Posted by Ken Kurtis on October 22, 2001 at 18:22:49:
In Reply to: Re: So the Tank Explodes - What's the Big Deal??? posted by John on October 22, 2001 at 16:12:14:
Personal belief, not tested fact (though I'll bet it's been tested somewhere but I couldn't begin to tell you where):
I don't think a couple of hundred PSI over (to allow for cooling) is going to have signifcant impact.
I DO think that asking for a 3000psi tank to be filled to 5000psi (we actually had this happen once) will be detrimental. And I'm not willing to be the guinea pig just because the tank owner thinks it will be fine or does it all the time. My life and the lives of my employees are too valuable to take a chance in this area.
The bottom line is that the regulations under which we work demand that we fill only to the stamped pressure. The arugment of "in Europe they overfill" is fine if you want to take your tanks there to be filled. But in the US, we're supposed to follow the DOT regulations. (And at least as far as Reef Seekers Dive Co. goes, we will.)
- Ken