February 2013    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 28, No. 2   What's this?

Filling Cylinders In Water

perhaps a cause of a tank explosion

from the February, 2013 issue of Undercurrent  

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In my article last month about the death of a Belize dive shop employee due to an exploding tank, I noted that the tank was not filled in a water bath, as if that would matter. Several readers wrote that filling a cylinder in a water tank was not necessarily the right thing to do. So I turned to PSI-PCI, the experts in such matters, and received an article (which I have edited) written by its founder and former president, Bill High. He explains why a water bath may not be such a good idea, though a strong barrier between the tank being filled and people is a very good idea.

- - Ben Davison

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When just looking at physics, we can agree that heat transfer is far greater in water than in air. Cold water divers concluded that long ago without any physics classes. However, claiming one law of physics to justify placing dive cylinders into typical dive store water tubs during fill, as is still done at some air stations, simply isn't the right thing to do....