Posted by Jim Hoffmann on January 24, 2001 at 15:57:06:
In Reply to: + rating on LP tanks posted by Eins on January 24, 2001 at 12:56:52:
Eins, I talked to my Hydro company and this was what they had to say, " the DOT regulations having to do with the plus ratings go like this: the plus have to be one after another you can't skip one, you have to know the exact wall thickness(from the manufacturer)and measure it(it has to be the same). When you do a hydro you must go over the hydro pressure by 100psi and let it stand for a 30min and then recheck it(it must be right on). The inter and the outer walls of the tank cannot have a pit or scatch over a .3000. That is most of the Dot Regulations".
Eins, here is a Quote from Bill High's book "Inspection Cylinders" (he's the guy that has wrote allot of the CGA and Dot regulations concerning Scuba): "While the near-universal practice of not conducting the overfill re-test on steel cylinders prevents us from knowing whether cylinders could be overfilled, it should not alter the fill station operator's obligation to fill the cylinders older than 5 years, bearing the original plus only to the authorized pressure. That means the popular practice of overfilling all cylinders without regard to service pressure limits is unwise, illegal and dangerous! Therefore, the rule does not mean that once a cylinder has been authorized for the 10% overfill, it always has it".
Anyway, I think that is where we are at, as far as the plus rating go's. The Hydro company can plus your tank for you,but are you willing to pay for it?
As far as the stores go, we are being told to only fill to the service pressure (if there is no plus) by our agencies(that means that if we have a problem by overfilling a non-plus tank, our insurance will not cover us). The Plus-Rating is just one more mess our government has got us into.
Jim Hoffmann
Scuba Toys