Cost of Nitrox

[ajones]

Originally Posted by Fiona

I have to say if you have got 4 potential places to get fills near you then you are very lucky.

I go to the place I get a nice cuppa from and have a pleasant buying experience. Just happens to be Divelife - not actually my nearest filling station.

Fiona,

I wouldnt exactly call them all local. I dive crappers regulary and they quoted £15, I work in Sheffield which brings SDS into play £14. I regulary have meetings in Leeds which means Diverswarehouse is and opition £9. However the cheapest option is Puffin Divers Oban which is where I am next using Nitrox. Guess it is a case of taking empty cylinders up to Oban. I suppose it saves weight in the car and subsequently desiel

[Steve Jones]

Originally Posted by warmwaterdiver

in real terms its about £2/3 worth of oxygen plus the labour to add this

then add an air fill

Gary is correct in what he is saying.

Come on now Gary remember your gas blending course 32% filled to 232 bar is how many bar of O2....correct Gary it's 32 bar.

(I am so good at doing sarcasm)

Now if that is to fill a 12 litre twin set then that is 768 litres of o2.

A J (47 litres) contains about 9,800 to 9,900 litres depending on the fill.

That is 12 fills from a J that is drained down to the dregs, which don't happen.

So on top of the costs that Gary mentions you also have to add in the cost of running the booster pump.

So in my opinion those places that are charging around the £8 mark are giving a fantastic service.

Steve

[ajones]

Steve,

Surley as the membrane compressors become common place the cost of nitrox should come down as the process you mentioned above becomes redundant?

Cheers

Jonsey

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by Steve Jones

Gary is correct in what he is saying.

Come on now Gary remember your gas blending course 32% filled to 232 bar is how many bar of O2....correct Gary it's 32 bar.

(I am so good at doing sarcasm)

Now if that is to fill a 12 litre twin set then that is 768 litres of o2.

A J (47 litres) contains about 9,800 to 9,900 litres depending on the fill.

That is 12 fills from a J that is drained down to the dregs, which don't happen.

So on top of the costs that Gary mentions you also have to add in the cost of running the booster pump.

So in my opinion those places that are charging around the £8 mark are giving a fantastic service.

Steve

And let's not also forget to factor in the cost of oxygen cleaning a booster pump - think £600 and you won't go far wrong! - plus there's the cost of cylinder rental on the Js, delivery and so on. Plus, of course, you have the running costs of the compressor - filters, oil, mechanics when the damned thing breaks down - and sooner or later you come to realise that a lot of dive shops run their cylinder filling service as a loss-leader to get you into the shop...

Originally Posted by ajones

Surley as the membrane compressors become common place the cost of nitrox should come down as the process you mentioned above becomes redundant?

Membrane systems are absolutely fine if you're only filling cylinders for scoobydoos but they're very limited in what they can do. That's the problem with membrane systems - they're limited to putting out 40% and they can take a long time to do it (which is why most dive shops that use them tend to bank nitrox)

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by ajones

Steve,

Surley as the membrane compressors become common place the cost of nitrox should come down as the process you mentioned above becomes redundant?

Cheers

Jonsey

why? there will still be running costs and maintenance costs, cost of buying the thing. dunno how much different the maintenance costs would be but you can be sure that costs won't come down.

[Helen F H]

We have to pay for:

Picking the J cylinder up (note *we* pick it up from the depot, not them)
The contents of the cylinder, rarely 200 bar.
Rental of the cylinder
Returning the cylinder to their depot.

All of this has increased for 2008 as well

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by ajones

Fiona,

I wouldnt exactly call them all local. I dive crappers regulary and they quoted £15, I work in Sheffield which brings SDS into play £14. I regulary have meetings in Leeds which means Diverswarehouse is and opition £9. However the cheapest option is Puffin Divers Oban which is where I am next using Nitrox. Guess it is a case of taking empty cylinders up to Oban. I suppose it saves weight in the car and subsequently desiel

Which is really where I was coming from. You seem to be lucky as you move around and are able to use various places. For most people if you have the choice of two then you can choose which you go to, otherwise you are stuck no matter how much it costs.

I would always take full cylinders on a dive trip you never know if you are delayed in traffic or they are not able to fill for whatever reason, this was my rational behind two twinsets.

Vobster do charge just over £12 because they charge for individual cylinders which frankly has always p*ssed me off, it was even worse when I dived 7's

[ajones]

Originally Posted by dry suit diver

why? there will still be running costs and maintenance costs, cost of buying the thing. dunno how much different the maintenance costs would be but you can be sure that costs won't come down.

I guess that the initial set up costs would be higher than a standard compressor however this may be deperciated over a however many years, although I suppose you have to assume that there would be higher finance costs.

Maintenance, I dont know how much extra over and above a standard compressor there would be or how often and if the membrane requires replacing and the cost involved.

However you are cutting the cost of the oxygen, a large chunk of the labour and hire/transportation of the J's out of the equasion.

So given the above it may balance out.

Cheers

Jonsey

[DIVE BUDDHA]

twin 12,s 32% £8 sub aqau divers wath upon dearne

twin 12,s 21% £6 sub aqau divers wath upon dearne

its a no brainer really

[warmwaterdiver]

AIUI membrane compressors are £30k+, plus as they only do upto 40% most LDS's would still have to do PP fills for 40%+ mixes

no brainer really, O2 is relatively cheap, hence LDS's stay with PP blending