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> Steve Millard wrote: > > > Does anyone else make a 5 or a 7 litre bottle > > any more ?? > > > > Regards, Steve M. > > > I have a fairly new Luxfer 7 litre 232 bar (alu) cylinder, which came > from Europe as far as I know. A buddy of mine tried really hard to > find one of these in the UK, without success. He said that there was > a very negative attitude to alu cylinders in the UK, to the extent > that nobody improted them anymore. Can you confirm this? > > Regards > > Jon As a user, not an owner or importer, all I can really say is that, yes, we do appear to be very anti-Al tank over here. General immpression is that they are shorter lived, less 'hardy', much less pleasant to dive with and about the same price as light weight steels. Fewer people seem to be aware that steels can be light or full weight than are aware of Al vs Steel. I think the main point is you can't pick up dirt cheap Al80's over here as seems to be the case in the US (ref. rec.scuba). Having just spent 75 hours working with Al80's that had no WP marked on them, or test dates, I must say I far prefer a light weight 10L steelie or for better dives a 12L. Also, many clubs over here keep a stock of tanks for club use, and private ownership has been picking up only over the last ten years. There are many old Steels *and* Al around (so the note to the effect that you can expect Steel to fail is wrong). I have been told by our local tester that regularly used steel tanks outlast Al, and that Al is also far more likely to pass a hydro when it shouldn't; work hardening or something like that, so there is a tendancy to be more critical of Al tanks being tested, esp. old ones. Does anyone have weight comparisons for tanks? I *believe* that 232 Al weigh the same as 232 Steels(lightweights) of the same WC. All our old club Al are 207bar, anyway, and not a lot lighter. Jason. > > Dr. J. Tapson email: jtapson@no*.ct*.ac*.za* > Lecturer ph: (27) 21 460 3042 > School of Electrical Engineering fax: (27) 21 451 698 > Cape Technikon > Box 652 > Cape Town 8000 > > -- > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@opal.com'. > Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@opal.com'.
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