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I figured because I started this thread with all my questions about O2, ppO2 and cleaning I should speak up. First, thanks for all the info, it's very helpful. Naturally we've had great information exchanged, some very heat debates, and lots of bashing and flaming. I think one thing needs to be clarified. If your blending your own mixtures and have 100% control over your equipment then you're probably not going to follow the "US Standards" as one has called them, hope I don't get flamed like him. :-) Although many will disagree, most of the posts have held some value. I stated above that "if you have 100% control over your tanks". Some may flame me for stating this so I think I should elaborate. I for one consider myself a safe diver and I'm very cautious of my equipment and selection. I for one don't work at a dive shop or have any "real friends" who fill, those which I would 100% trust my life with. Since I don't have my own compressor, I'm at the mercy of the dive shop to fill my tanks. I only fill them at reputable stations with current certificates. Please don't flame me that certificates are BS. Maybe they are but it's better than blindly trusting someone. For the past year I only get my tanks filled at a shop which does all kinds of custom mixes(including helium even though I don't use it). They seem to be very clean and the guy is extremely anal about procedures. Given the situation, which I think is the majority, I think having the equipment cleaned is important. It's been stated that you would never put "shit" in your tanks so O2 cleaning isn't necessary. This is correct as I would never put anything in my tanks but I really have no guarantee than it won't get there from the filling station. Although I'm NITROX certified I don't know the first thing about blending, with the exception of the calculations naturally. Because of this I wouldn't attempt to blend the tank myself. People have bashed others for having stickers on their tanks. I really don't know why this makes you a stroke? I believe most boats which I dive on would scream if I brought an unlabeled tank onboard. All the boats I've been on have you mark down your % on the wavier. I tend to get long bottom times and many times another diver is starting their second dive as I'm still doing my hang. If that person accidentally grabs my tank and takes it down with them, am I liable because it wasn't labeled? Not to dig into the lawyers but I'm sure one would try to place some of the blame on me even if the mixture had nothing do with the accident or situation. What is the summary of this thread? IMHO, if you know what you're doing and your equipment is clean, you can follow the people who "garage blend". Hope nobody takes offense to this term as I didn't mean anything by it. If you're like me where your "at the mercy" of someone else, then it's probably a good idea get your equipment cleaned on a regular basis and follow all the "standard" rules. I also believe buying NITROX ready is BS. They charge you much more than the price to buy the same equipment and just get it cleaned. Unfortunately there are always going to be stokes out there who are going to do whatever they want or what the last stroke told them. These people usually become examples of what not to do. Hopefully they have not misinformed to many people in the process. First post I actually used the term "stroke". Hope I used it in the correct context and didn't set myself up to be called one. Safe diving, Art. art.paltz@r2*.co* Last Dive 5/18/97, Wreck of the Brunette(Door Knob Wreck), 72ft/45 minutes, 48 degrees F,36% O2 -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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