Does your LDS use a tank of water when filling your tank?

[LRDWILDER]

So recently I read somwhere that alot of LDS are not putting tanks into cooling water as they fill them?

Whats your experiance? Do they do it? Do you care?

I can't remember where I read it, but somewhere it talked about it perhaps not being necessary if filled slowly? Is this right????

[ScubaToys Larry]

Correct... they should not be put in water - and they should be filled no faster than 300 psi per minute.

[cgvmer]

Putting them in water is a "solution" to the problem of the tank getting hot when filled too fast. When the real solution is as Larry stated, don't fill fast and let the hear dissipate without being cooled.

[mchain]

The Dive shop where I got my open water did in fact place the tank in water but I have no idea how fast they were filling.
Is that a dangerous practice?

[ScubaToys Larry]

It is against the tank manufacturers recommendations, as it increases the chance of water getting in a tank (if empty and not careful) and it does nothing except encourage people to fill too fast - which is dangerous. But I guess if they fill slow, and are careful not to get water in the valve - it would not actually hurt anything - but a tiny flow restricting device in the line would do much more for the safety of the fill station and help get good fills.

[Damselfish]

a lot more shops used to fill in a water tank, but over the years it's gone out of style.

[ianr33]

Originally Posted by ScubaToys Larry

Correct... they should not be put in water - and they should be filled no faster than 300 psi per minute.

So filling a tank in 10 seconds would not be a good idea ?? I thought I was just getting prompt service

[captain]

Is filling in water bad. No not if done right. I fill my own tanks and I fill in water but the design of the water tank will not allow the tank valve or filler to get below the surface of the water in the water tank. My compressor fills an 80 in 25 minutes, I would say that is pretty slow but the difference in filling dry or filling wet is 200 psi less when the dry filled tank cools. If I didn't fill wet I would have to wait for the tank to cool down and top it off.
Of course you can always overfill by 200 or 300 psi when filling dry so that once the tank cools it is at rated pressure but do most shops do it that way.

[mselizann]

I rented tanks from a shop that did this- and b/c of them just wanting to fill as fast as possible they couldn't even get the pressure to 3000.........more like 2700- bad practice if you ask me

[Navy OnStar]

I have heard but not confirmed that placing the tank in water and fast filling can lead to metal shear. It may take many repetitions of this to actually occur and end up in a decrease the life of the tank because it fails hydro or it may lead to catastrophic failure.

Placing the tank in water will cause the outside to remain relatively cool while the inside gets hot. The different temperatures causes a shear stress that if allowed to get great enough could cause some or total metal separation.