Complacency or Confidence?: Follow Up

[atedeschi]

I would just like to follow up with some comments on the recent post Complacency or Confidence?

I have got fills in Cave Country from what was suppose to be 32% and instead did not get 32 but 34, 35, and 31. Not a huge deal if diving Peacock, LR or Ginnie but if I went home with that fill then went and did some ocean diving it could be.

Also heard a story that a group was doing some kind of tec instructor program and they left there O2 bottles to get filled. Well one of the divers was a Rebreather diver and was used to checking all tanks, even 100% bottles. When he did the mix was 10/something, forget what the helium was but that would have been 5 dead divers with that screw up.

So unless you mixing your own tanks, and even then you should always analyze your gas.

[Jim Wyatt]

So unless you mixing your own tanks, and even then you should always analyze your gas.

Yes, even if you are mixing your own..analyze it. Blenders are human and humans make mistakes.

A couple of weeks ago I was swapping bottles around in my compressor room at home and filled my O2 bottle with air using O2 as a drive gas.

A few years ago a check valve failed on my gas panel & air backfilled to an O2 bottle.

In both instances the gas analysis showed me there was a mistake.

Always analyze your fills. No exceptions.

[Rich]

I would just like to follow up with some comments on the recent post Complacency or Confidence?

I have got fills in Cave Country from what was suppose to be 32% and instead did not get 32 but 34, 35, and 31. Not a huge deal if diving Peacock, LR or Ginnie but if I went home with that fill then went and did some ocean diving it could be.

Also heard a story that a group was doing some kind of tec instructor program and they left there O2 bottles to get filled. Well one of the divers was a Rebreather diver and was used to checking all tanks, even 100% bottles. When he did the mix was 10/something, forget what the helium was but that would have been 5 dead divers with that screw up.

So unless you mixing your own tanks, and even then you should always analyze your gas.

And I'd like to add if you dive nitrox, you should OWN your own analyzer, the ones that are at your LDS get used all the time, dropped in the fill trough, recalibrated by brain dead people and I sure as heck wouldn't want to rely on them. The same applies for trimix.....

Come on folks, this should be a no-brainer to analyze your own gas, I work at a dive shop and I ALWAYS ANALYZE MY GAS (using MY analyzer)! For some more of my thoughts on the subject, check this out

http://caveandtechnicaltraining.com/Article2.htm

Safe diving,

Rich

[Line Squirrel]

Come on folks, this should be a no-brainer to analyze your own gas, I work at a dive shop and I ALWAYS ANALYZE MY GAS (using MY analyzer)! Safe diving,

Rich

Ditto Rich,

I have people seeing me analyze my "air" fills and ask why do you analyze air? Because I want 21% and not ??? that's why. AND I'M THE ONE THAT DID THE FILL!

Analyze EVERYTHING. You and you alone are responsible for checking what you are breathing... period. But you already knew this.

[FW]

A couple of weeks ago I was swapping bottles around in my compressor room at home and filled my O2 bottle with air using O2 as a drive gas.

Ooooh, that was an expensive error! Good thing you always analyze...

[Serota]

Ditto Rich,


Analyze EVERYTHING. You and you alone are responsible for checking what you are breathing... period. But you already knew this.

There are lots of variables in cave diving that we can't control, but this is one that we can and it is very important that we do! For example, within the last year, I got what was supposted to be a 100% O2 fill that was actually 60%.

Another area of complacency I have observed is in the area of gas planning for dissimilar size cylinders among team members.

[Sludge]

My nitrox instructor, who is even more obsessive/compulsive than I am, taught that each fill is analyzed three times - once when you fill it, once when you pack for the trip (this is when you label it), and once at the dive site.

I made a dive at Hart last year with Lamar, and we were in a hurry to gear up. Still, I broke out the analyzer. As Lamar watched me analyze my cylinders, which were labeled, I simply said, "If Jamie ever heard that I made a dive without analyzing just before I went into the water, he'd kick my head." Lamar just smiled and shook his head.

[Scubastud16]

I don't see why people DON'T analyze their tanks. It takes a few seconds, and it's saved my life more than once.

[RN]

I analyze all my tanks, even the ones I see being filled directly from the T bottle. Who's to say the distributor didn't screw up before delivering the bottle? BTW, do shops analyze their O2 T bottles before filling customers' tanks?

[Kaneo]

i compress the nitrox and fill my own tanks and I still analyze them before I dive!