Oxygen - equipment, getting refills, refill hoses, safety, etc

Mooney_Driver wrote:

PanGas themselfs Zürichstrasse 98, 8600 Dübendorf.

Thanks. It’s interesting, they say it’s a different company, Gas & More Dübendorf:

Ah, ok maybe they have changed since I last filled my cylinder. As I said, the MH regulator makes one of these last a Loooooong time :)

Mooney_Driver wrote:

I have exactly that setup, MH with a bottle from Pangas. There is no other solution in Switzerland that I know of.

Can you give me some more details? Because here is my experience with Pangas until now:

• Nobody in the shops knows anything about flying → they gave me an email address to contact their service center.
• They respond pretty slowly and don’t read the emails (once they told me that they don’t offer what I need and a second time they asked me for my phone number which was at the last line of my email).
• They have no clue what oxygen is needed → they told me glider pilots and balloon pilots use different oxygen and they don’t know why or which should be used.
• They don’t understand the different regulators and fittings. I told him it’s DIN-477 and he said he doesn’t know what that is?!?!
• They quoted 511 CHF fixed rent fee per year + 90-95 CHF filling fee for a cylinder which contains twice less oxygen than the CFFC-048. That’s paying a new cylinder every year without counting the filling! It’s expensive even for Switzerland.

So, @Mooney_Driver, what kind of cylinder do you get from them and how much do you pay for it?

Does anyone know a good solution in Germany or maybe France, e.g. with the CFFC-048? I would prefer to go fill the cylinder there than pay this exorbitant prices.

Vladimir wrote:

Does anyone know a good solution in Germany

Maybe @achimha can help

Vladimir,

um, well, I simply walked into their shop with the old cylinder, which I had taken over from the guy who sold me the whole system and told them, “one of those please”. That was all. The word Aviation never crossed my lips, all they did is see the cylinder and walked back in the shop to get a new one. Price, if I remember right, was 150 or so CHF rent including the fill. I have to check what exactly the bottle is, but seeing that the old one came about 1/3th full and still outlasted the whole time we used it (the 2nd one was reserve) I’ve not had to go back there yet.

Vladimir wrote:

Because here is my experience with Pangas until now

Hello Vladimir dont use Pangas.
I bought 2 MH (O2D2-647-2P DIN) directly on the website and I go to a Scuba Shop to recharge it for 20 CHF.

JB wrote:

I go to a Scuba Shop to recharge it for 20 CHF

Which shop? What cylinder do you have?

Vladimir wrote:

Which shop? What cylinder do you have?

http://www.scubashop.ch/villeneuve/ (Leman Lake, Villeneuve, Vaud) and the cylinder is AL-647-CYL-W/DIN477-Valve, but I bought the kit. The most important is to buy a DIN.

The most important is to buy a DIN.

The most important is to have the fitting(s) you may need to refill. If you always go to the same place you may get by with only one. If you ever need to refill with an aviation oxygen supplier you may need a CGA-540, or AN-800. If you have access to a medical O2 supplier you may need CGA-870.