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What about using these as doubles for drysuit divers? Does this do some or all of the things that steels do? And use standard alum for a stage .... H. Preston Hobbie Phone and FAX: 317-891-8072 -----Original Message----- From: Lee Bell [mailto:leebell@ix*.ne*.co*] Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 11:56 AM To: LouisianaLegal@ao*.co*; techdiver@aquanaut.com Subject: Re: neutral AL 80's Susan wrote: > Does anyone have any experiences or comments on the Luxfer "neutral" 80 cubic > foot AL tanks? Luxfer is not on my list of favorite companies. Their handling of bad alloy tanks they previously made and the cost of the Visual Plus device they developed to address their problem at my expense left a very bad taste in my mouth. I own only one Luxfer (not a neutral buoyant tank) but have 6 Catalina Compact 80 tanks which are also neutral (and have been around longer than Luxfer's offering). I like three things about my Compact 80s: 1. They are just a bit shorter than a standard 80. At my height (5'8") the slight difference in height means I can carry them with straight arms versus the bent arm required for standard 80s. The Luxfers are not shorter. 2. The neutral buoyancy when empty means I take 4 lbs off my weight belt without adding anything anywhere else. This is the primary reason most people like the tanks and particularly important to me. That 4 lbs just happens to make me perfectly weighted with my stainless plate. I don't have to wear any lead, anywhere when diving warm water, which is what I do almost exclusively. 3. The trim on the Catalinas is good. They're nicely balanced from top to bottom. I believe the Luxfers are a bit bottom heavy, but don't take my word for it. |> I was wondering if these would make good stage bottles and/or double tank > sets for the ocean. Does anyone know what the working pressure is on these > cylinders? I'm not sure these tanks are the best choice for everyone. If you dive wet, I don't think they are any better than some steel tanks. Presumably, your tanks will never be comletely empty and, therefore, will always be at least partly negative. When you twin them up and,. even worse, add stages, you're accepting a lot of non ditchable negative buoyancy. If you are scootering, they're not going to tow as nicely as the less negative standartd 80s do. For most, I don't think it's a real good idea. While I recommend people diving single tanks at least try out the neutral buoyant models, I think buoyant tanks would be a better choice for mutli tank diving, particularly for open water stages. They represent less negative buoyancy and, in a pinch, could actually be a source of positive buoyancy. While it's not a primary issue, it's also nice to know that if I ever had to ditch one, I don't necessarily have to lose it. Open the valve and drop the tank and, sooner or later, it will return to the surface on its own. If you do this, however, please recover your tank from the surface. I'm not at all fond of the idea of hitting a floating tank with my boat. Lee -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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