BOC diving grade O2

[Sidemount Ninja]

I was checking with BOC about options for O2 and Karen from "special gases" told me they do a 12.13 cu.m cylinder of diving O2 @ 230 bar. Rental is 120.90 per year and 66.63 a fill. Not stocked as normal but can be ordered reasonably quickly. A medical J is 6800 litres and 73.70 rental and 17.40 a fill but 130 bar. All you need is a blender cert and you are good to go apparently......

[Divin'Dec]

Best of luck   

[Ken Hawk]

Whats up with the welding stuff 

[Sidemount Ninja]

Whats up with the welding stuff 

I know, same O2, 230 bar but for me, I'm just more comfortable KNOWING that there are no nasties going into my fill. Not that I would even know what those nasties might be, but thats a whole other conversation 

[Ken Hawk]

Aaron, the only difference is the paper trail, if it had nastys in it, would it not go bang 

[scuba steve]

exactly the same stuff . filled from the same tank . paper trail and handling is a lil different . i use it for personal use but get medical grade for the club . why the extra expence ? if its good enough for the sick and dying its good enough for us .

id use the welding stuff for the club only it states in the blenders course that you must use medical . so i dont want it coming back on me .

[Sidemount Ninja]

Aaron, the only difference is the paper trail, if it had nastys in it, would it not go bang 

I would imagine so. I spoke at length to the tec crowd in BOC and they would just confirm that contaminants have been found in welding cylinders but would not go into detail. I don't measure the safety of the gas by the fact that the fill the cylinder anyway, I'm assume they have some way of telling. I'm more convinced by the fact that tanks with gas for human use are fully evacuated prior to filling. If BOC were 100% sure that no "nasties" could possibly get in they why do this? I don't think its purely for insurance/paperwork reasons. They want to KNOW that its OK for human consumption. Needless costly steps would probably be omitted in the pursuit of profit.

Anyway, its not like med or diving O2 is that much more expensive than welding. In the grand scheme of things, a few extra euro per dive buys me a lot of peace of mind. Wouldn't judge anybody for using welding, I'm probably just a bit too cautious.

Now lets talk about the price of helium......

[tonyf]

I was checking with BOC about options for O2 and Karen from "special gases" told me they do a 12.13 cu.m cylinder of diving O2 @ 230 bar. Rental is 120.90 per year and 66.63 a fill. Not stocked as normal but can be ordered reasonably quickly. A medical J is 6800 litres and 73.70 rental and 17.40 a fill but 130 bar. All you need is a blender cert and you are good to go apparently......

Did you ever sort this and get the 230 bar 02??


Cheers Tony

[Sidemount Ninja]

Did you ever sort this and get the 230 bar 02??


Cheers Tony
[/quote]

Hi Tony, sorry for the slowness of the reply. Yes, account set up and running. Two forms of ID required, direct debit mandate plus the DSAT tec trimix blender card and there were no problems with getting medical O2, diving grade O2 or helium. No cert needed for industrial grade O2. There was an initial bit of confusion about the need for a prescription for medical O2 but a quick call to BOC sorted that out. Prescriptions are only required when the gas is being supplied to a patient under the supervision of a doctor where they need to know the lpm dosage etc. Presumably because I was asking for helium and diving O2 at the same time they could see it was not a medical only issue, perhaps if I walked in asking for medical only they would need a prescription or evidence it was only to be used for diving etc.

Once the account is set up and you have approval for the gases required you just call in and collect the cylinders you require, payment is by direct debit so thats handy. Medical and helium are in stock as standard (in my local BOC agent anyway). The diving O2 has to be ordered in and can then be collected. Big savings on delivery and collection if you can do it yourself. Interestingly, no questions asked about where or how I was going to store the cylinders.......... 

[Scubadec / Dec Hanniffy]

So, what are your options for 230 bar O2? Cylinder size etc, and whats the difference between medical O2 and Diving O2?

[Sidemount Ninja]

Medical O2, J cylinder, 130 bar (6800 litres) 73.70 per annum rental, 17.40 per fill (0.0025 cent per litre)
Diving grade O2, 230 bar J (12,100 litres) 120.90 per annum rental, 66.63 per fill (0.0055 cent per litre)
Both the above cert'd for human consumption, diving grade is not stocked as standard and must be ordered in advance.

Industrial (welding) O2, W size cylinder (similar to J) 230 bar (11,000 litres I think, have to check with BOC) 178.80 per annum rental, 39.60 per fill. (0.0036 per litre)
Not approved for human consumption. All the above are filled from the same tap, the cylinder handling procedures are different - double vacuum for medical and diving, arse scratch for industrial.

Interestingly, diving grade O2 is cheaper by 60 odd euro per cylinder per year rental than welding O2 but is 25 euro more expensive to fill. Something to do with it being classed as a special gas.

I plan to use a cascade system with medical and diving grade when I sort myself out. If you have a booster then just use medical as it would work out the cheapest in the long run.

All the above prices are ex-vat.

Hope that helps!

[Scubadec / Dec Hanniffy]

Thanks alot Aaron.

[Stephen McMullan]

Nice one Aaron. We use medical grade because we order it via the college so has to be fit for purpose officially. Nice to see that it works out cheapest per litre as well. I didn't know that.

[Sidemount Ninja]

Yeah, I had to double check my sums on that one!. I guess the price is mostly dictated by the pressure supplied and then by the procedures used to fill the tanks. Perhaps medical is cheapest due to the volume sales to hospitals etc, who knows. One thing for sure is that BOC have not had a price increase in well over a year so I reckon one is on the cards. Not a major worry for O2 but the helium for those on OC will hurt (more than it already does that is...)

[mick]

Aaron
I got away with cascading 2 medical j of 02 for a long time without a booster
I found the He a bigger problem due to the cost of it sure don’t want to be sending it back with any left in it.

Found the guy in BOC to be very helpful never any issues

Mick