European 3L tanks....in North America

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patpicos

New Member
Hey

Just bought a european unit (used) that comes w/ 3liters that are CE (o2 bottle has m25) and I live in north america (Canada). Few questions...

Should I get them shipped or attempt to sell them in Europe and save on shipping?

Is there a market for those tanks in north-america (ie someone with their own fill station or what not)

Any suggestions/recommendations is welcome
 
Beautiful tanks, both the 232bar and the 300 bar tanks have a specified testpressure of 450Bar, so as long as you look the other way on the 232Bar valves, you can use these tanks all year long at 300Bar pressures. Minimum burst pressures of new tanks are specified to be at least 4x the maximum working pressure so these tanks in as new condition shouldn't fail below 1200Bar ~ 17500psi.
They don't come with burst disks, since the european thinking is that the O-Rings will go long before the steel gets soft enough in a fire. This also eliminates the usual loud noises in the midday heat at any popular Florida diving destination, that are caused by all the people who don't make their own burst disks out of 316 stainless.

In other words, keep the tanks, get as many more of them as you can, then get a 5000psi compressor and a booster in order to be able to fill O2 to just short of 5000psi.
When you set up your account with a gas supplier remember that you are a welding shop specializing in welding acid resistant stainless steels (Hastelloy) that need He to spread the heat while welding. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying O2 and He as a dive shop, unless you are buying as much gas as Bill Rennacker.

Michael
 
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Good perspective :) will also need an adapter for the oxygen bottle.

Dunno about buying compressor and booster. Return on investment will be never lol
 
If you let them go I'll be interested thanks to Michael's wisdom. My brother is in London Ontario so I'd be coming across.
 
Sparedone, that will be at the end of the year after training. Unit will ship direct to FL.

Any price you are thinking?
 
patpicos said:
Dunno about buying compressor and booster. Return on investment will be never lol
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Yeah, but how many miles do you drive to and from your favorite dive shop every week just for fills. Can't forget the time that you waste during the drives and standing around the dive shop waiting for the fills to get done either.
The 2-5K that you'll spend on a small compressor and smaller booster is well worth the money and after a couple of years you'll be operating in the black anyway. If you value your time at $10.00 an hour you'll be in the black a lot sooner.

At one time I had a fill station with 3 bauer compressors, 2 O2/HE analysers, 2 digital pp fill hoses and digital pressure gauges on the outputs of all compressors along with 19x 50L 300Bar tanks filled with O2 He and Ar to 300Bar along with an OmniBooster.

For almost 15 years it paid for every cent I spent on diving.

Eventually, due to the customers switching over to diving rebreathers it was no longer a profit center and I sold most of it to other people who will lose their shirts doing $10.00 trimix fills to 300 bar in a 3L tank or adding $2.50 of O2 to a similar O2 tank.
I kept a Junior II, digital PP Fillhose, O2/He analyser and 2 Ar, 3 He and 4 O2 tanks for my own use and don't fill for anybody else anymore.

Michael
 
patpicos said:
Sparedone, that will be at the end of the year after training. Unit will ship direct to FL.
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>Did you end up buying the used SF2 that sold on ebay.de last week?
That belonged to an exbuddy who started a dive almost unconscious from lack of O2 with tanks having closed valves and couldn't get his shit togeter before his lungs imploded on the way down to 34M.
Nothing wrong with the unit, but if you break every rule in the book eventually it'll come back and bite you:behead:

Michael
 
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michael_fisch said:
Eventually, due to the customers switching over to diving rebreathers it was no longer a profit center and I sold most of it to other people who will lose their shirts doing $10.00 trimix fills to 300 bar in a 3L tank or adding $2.50 of O2 to a similar O2 tank.
I kept a Junior II, digital PP Fillhose, O2/He analyser and 2 Ar, 3 He and 4 O2 tanks for my own use and don't fill for anybody else anymore.

Michael
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Id be interested in knowing a minimalistic setup to allow personal fills of 3L only (no doubles or stages).

I might save one of my doubles and use that for transfilling into 3L's to save on logistics back and forth to shops... will see how it goes once i do the training.
 
michael_fisch said:
>Did you end up buying the used SF2 that sold on ebay.de last week?
That belonged to an exbuddy who started a dive almost unconscious from lack of O2 with tanks having closed valves and couldn't get his shit togeter before his lungs imploded on the way down to 34M.
Nothing wrong with the unit, but if you break every rule in the book eventually it'll come back and bite you:behead:

Michael
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I did buy the sf2 off ebay. I know some of the details it happened
 
I ran into the same problem when I bought my used unit. After lots of searching, my final conclusion was that while it it not technically illegal to fill a CE tank in the US (that technicality only applies to tanks used for commercial purposes or transported across state lines or something nitpicky like that), no shop in my area would touch em. I posted them up on cavediver, I think, and sold them to someone who had their own fill setup. I needed tanks I could drop off and pick up filled, not drop off and argue for 30 minutes over whether or not they can or should fill them.
 
Sell them in Europe. Some shops or fill stations won't care but the reality is that the one you need to fill them probably will balk.

M25 valves are especially problematic in this country as they will fit into a 3/4" NPS tank (north american standard) but won't hold pressure and will come shooting out like a rocket once the tank is partly filled. So if someone attempts to put your valve in a different cylinder for whatever reason - you have a huge problem and liability. :(
 
Unfortunatly they do a fine job of holding pressure up to a little bit over 2000psi, then they let go. Usually resulting in a destroyed dive shop, fill station/building and often causing death, serious injury or dismemberment of the people unfortunate enough to be standing in the same room.
Some of us have been near enough to observe either the ambulance driving off with flashing lights and siren to the nearest place that a helicopter can land, or, even worse, the slow and stately exit of a black station wagon with frosted windows.
3/4 NPSM valves belong on 3/4 NPSM tanks, and M25 Valves belong on M25 tanks, if you can't follow that rule than, in all likelyhood, someone is going to die.

Michael
 
Better to just sell them in Europe. They have almost zero value in the USA because few dive shops will fill them or even have the capability of filling them over here.
 
Randy Thornton said:
Better to just sell them in Europe. They have almost zero value in the USA because few dive shops will fill them or even have the capability of filling them over here.
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3 litres go for (relatively) peanuts. I've never paid more than about approx $50-60USD for a used 3 in the UK. The valves may be the most valuable part if they aren't just standard pattern scuba valves, eg Inspo type or something. New 3's can be had cheaply.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk
 
Dave1w said:
It has onto CE approved new units ( usually to be quickly replaced...)


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This is what I posted 5 years ago, it still holds true.

M26 threads are kind of like hemorrhoids, only as**oles get them, and even then you end up paying to get rid of them:moon2:

Michael
 
i am acquiring american 3L bottles. I will be selling the CE cylinders. Both cylinders have metric threads on the valves.
-The diluent will accept normal regulators.
-The oxygen cylinder has a larger valve connection (for nitrox regulators as they would say in Europe). Would likely need to be replaced with a metric valve that is the same as the dil.
The valves are regular (not inline)

I will be shipping from Florida at the end of the year (although could be arranged before then as needed). Preferably sell to someone in North America or someone passing by Cave Country and going back to Europe.

PM me offers and we'll go from there.

PS.: I do not accept any liability to what you do with the tanks and where you fill them. You are responsible to learn the implications of such cylinders.
 
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