How to Pick the Perfect Scuba Tank standard dive gear includes a pressurized gas cylinder with a valve, often known as a scuba tank. The use of diving equipment is only possible with them. The valve on your scuba tank is where your scuba regulator, via which you breathe underwater, connects. Your scuba diving tank contains the pressurized gas or air you will breathe throughout the dive. A scuba tank may seem simple to the outsider; after all, they do look similar.
Durability and density of the materials
Consider the substance of the diving tank you choose since steel is considerably more durable than aluminum. This makes it more challenging and more impervious to the elements in general.
Because of this, and also the fact that aluminum is a softer metal, aluminum tanks often have thicker walls than steel or iron ones to make up for the latter’s superior strength. This may make aluminum tanks more cumbersome to transport on land, yet they may float on water. Steel tanks, more robust than aluminum ones, can often store more gas under pressure.
Working Pressures
It’s essential to remember that various diving tanks may be filled to varying operational pressures. If you attempt to overfill a tank, a little copper disk in the tank valve, known as the burst disk, will rupture to prevent the tank from exploding. The operating pressure of the tank is just half of the equation; the compressor’s capacity to fill the tank to a more significant pressure is also critical.
The Big Question Is: Which One Will You Pick?
Your tank’s buoyancy properties will be influenced by both the material it is made of and its size. Most steel containers have negative buoyancy. As they get closer to empty, they may become neutrally buoyant after the dive—divers who wear heavy wetsuits or dry suits often like steel tanks. This is because their inherent buoyancy eliminates the need to transport extra weights to counteract the tank’s buoyancy.
On the other hand, the buoyancy of aluminum tanks adapts to the diver’s changing gas needs during the dive. Using the same Catalina S80 tank as an example, a full tank will be -1.6 lb (-0.7 kg) negatively buoyant at the beginning of the dive. Therefore, the diver must supply air to the buoyancy control device to compensate. The tank becomes positively buoyant when the diver consumes the gas inside it.Therefore, the diver must bring extra weights to compensate for this increased buoyancy before the safety stop. This is why buoyancy tests are performed after diving when the diving tank pressure is at 50 bars.
