O2 Cleaning Tanks

[Angie Reim]

Tom the pat answer to go find a rebuild expert with credentials is all well and good and I'm not against it. However, my experience has been that if you find a good tech and/or a good cleaner stick with 'em. Unfortunately good ones tend to move around to more lucrative ventures and then I'm stuck for rebuilds and repairs. In addition, I have had several dives ruined by shoddy workmanship from technicians that were 'properly certified'. Thanks to God that I wasn't at the furthest reaches of a cave dive at the time or I might of not made it out so easily. Whether is was lights, valves or regs. Each rebuild from a 'new to me but certified tech' resulted in an equipment failure that I wound up re-fixing myself. The last tech managed to bend the barrel in my Apeks. I mean what the hell? Did he step on it? Then he puts it back together so 'it works' but eventually I figure out it's working on the hairy edge subject to freeflow. I said that enough was enough. I don't like doing my own O2 cleaning work but it became a matter of necessity.

You got a suggestion as to who to send tanks out to for O2 clean and guaranteed proper valve rebuild, etc. then by all means please provide such information. I need someone close by in Orlando. O2 cleaning a tank is a pain-in-the-butt especially in trying to avoid flash rust, removing all tasty residues and getting past that first moment of fill knowing that the buck stops with yourself.

This forum no longer moderates out positive endorsements. Just no flaming please.

[OneBrightGator]

I was trained by the US Navy on Oxygen cleanliness...

When?

A wonderful base of knowledge is great, but to come on here just to brag about how much more you know then anyone else doesn't do anyone any good.

[Cave Ranger]

Well,

I just had to jump in on this one...

None of you who purport to be experts have credentials...If you do please enlighten me...

I was trained by the US Navy on Oxygen cleanliness and reactor plant cleanliness which by far exceeds any O2 clean that you know anything about.

When it comes to OXYGEN CLEAN most of you do not have a clue...Have you ever heard of the CGA? That is the Compressed Gas Association, and they are GOD when it comes to any compressed gas. They are the experts in the field of O2 cleanliness in the civilian world. Have you ever heard of CGA G4.1? If you haven't you have no business telling anyone how to O2 clean a fork.

OK pony up, tell me how you learned to O2 clean.

By the way, Ivory, Simple Green, Dawn and any other thing on the shelf at the local 7-11 or Wal-Mart is not on the CGA list of approved O2 cleaners. If you want to know what is on that list I suggest going the the CGA website and buying the list. It only costs about $75.00, and it is not a very long list either...

All of you O2 Cleaners, have a nice day...

We're not worthy!! We're not worthy!!
Since U.S. Navy facilities aren't available to us lowly types I guess we all do as best we can but If I ever dive with a reactor plant strapped to my back I'll look you up.
Again. Thanks to everyone for the "positive" feedback. Geeez!!!

P.S. I ditto what Angie, Stairman, and Onebrightgator said. It's easy to be a critic. Be a part of the solution. Hell, ain't nobody on earth all that and a bag of chips.

[DR2K]

Buy "Cleaning Equipment For Oxygen Service" (CGA G-4.1--2004, 5th Edition, I believe), from the Compressed Gas Association. It is expensive but if you believe in quality control during your O2 cleaning equipment process, it pays for itself.

Safe diving.

[mfascuba]

When I started cleaning valves & regs it was using simple green and vinegar, diluted, and literally bringing the stuff to a boil on the stove. My wife hated me for it, and the house stunk to hell.

Next generation was to use a cheap ultrasonic cleaner, again with vinegar and simple green. Rinse like hell when done (dunk in water just off the stove) and air dry.

I did a bit of searching, found a cleaner that was sold for the purpose of oxygen cleaning stuff (blue gold), and bought a "proper" ultrasonic cleaner (Crest, with heat). The blue gold requires the solution to be heated for it to work properly. Stuff is put into the drink, spends a half hour or so, comes out looking better than new.

My "drying area" has always been a clean towel with a new paper towel on top. The paper towels are more lint free than the cloth towel, but the cloth will wick away any excess moisture from below. The paper towels are obviously discarded after one use.

Reassembly is with christolube or other oxygen compatible grease. Note that it needs to say "oxygen compatible" on the label. All of the types I've run across are white. I had a guy tell me that silicone grease was oxygen compatible, and he didn't want to hear otherwise - I thanked him for his suggestion and left quickly.

Bottom line, use what you know is right (solutions , procedures and equipment), keep it as clean as humanly possible, and keep looking for a better way. Also, use common sense. If someone says it's OK but everyone else says you'll incinerate yourself, stop and think about what you're doing for a minute. Remember, it's your life on the line, and an oxygen incident while filling can also take out a fill station operator. The stakes are high. As Angie said (I'll paraphrase), do you trust the certified but unknowing guy at your LDS to do this, or do you trust yourself? When a valve has a rapid disassembly and takes part of your hand off or an unexpected tank depressurization kills / maims the fill station operator, the sticker from the shop that says it's OK doesn't mean much.


Mark

[skip]

I was trained by a PSI trainer (LDS) and a "certified" tank inspector and fill station operator. I know that "certification" does not mean "qualification," but I like to think that I know what I'm doing and I don't bend or break things then just proceed as if nothing happened. If I won't dive it, it does not leave the shop; if it's not better than new, it does not leave the shop.

