I have two local diving shops where I regularly fill.
They can’t fill DIN-477 directly. Their bottles are G5/8" (air). The DIN-477 valve is G3/4" (O2).
I use this adapter to fill at a diving shop.
I think I’ll stay clear of the major airports, including Le Bourget. That would feel like buying clothes Avenue Marceau.
Aero-Entreprise at Toussus would be convenient since I also fly out of there. I believe they are located right next to Air et Compagnie in the south-western corner of the airfield, where I trained for the MEP.
Also 80 € does not sound that bad although I saw one scuba shop advertising oxygen refills for 17 €/m^3, hence 22 € for a 48 cu in bottle. They are nowhere near Paris though…
This site advertises oxygen at 0,025 €/l which means filling a 48 cu in cylinder with oxygen would be about 30 €.
What do people generally pay for oxygen across Europe?
A local shop (Lancing, Sussex) charges about GBP 5 for a refill (GBP 1 for air). I am not sure of the amount you get for the 5 quid though.
The problem is that they have varied wildly as to whether they will do it. And currently they run the old scam of demanding a test on a 2.1 years old scuba cylinder marked “ground use only” (which is good for 5 years).
I have just had an invoice from BOC at (all including VAT) GBP 130 annual rental and GBP 46 for swapping for a fresh one (half of that is a delivery cost since I could not find somebody to help me take the cylinder to the welding gas depot) which I do every 2 years or so.
I can get about 4 full-pressure 48 cu ft refills out of that cylinder (BOC size W) because it is 3000psi and the MH one takes 2200psi max, plus a large number of partial refills which are almost as good. I used up about 2/3 of my 48 cu ft MH cylinder on the last two trips (Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Corsica).
So, provided that it isn’t too much of a hassle to get it swapped for a fresh one, and you can get a refill hose made up (like the one in my writeup) this is the way to go unless you find a really friendly scuba shop. Especially if you make a business out of it, serving local pilots. I am sure French industrial gas prices are similar.
I pay 10€ to refill my 48cu ft cylinder at a local diving shop. Some shops won’t fill it as the cylinder doesn’t have this:
Can I get this clear in my brain…?
@lenthamen you have a DIN-thread o2 cylinder just like the MH one in the first post in this thread, and by screwing the above adaptor onto that, your local dive shop can refill it?
You seem to be converting a male thread into a female thread.
I wonder what @Emir can report – he is an expert on this stuff.
The above pic I recognise as a standard air cylinder but with the middle part removed. This is the original
The fitting that goes onto that is the standard A-clamp
And I think this
is a screw-in adaptor which, when unscrewed, turns it into the one you posted which I think is shown here
So are you saying that the female thread immediately above is the same as the one below?
There is a big difference in the thread depth (length).
That would then mean that a US o2 cylinder with a “DIN” fitting needs just the above adaptor and every scuba shop should be able to fill it.
Peter wrote:
So are you saying that the female thread immediately above is the same as the one below?
Affirmative. the thread is popularly called “SCUBA DIN”. There is 200 and 300BAR “SCUBA DIN”. That might explain the thread depth difference.
The official standard is DIN-477 No. 13:
The MH cylinder DIN-477 is actually DIN-477 No. 9:
@lenthamen, if I buy a MH oxygen system for Europe, would you recommend that I go for
Would that be a good start to be able to refill at both aircraft maintenance facilities and scuba shops?