Nitrox Advantages? Input Needed!

[Rik]

[glow=red,2,300]WOW![/glow]
Thanks for the input. I knew I could get extra bottom time but you guy's nailed questions that I didn't even think of yet.
Thanks for all the great input, I will definitely be taking a mixed gas course.
Thanks again!
Rik O+<

[Omicron]

Cool stuff. Like others said, it's actually one of the few courses that really teach you something useful. It's great info to have, and it's kindof the springboard for anything more advanced. Have fun!

[jasondbaker]

On my liveaboard this past Summer I had an to option to buy nitrox fills for the week. It was an extra $100-150. I decided to just stick with air and save the money. Next time I will buy nitrox.

When you are doing 4-5 dives a day on a liveaboard it is incredibly easy to rack up time. After you get in the water for that 4th dive and realize you only have 25 mins at 50ft you feel kinda bumbed.

[fishchaser]

So, what is required to use Nitrox as far as equipment? My computer is Nixtrox compatible, but I couldn't find any info on my reg (Cressi Airtech). Can any tank be made "O2 clean" and what does that entail?

[jasondbaker]

fishchaser, your equipment does not necessarily have to be O2 cleaned. It depends on the percentage of O2 in the mix and how your tanks are being filled.

If you are using nitrox for recreational dives with a 40% O2 mix or less you do not need O2 cleaned regs.

If your filling station is banking nitrox < 40% or is premixing it < 40% then you don't need O2 cleaned tanks.

Generally you should follow the guidance of the shop.

[Omicron]

Regs typically do not need O2 cleaning as long as the percentage is under 40%, but many places recommend it as a safety factor.

A lot of tanks come O2 clean. PST tanks for example come O2 clean from the factory.

It's a safe practice to have your tanks cleaned, even if you are getting them filled with "pre-mix" - nitrox already mixed up. It's a requirement to have them cleaned if they are doing partial pressure fills - where they squirt in pure O2 and then air in on top of it.

Other than that, you should be pretty well set.

[fishchaser]

What exactly does "O2 clean" or O2 cleaning mean or entail?

[Omicron]

It starts with cleaning the tank with a cleanser (and I forget it's name right now...) that scours the tank and gets rid of any trace oils and such. It's rinses w/ hot water and dried. The o-rings are replaced, swapping the Buna o-rings (black...) with Viton o-rings (brown...) and then, if any greases are needed anywhere on the rings or anything, O2 compatible lubricants are used.

And that's about it, as far as I know.

[Cavern Junkie]

I personally feel the O2 cleaning is a little overkill. There are shops around here that will fill non-02 cleaned tanks up to 40% nitrox. They can do this because they have different percentages in storage and they fill directly from these tanks, so there is no partial pressure mixing when they fill nitrox tanks.

[dfreeman]

For $100-$150 for nitrox on a live aboard. I would go for that in a heartbeat. Just to take the edge off if nothing else.

When diving a PST E8-130, it is pretty easy to reach NDL even on nitrox before getting low on air. Proved this on several wreck dives this summer. Like to use nitrox whenever possible, but not always avaialble.

Doug