Where to get Helium?

[Jeff Pack]

Is there anyplace at all? I'm just putting my trimix CB setup together. Praxair of course gave me the "no new customers" speech.

[Jeremy]

Party stores that specialize in balloons

[selkie]

Goodyear Blimp

[Jeff Pack]

Party stores that specialize in balloons

I'd read not to use Balloon Helium.

[CaptnJack]

Party stores that specialize in balloons

I'd read not to use Balloon Helium.

I read that they have trimix training nowadays

[Jeff Pack]

Thats Next month, just getting setup right now.

[Joshua Smith]

You may be SOL. Praxair has cut a lot of folks off. I managed to sneak under the wire, and a buddy of mine, who has had an account with them for longer than I have, was cut off. Apparently my partner signed a special contract of some kind when he set up our account. It's all pretty mysterious.

[kdupreez]

We had just ordered 9 T-Bottles of helium to stock pile for a couple of Tec classes coming up in October and it was a royal pain in the ass to get hold of that much.. they trickle in about 3 bottles per 2 weeks.

Helium is harder to come by and my price went up with %30 in the past 2 years..

Jeff - I use Central Welding, but they are not cheap.. expect to pay around $135 or more for 290 CUFT bottle of UHP helium..

Or just PM me and I'll hook you up..

Koos

[Dusty2]

That's really weird! a big company cutting off customers? Wonder what the deal is?

[LCF]

There's no supply. The companies are holding their helium for commercial and medical applications (lasers). It's worse in other parts of the country than it is here -- at least folks with long-standing accounts are able to buy helium, even if it's at much higher prices than before. In the midwest, it's simply no longer available to divers or dive shops at all.

[pensacoladiver]

. expect to pay around $135 or more for 290 CUFT bottle of UHP helium..

Or just PM me and I'll hook you up..

Koos

Thats better than what I get it here. I am paying $145. My company has also cut off new customers. They will however let me rent out as many helium tanks as I want. I 'm currently renting one for myself and one for my buddy. We each use 300 cubic feet every 2 weeks. Expensive habbit, but cheaper than I can get it at Fill Express.

[kdupreez]

Its amazing how much helium the medical and electronic industry utilizes for cooling..

I also largely blame the Large Hadron Collider.. they are squandering a non-renewable resource.. namely: Helium!!

The LHC, needs like 120 metric tons of liquid helium to cool the super conducting magnets and i think it leaks like 1 ton every so often..

do you have any idea how much helium is in 120 metric tons of liquid helium!! probably enough to supply the entire planet's technical diving community with enough helium till the end of days

On the other hand, it would be a bummer to have to do an MRI one day for life or death reasons, only to realize the helium is on back order because its all wasted on divers and party balloons.. :angry:

[spatman]

I also largely blame the Large Hadron Collider..

I blame the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Giant inflatable SpongeBob or tech diving? Duh, no contest.

[Joshua Smith]

I also largely blame the Large Hadron Collider..

I blame the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Giant inflatable SpongeBob or tech diving? Duh, no contest.

They at least started reclaiming it, but yeah. Screw the balloons.

[airsix]

Sounder and I were filling a giant bag with hydrogen ($0.06/ft^3) on Saturday and ruminating on what a great tri-mix filler gas it would be if it weren't so darn explosive. Oh well.

[Jeff Pack]

So I guess using my acetylene tank for tri mix wouldnt be a good idea?

At least I can exchange my big Oxy tank at Central, and dont need to get another tank for exchange..

[loanwolf]

Internationally their is not a shortage, and in a few months the manufacturing capacity will be many times what it is today. More than enough to supply projected global growth out to 2030. Problem is we not longer control the market in it. It is now in the control of a foreign commodities market.

This was in 2011 when the BLM released the strategic reserve.

"The U.S. Bureau of Land Management raised the price for open market crude helium by almost 16 percent to $75 a thousand cubic feet for this year, after a review of how the policy affected U.S. interests and the global market."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-0 ... piles.html

Just like energy is fucked up today due to the futures markets. Diesel is around $.67 a gallon whole sale today, 2 weeks ago Cherry point was approximately $.34 a gallon manufacturing cost. If you look at the time frame shortly after Enron went down the CBOT Chicago Board of Trade, that dealt with Agriculture products and Metals only changed to the CME Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group and started trading energy. and we have been fucked ever since.

http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/

The He supply was purchased buy a group who are camping on it and driving the price up. Company's like Airgass who used to be one of the biggest buyers of He from the BLM's HeSR in the past dropped the ball and batched at paying 16% more in 2011. and guess what some else stepped in and bought it all for more than that and controls it. So now instead of North American Companies having to first right we have to bid a global futures market with the rest of the world.

Hats off to President Dmitry Medvedev for creating a monopoly on He for now. Even after The Qatar Helium 2 Project goes on line in the next 6 to 8 months we will never have control of the commodity again.

Free Market does now - and you have to pay for it if you want it.

[Jeff Pack]

I trade crude oil futures, so I know what you mean when the majors hit the market. Didnt know about HE wrt the above though. Interesting. Too bad there arent HE futures

[loanwolf]

I trade crude oil futures, so I know what you mean when the majors hit the market. Didnt know about HE wrt the above though. Interesting. Too bad there arent HE futures

Not here but on the international their is, that is what the Russians set up. If you have the money and it is not regulated anymore you can control it. Water, Energy, and Communications have to be regulated. They are the basics for life today. Regulations on those were put in originally years ago because of corporate greed and monopolization. So buy removing that what is going to happen? He was a strategic resource so it was heavily regulated, and it is still a strategic resource today. But ever since Clinton started the trend of selling off strategic resources we have been screwed and are going to get screwed worse in the future. to replace what has been sold off costs us much more today as the world economy evens up to replace.

Sure you can make a quick buck but ultimately in the future what is it going to cost you?