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Michael.Walz@di*.ep*.ch* (Michael Walz) wrote: > > All Swiss and French cave divers I know including myself don't use any spicial > O-Rings for O2 equippement. For O2 we use standard SCUBA tanks and valves which > are prepared like this: > > - disassambling of the valve and cleaning of all valve parts with > trichlorethylene (sp?) > - visual inspection of the tank inside, if it's clean and dry nothing special > is done, otherwise cleaning with trichorethelene and drying with > compressed air. Please remember, as was noted by the people at DCIEM, trichloroethene 111 is a chemical which can appear to be removed from the cylinder, yet be released once the cylinder is pressurized causing the user to have severe headaches. Anyone who is still using trichloro..., please pressurize the cylinder with at least 200 PSI, crack the valve and smell the air, if you smell trichloro repeat the procedure until you smell nothing to avoid breathing a known toxic chemical. Because of the toxicity of this chemical and the requirements for disposal it is outlawed in many states of the USA and is highly taxed in others (NJ for example) and will probably not be available in the near future to the public. Many of the training agencies and NOAA have switched to alternative cleaning chemicals. > > On regulators only the 1st stage is prepared the same way as valves. > > Until now I've never heard of any problem related to O2 in Switzerland or in > France. It is important to note, that some European valve manufacturers use Viton O-rings in their valves during manufacturing. Most American manufacturers I am aware of, utilize standard neoprene O-rings during production. Tom
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