I went diving the other day, and as I was prepping gear in the garage, I noticed that one of my O2 cylinders (a 19cf AL bottle) that I was going to use was just out of VIP. It had a little O2 - about 1300 psi in a 3k bottle - left in it after my last Neah Bay trip. I figured I'd use it the next time I went diving to get a quick rebreather dive in, and then open it, clean it, re-VIP it and go. While I was looking at the bottle, though, I also happened to notice that the hydro expires at the end of the year, and I definitely don't want to be without the bottle for a while this winter, now that I'm using my 19s instead of my 13s on my Evolution rebreather. I also don't want to open it up and clean it twice - once now and once in two months when the hydro goes. So, I figured that when it was empty, I'd just sacrifice a couple of months of expiry time and get it hydro'd.
Fast forward to today - I went out to the Oil Docks, and I managed to polish off the bottle in the shallows for the end of the dive. I came home, cleaned gear, removed the sling and headed off to a nearby LDS that I frequent. Over the years, I've blown a lot of dough there...way too much dough, but it's easy to do in this hobby.
![d'oh! #-o](./images/smilies/eusa_doh.gif)
I figure I'll drop the bottle off to be sent out to hydro, get it back in a week, then I'll O2 clean it, put it together, and re-fill it. In the mean time, I pulled off and hung on to the valve, as I'll clean it and rebuild it this weekend. I've got a little bit of spare time, and I'm going to make up a batch of cleaner, anyway, to rebuild one of my regs that's started to leak. So, what I'm dropping off is just a bare, empty AL-19 with no valve.
I go in there, and hand over the cylinder, tell him I just need a hydro, nothing else, and explain that I know it's two months early, but I really don't want the winter down time. In return, I'm told that they pick up on Friday and return the previous week's collection the Friday thereafter. No problem, I'm scheduled to be flying a lot in the next two weeks, anyway, so diving ops are going to be minimal.
I ask "how much is the hydro going to run me?"
He says, "the hydro's $18, and the VIP will be $25".
I say, "I didn't ask for a VIP, just the hydro. I don't need or want you to VIP my tank. If you feel like you must for your own purposes, that's fine, but I don't intend on paying for a VIP" (For those of you who know what's going on at this point, note that this is the shop VIP, with the resultant sticker, which I'm going to have to remove before I O2 clean it and replace it with one noting that the tank is clean. It's not the "yeah, it's empty and looks ok" check that the hydro station will perform as their "visual inspection" as part of the hydro routine.)
Seeing as I'm holding the valve, and I'm going to have to O2 clean the tank, and I VIP my own cylinders, there's absolutely no intrinsic value to me for them performing a VIP, as I'm going to have to do it myself, anyway, as I'll be the one punching the O2 clean sticker. In fact, there's negative value to me, as it means that the tank will sit for a couple of days in the shop until they get around to doing the inspection once it comes back from hydro.
"Oh, we can't do that. Shop policy says we have to do a VIP when we send out to do the hydro... but we have an eddy current machine to check the neck for you, and you'll need that."
I point out that (1) this tank doesn't need an eddy current inspection, as it's from the late 90's, after they stopped making the ones prone to neck cracks, and, besides, if you read the stamp, it's clearly not made of 6351 alloy, and that (2) using the eddy current on a tank of this material (6061) is not only kind of pointless on most machines, it often leads to false results.
He says, "All aluminum cylinders need an eddy current inspection."
Um, no, they don't. I don't know where he comes up with this one, but I think he must have overheard a few words out of context in a conversation between Santa and the Easter Bunny... or maybe there was just some really bad air in the tank he was breathing recently.
I start to get in to an argument, but stop, because there's no point having a battle of wits when someone's clearly unarmed.
I end up saying, "screw it," grab my cylinder and then leave. I end up a few blocks away at another LDS that says they'll have it back in a week, no problem...These other guys are friendly, but I don't shop there much, as they're not very technically minded, but at least they'll do for me what I want done... and they have their own hydro station. Yeah, it's a few bucks more expensive there for a hydro, but at least I don't have to worry about them wasting time doing utterly stupid things. If it weren't so dang inconvenient, I'd just run it down to FireKing myself, and that's probably what I'll do when I have six or so that are going to come due for hydro in the spring.
Sigh. If I'm ever in the situation where I need or would want someone else to do my VIPs, I've now completely lost faith in these guys to perform them...