Hard Question

[Goose]

I know this is a hard question, but I'm bored at work and was just wondering.

My wife's uncle (a former DM that has gave up diving) gave me an old AL80 of his. He bought it new in 1981 and hydro'ed it in 1986. From the amount of vis stickers piled up on each other, I can't tell when the last vis was.

Now I'm obviously going to take it to my LDS to have it hydro'ed and vis'ed after the hollidays. But what I'm wondering is do you guys think that it stands a chance of passing???

The price is right on it (free) so I'm not out anything, I'm just currious.

Thanks in advance

[mselizann]

My LDS said it's not worth paying for the test on a pre 1990 tank........

[DON]

A few years ago there was a problem with Luxfer Aluminum tanks, If your tank is a luxfer I would check the web before I spent to much money on a Hydro and vip

Good Luck

[ianr33]

If it is a Luxfer tank made in the US in 81 then it is likely the 6351 alloy
Luxfer: Sustained-load Cracking FAQ

Rightly or wrongly some shops will not even fill these tanks.Personally I would not use them. Too much trouble and tanks are cheap.

But if you have a shop that will fill it and it passes Hydro and Viz you could have a deal. At worst you would have a free valve.

[ScaredSilly]

Read this:

http://hazmat.dot.gov/pubs/reports/c...l_advisory.pdf

Then this:

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...f/E6-14255.pdf


That is the legal side of things. As folks have said many shops will not fill it so it is scrap. In that case buy your wife's uncle a six pack of beer cause that is what scrap value will get ya.

[ektess1]

Maybe you can sell it to a paintball fanatic.

[cummings66]

Even then he has to get fills.

[captain]

Originally Posted by cummings66

Even then he has to get fills.

It appears that the paint ball community is not as paranoid about the older aluminum tank issues as divers are. One of the local paint ball stores will fill old steel tanks with reducing bushings and old 1/2" scuba valves.

[ScaredSilly]

I do not remember all the specs on them but IRCC bushings are legal.

[navyhmc]

I have noticed that this topic resurfaces from time to time, but rightfully so as a lot of folks don't know about the older AL80 issue with the 6351 alloy. I have 3 of these tanks, one of them I retested and it passed so I still use it. The others two, I have scrapped. It hurt to do it, but as noted it's very hard to get fills anymore on the pre-89 AL80's.

One of the previous threads mentioned that there are 40 million of these tanks and only 14 documented ruptures so why all the hype. And when you look at the numbers, it makes sense. But Larry mentioned that since there are about 6,000-10,000 of fill stations around the world the chance of a SLC failure goes up increasingly. So instead of 14 in 40,000,000 it's 14 in 6,000 not odds I really like if I'm the filler.

As others have said, I would not spend the money to get it tested andjust sell it for scrap.