I was taught to clean valves using diluted CLR in a Heated Ultrasonic cleaner (not a jewelry cleaner). Rinse with water and blow dry the parts using ultra-clean compressed air. viton o-rings and christolube. Tanks get wet-tumbled in a solution of diluted simple green - I've used both ceramic chips and glass beads for this. The tumble time is short, 30 minutes if the tanks are "clean" to start. Then rinse well, collecting samples of the rinse water in a clean glass jar. Shake the jar. If you see foam/bubbles, then keep rinsing until your sample can be shook up and no foam/bubbles appear. Then add the compound o rust inhibitor, tumble again for about five minutes, then rinse briefly, a 5-sec blast of rinse water (this is from the gmc website on O2 cleaning). Dry the tank.

Now do the visual inspection, which includes observing with white light and with ultraviolet (carbon glows with uv).

We do partial pressure fills up to 100% O2 and have never had an explosion, fire, or any other fill problems/disasters/accidents. We don't fill tanks we have not O2 cleaned and have often cleaned customers valves and/or tanks for free (those with a valid O2 sticker from someone/somewhere unknown to us), just to be sure. I do most of the gas blending, and would rather spend the extra time cleaning than to blow myself to Alabama!

The shop is not typical, I know. No one who works there gets paid (from the tank monkey to instructors to owner) and everyone is a tad anal-retentive. As the man with the bucks invested likes to tell people, "It's a hobby gone awry!"

If those of you with more training/better training or just better knowledge see anything amiss in our procedure, please let me know in this forum or by pm. It's always better to know than not and I'll be the first to change as soon as I'm aware of something better or safer. So, come on Capt' Tom, let us in on some of that Navy know-how (and by the way, how was Bonaire?).

-skip

[bletso]

The valves didn't stay with the tanks during hydro. I removed them and put into ziploc bags kept at my house so as not to get them contaminated so I don't think they need to be recleaned. I replace all of the Viton O-rings in the valves and manifolds every time the tanks are vizzed or maintenanced in any way. Once a year minimum. In light of this would you still re O2 clean the valves and the replace burst discs?

It doesn't matter. Its the high pressure that eats even the viton O-ring in the valves. CLEAN THE VALVES AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR. The residue left behind (from the o-ring and O2 grease on it) mixes with dirt in the air and when the system is pressurized it is pumped and mixed about. A good ignition point. Yeh its a pain, but better safe than sorry. Refer to the pic I linked to in my previous post.

Dale

[aainslie]

Well,

I just had to jump in on this one...

None of you who purport to be experts have credentials...

.....

I was trained by the US Navy on Oxygen cleanliness and reactor plant cleanliness which by far exceeds any O2 clean that you know anything about.

......

All of you O2 Cleaners, have a nice day...

Passive aggressive, AND omniscient. The God of my nightmares...

Several of us have O2 cleaning certs from NAUI, IANTD or other agencies. You probably don't "believe" in those certs. Fine. But what arrant nonsense to say we don't have "credentials".

Are you an active boat captain? If so which boat? I'd like to make sure I avoid it...

Another suggestion - how about offering something constructive here?

Just to get the point clear... this is a very simple idea. Clean things so there is nothing left on them that could cause substantial ignition risk. With Simple Green, Ivory or Blue Gold plus some elbow grease, you will be left with a tank where the highest ignition risk will probably be the valve seat in the tank.

However since killjoy has added his bit here perhaps we should add the caveat that doing an O2 cleaning class (or one that contains O2 cleaning) is probably a good idea. You could take one from a tech agency - or go take a low paying job with the navy for 10 years. Take your pick.

[Cave Ranger]

Well,

I just had to jump in on this one...

None of you who purport to be experts have credentials...

.....

I was trained by the US Navy on Oxygen cleanliness and reactor plant cleanliness which by far exceeds any O2 clean that you know anything about.

......

All of you O2 Cleaners, have a nice day...

Passive aggressive, AND omniscient. The God of my nightmares...

Several of us have O2 cleaning certs from NAUI, IANTD or other agencies. You probably don't "believe" in those certs. Fine. But what arrant nonsense to say we don't have "credentials".

Are you an active boat captain? If so which boat? I'd like to make sure I avoid it...

Another suggestion - how about offering something constructive here?

Just to get the point clear... this is a very simple idea. Clean things so there is nothing left on them that could cause substantial ignition risk. With Simple Green, Ivory or Blue Gold plus some elbow grease, you will be left with a tank where the highest ignition risk will probably be the valve seat in the tank.

However since killjoy has added his bit here perhaps we should add the caveat that doing an O2 cleaning class (or one that contains O2 cleaning) is probably a good idea. You could take one from a tech agency - or go take a low paying job with the navy for 10 years. Take your pick.

Okay everybody. Just take it easy. I think we all know the deal. Most of us have been around long enough to know that there are some pretty huge egos in our chosen sport and as much fun as it is to stick a pin into someone's pompous balloon I see no sense turning this into a flame war.
All I did was ask a question for gosh sakes and I got a lot of answers. Most of which were very informative and gave me a whole new list of things to think about and implement into my maintenance routine.

Heh, Heh, Heh! "Killjoy" That's a pretty good one

[BobK]

I did a bit of searching, found a cleaner that was sold for the purpose of oxygen cleaning stuff (blue gold), and bought a "proper" ultrasonic cleaner (Crest, with heat). The blue gold requires the solution to be heated for it to work properly. Stuff is put into the drink, spends a half hour or so, comes out looking better than new.

My "drying area" has always been a clean towel with a new paper towel on top. The paper towels are more lint free than the cloth towel, but the cloth will wick away any excess moisture from below. The paper towels are obviously discarded after one use.

Reassembly is with christolube or other oxygen compatible grease. Note that it needs to say "oxygen compatible" on the label. All of the types I've run across are white.
....
Mark

That's how I do it also. I use Blue/Gold to O2 clean my tanks also, but I rinse it completely out so I still have to dry the tank with nitrogen to be sure it doesn't flash rust.