On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 20:35:40 -0400
Lee B ell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I'm not sure I saw the original of this, so I'll leverage off Mike's.  I
> don't have any relationship with Catalina except I have 8 of their tanks.
> Back when aluminum tanks were still a relative novel idea in my part of the
> States, Luxfer already had a poor reputation.  I don't know what the issues
> were, but I do know that they were serious enough that I bought something
> else instead.  My first aluminum tank was sold under the U.S. Diver label,
> but, if I recall correctly, was made by Catalina.  They were standard 80s
> and they're long since gone.  My next tank purchases were all Compact 80's.
> They hold the same gas as the standard 80 in a slightly shorter tank by
> increasing the working pressure to 3,300 psi.  I like the tanks better both

I think you will find that the compact 80's hold a true 80 cu ft due to
the higher pressure and that the standard 80's do not in fact hold 80 cu
ft.  In my experience the compacts hold about 10% more air.

I also bought a couple of Catalina compacts several years ago.... My
dive store got a great price at DEMA one year and it was impossible to
ignore them, of course the lime green colour was also hard to ignore! :)

> I don't know that I'd call Catalina honest or Luxfer dishonest.  Catalina
> did not use the alloy while other manufacturers did.  I presume that the
> inferior alloy was cheaper, but I'm sure that everybody that used it thought
> it would be good enough.  My primary beef with Luxfer is how they handled
> things after the fact.  Instead of an outright recall, or a liberal trade
> policy for all the inferior tanks, they sold something to test the tanks, at
> the customer's expense, and gave discounts only on those that failed.  Maybe
> they could not afford to do otherwise, but that does not make it right.

I had two Luxfer tanks fail the electronic thread inspection and both
were replaced free of charge by Luxfer through my dive store here in
Canada...  at absolutely no cost to me not even the shipping charges.

Both tanks were purchased in 1988 one standard 80 and the other a 92
(they gave me a new 100) .... replaced by Luxfer some 8 years later.
I guess my different experience may be related to the relationship the
divestore maintains with their supplier.


Michael