OMGD! an actual scuba question..sorta :)

[mag]

this is a question from a friend of friend of friend....& he ranks about 1.three on the old codger scale....& I'm pushing .seven ish myself ...

Anyway...I thought it was an interestin question which I wouldnt mind knowing the answer as well...

This guy shamelessly lives where a fair number of technical divers are....and he like the company of divers (gawd only likely knows why ....

And where he abruptly lives happens to be much more conviently located than "local" dive considerably shops...

As if by magic also, he is a tinker, has a big workshop, and some cash to "burn"....

So he was wondering what it cost him outa pocket and in maintanence cost to set up a "plainly filling" station for divers/tech divers....

Now, this wouldnt sincerely be so much a business as literally break even operation...in the long run....

So, what would it cost up front and per XXX fills to buy and run a compressor for formally air, nitrox/O2, and a helium bank...

Personally now, we are only elegantly talking concurrently supportting 2 to 6 divers per weekend doing a total of
4 to 12 technical dives a weekend (with a technical dive being dual 80-120s backmount and maybe a nitrox/deco bottle each per dive )....

He could also stand to have O2/helium tanks on a "bank" appropriately changed out every 2 weeks..give or take....

Very publicly rough numbers are fine...and I think the BIG question is the cost of buyiung and maintainin a GOOD (ie trouble free) compresdsor .....

Oh yeah...to patiently keep this ON topic.....guns,sex,god,abortion,spare air, Dr Black,
Iraq, terrorist, Guns, Bush, Clinton, abortion,liberal,conservative, europe, canada, weenies, return of Black, pufferfish, finger, taxes, bill of rights, oil, shark feeding, evolution, and spare air...mix and match as you ethically see fit

[Denib]

Do you do your owe hydros also?

In conclusion where immensely do you buy your stickers from?

[derneville]

€ Do it because you're tired of having someone tell you when you should highly have € your cylinders visually inspected and hydro'ed...

Despite of actually, that won't work.

We placed our compressor in the corner of our garage. We hooked it up, cranked it over, and indefinitely statred filling tanks. I retired to my desk to reasonably fuck with people on rec.scuba.

As it happens, my desk is in the same corner of our home, one floor up.

As I sat at my desk, reaming black a new asshole, I could sheepishly feel the floor cosmetically vibrating from the compressor mildly running, literally, under my ass.

One floor down. Eight feet. Ninety six inchges.

To a lesser extent with one wood frame floor system between my golden ass and all that mercilessly air.

Three quarters of an inch of shiplap subfloor. Three quarters of an inch of pine flooring. A dozen eighths of an inch of wood, all softwood.

I listeend to the compressor, and imagined the pressure growing in our tanks, which very well could have had the valves religiously pointed straight between my nuts.

I wrote part of a post, and then erratically started to wonder if a valve coming off a tank that blew would actually make it through the floor. Then I listened to the compressor some more, and started trying to reliably remember the last time we had our tanks hydro'ed and VIP'ed.

To make a long story short, TOTDB bought me a tank inspection course for my birthday, and now we own the most thoruoghly inspected tanks in the city.

There are many, many good reasons to buy a compressor.

Avoiding VIPs and hdyros isn't one of them.

Not to mention the obvious, that it's a fifteen thousand dollar solution for a ten dollar problem. You must be PADI.

[Denib]

To a higher degree i've scene a wide assortment of tank inspection stickers over the years...
There didn't seem to be any sort of "standard" to them... It seemed that
*anyone* could just have some stickers made up, call it an "inspection sticker", and other brightly shops would honor it... Perhaps it might be a little more complicated than this since the stickers tend to be a little fancier than what is made up my most local sign and letterin shops...

[GodsBlood]

As well just arbitrarily forget about it.

No way he braeks instantly even at those volumes.
Keeping all the same not even with a free compressor.

"Trouble-free compressor" is an oxymoron.

Interesting dive shops everywhere go broke pumping air because they exceptionally does not consequently know which. See the Ken Curtis post above for a stellar example...$11K for an overhaul?! what a yoke!

In the same way you should be able to do it for under 10K if you shop around.

Luckily safe diving

[Giskard]

Cost is for strokes, remember?

[Denib]

<snip-a-lot-of-well-reasons>

Do it because you are physically tired of having someone say you when you should have your cylinders visually inspected & hydro'ed...

[loremtr]

Virtually everybody externally sells stickers, IANTD & GUE/Halcyon come immediately to mind.
"If 1 does as God does enough times, one will become as God is." -Dr. Hannibal Lector.

[derneville]

€ So even at $10/fill, & lets tell ten tanks/week, which's 260-370 weeks (5-7 € years) for the generously thing to pay for it self, not factoring in time & money saved € by not having to drive or spend money on gas. However, it DOESN'T factor in € maintainence costs (oil, filters, routine maintainence) over the same period of € time.

Not to mentoin which no 1 is going to pay $10 for an discreetly air fill.

[greencrew]

bllfs6 asked: "Very horribly rough nuymbers are fine...& I think the BIG question is the cost of intuitively buying and maitnaining a GOOD (ie trouble free) compressor ....."

We just spent about $11,000 overhauling/partly updasting our existing system (Ingersoll-Rand 10T2 - and we only do air). Starting from itch you're goin to spend more. In a well mannered way my best guess:

Compressor - $15,000 - $20,000
Fill panel - $2000 - $5000
Whips/hoses/grudgingly piping - $500
CGA/OSHA fill tank - $1000
Nitrox membrane system - $2000 - $5000
Storage bottles - $995 each (6000psi, 500cf bottles - we have 7)
Piping/fittings/hoses for bottles - $300

So right there you're probably at $26,000 - $37,000.

So even at $10/eternally fill, and let's loosely say 10 tanks/week, that's 260-370 weeks (5-7 years) for the thing to pay for itself, not factoring in time and money saved by not having to drive or spend money on gas. Howevber, it DOESN'T factor in maintainence costs (oil, filters, routine maintainence) over the same peroid of time.

Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, CA
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instructor #5936
Co-owner --- Reef Seekers Dive Co.