that stem from local zip code diving they can afford to pony up the bucks for mix, or go big buy storage tanks, and a compressor and continuous blend their own. It's not rocket science.

[Greenwood_60]

In the past when I'd be in court 2-3 days a week, I always noted that when the defense attorneys did not have a case, they would resort to character attacks to try to reduce my credibility as a witness. It never actually worked, but it was the only argument they had...

We are talking about both as again it does not make a difference. As an example, I live 10 hours or so from cave country and am on the hook for gas, lodging and meals in and on the way to/from cave country.

That makes the cost of mix a low percentage of the total trip and per dive costs.

And once again, for the apparently slow people in the class, I have no sympathy for local zip code divers - with the reduced per dive costs that stem from local zip code diving they can afford to pony up the bucks for mix, or go big buy storage tanks, and a compressor and continuous blend their own. It's not rocket science.

Lighten up Larry. My original reply was quoting your comment about the cost "Once you have the cert...". Which is complete BS, as it entirely depends on how much it costs to get to cave country (regardless of how much sympathy you have for us).

"We" are not talking about both, you are.

[syntaxerrorsix]

For steel 95's with 18/45 and 2 x 40cuft of 50% and 100% (boosted up to full from 1/2) ran me $129 in South Florida.