Whilst it is obviously sensible to know the state of your dive bottle and no centre is going to fill one which is not in date test wise, what is the actual law? Am I breaking the law if I home fill a cylinder out of date ? Or took such a filled cylinder out in public ? Would a police check involve date checking and if so at what consequence. ? I know the law states surface bottles test every five years inspection and hydro which should include valve and if fully following dive rules sub service every 2.5 etc it's the other stuff I am not aware of.
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the Daily hi thread
Cylinder testing what's the law ?
- Thread starter Bardot
- Start date
If you do that and it blows and injures someone you are in the hook, no different to having a steam boiler out of test imo.
We used to have a load of old luxfor bottles at the yard we would fill to 100bar only and have them as portable air lines, but after awhile, even filling them in a cage etc everyone got too nervous.
TL;DR - it's not worth the risk IMO
We used to have a load of old luxfor bottles at the yard we would fill to 100bar only and have them as portable air lines, but after awhile, even filling them in a cage etc everyone got too nervous.
TL;DR - it's not worth the risk IMO
jesim1
Member Extraordinaire
There is no law against using an out of date cylinder, it is however against H&S guidelines for any commercial or other company to do so, which means any company breaching these could then be prosecuted for those, but as an individual you fall outside them.
Just makes sense though, once every 5 years is not too much for knowing your own safety even if you fill at home from your own compressor, but I would not worry going over a year as it's not suddenly unsafe - until it is
Just makes sense though, once every 5 years is not too much for knowing your own safety even if you fill at home from your own compressor, but I would not worry going over a year as it's not suddenly unsafe - until it is
Woodcrafts
Super member
I think it is a case of no matter what the law says, common sense tells us to have our bottles tested. I posted this on an earlier question about bottle testing.
"I found an interesting calculation that showed a 3ltr bottle at 300bar is equivalent to 100gm of TNT explosive!!
The key difference is you can see what state TNT is in, you can't see the inside of your bottles."
"I found an interesting calculation that showed a 3ltr bottle at 300bar is equivalent to 100gm of TNT explosive!!
The key difference is you can see what state TNT is in, you can't see the inside of your bottles."
Would be interesting to know if someone has had a bottle fail test and what the circumstances/causes were. I have two bottles both needing tested and filled. Will take them to dive centre and get it done, but I suspect the margin of safety is pretty high and few fail test?
1260engineer
Member Extraordinaire
jesim1
Member Extraordinaire
They fail regularly, but it's most often the dive cylinders rather than surface air gun use ones, as the dive cylinders tend to get more fills over the years, and so have more chance of getting a poor fill, which introduces water to the insides, and rusts it from within. The more use, and the more extreme's of temperature also contribute to micro fractures and stretching, particularly around the neck and thread area of the cylinder.
It should be said, you can get a new cylinder and a poor fill on day one, and by year five it's junk and will be destroyed when tested, they are not allowed to give you it back unless it's incapacitated, typically they cut them in half at the test centre - (not the dive centre).
Poor fills and water ingress is one of the biggest problems with hand pumps, personally I'd always avoid them
sagalout
Member Extraordinaire
Did you loose the eye when you bottle exploded?
Actually I can see inside my bottles. I have an illuminated endoscope with camera which I run into the bottle and check inside. What I don't know is how much rust would be a pass or fail to an inspector. I know rust is a worry if diving as you do not want to breve it in ! A small amount I'm guessing would not unduly affect its integrity.
