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

I think that some people should consider setting up a syndicate around a big rented oxygen cylinder

Here in the UK the big one is about £100/year to rent and about £30 to swap.

I used to do refills for a few people who would turn up at random times, but when I sold my trailer (another story) this became a hassle because I would end up with the hassle of swapping the cylinder at the welding gas depot sooner than I would otherwise, and the £10 I would get for the refill was not enough. But also the people stopped coming; I am not sure if those particular pilots are flying IFR anymore.

Later I managed to set it up so the welding gas firm would come to my house. They sometimes don’t like doing that but actually quite a lot of people use oxygen for hobby or small scale jewellery work (not with acetylene but with cheap camping propane as the gas) so this is a good story to give to your local welding gas shop

JB wrote:

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.

I haven’t been able to find a scuba shop east of Zurich that will do this, so it looks like Pangas or Carbagas (Air Liquide) are the only options in this area. Both work only on a cylinder exchange basis, and they use the heavy cylinders, not the light alu carbon or kevlar ones sold by MH. Perhaps for some a/c this isn’t a problem, but for many it is just too much extra weight. What I don’t really understand is the weights that Pangas and Carbagas show on their web site for a full tank. Their spec sheets list huge weights for small gas volumes. E.g. 50 litres at 200bar has a listed weight of 74-80kg and a height of >1.5m. The largest cylinder listed is 600 litres and it weighs 1300kg !!! and measures 0.8 × 1.2 × 1.7m high. That would barely fill the 647 cylinder you got from MH, so I must be misunderstanding something. Anyone able to enlighten me?

Perhaps @Mooney_Driver can indicate what the cylinder size, weight, and volume are that he’s getting from Pangas?

chflyer wrote:

E.g. 50 litres at 200bar has a listed weight of 74-80kg and a height of >1.5m

The spec sheet list is a volume of 50 liters not compressed. From MH data the 647 cylinder is the volume @ 153 bar Maximum! With this cylinder you can refill approximately 20 times and for the weights, the cylinders are in steel.

I tried to take 1 Oxygen 6.0 from Pangas, but I said it was for aviation! I made a BIG mistake…

Myself not being concerned in this matter , I think I´d get me a 20 l oxygen cylinder from welding supply rented or “bought”, there are different schemes. They will fill up or change the 20 l type . Plus buy a 2 l / 3.5 kg cylinder to go into the aircraft. You could fill it via adapter pipe for oxygen cylinders from the 20 l type at home. A 50 liter steel cylinder is veeery heavy, would not want to handle that if I don´t have to. I believe you could find all sorts of adapters for these cylinders to connect to your aircraft gear. Seems these dealers don´t send pressurised cylinders to foreign countries so you´d have to find a workaround. At least this may be helpful as an idea.

Vic

http://www.ebay.de/itm/2-0-Liter-Sauerstoffflasche-Medizinischer-Sauerstoff-/152464957330?hash=item237f9e9f92:g:xWAAAOSwSlBYwBkZ

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sauerstoffflasche-20-Liter-Gasflasche-Schweisen-und-Schneiden-/251142011793?hash=item3a793afb91:g:bKEAAMXQWzNSkxTw

http://www.ebay.de/itm/122067713039?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Maybe I am missing something but why isn’t it possible in Switzerland to walk into a welding gas depot and rent or buy an oxygen cylinder?

Here is one UK online shop and I rent the W size which as you can see is £30/year. The W size is heavy – bigger part of 100kg – but there are smaller ones.

Just tell them you use it for jewellery – that’s if they ask. Obviously don’t turn up in a flying suit

I reckon there are welding gas depots in every town in every country. Where I live there are several within a few km. Far more than scuba shops, especially scuba shops that do oxygen and will sell it to a non-diver.

Vic’s last link above shows transfer hoses. The fittings are interesting. I wonder what they are?

According to the specs further down the page, both fittings are DIN 477-1

I’m looking to rent an O2 system to use for about a week in mid February.
Would you know a company / individual interested in doing so? I’d be happy to leave big deposit if needed!. I just normally don’t have a ton of use for it so don’t really want to buy for a one off!

edit: I’m based in London

Where are you based?

Good point.

London

Thread title updated.

Does anyone really rent out a system with the $800 O2D2? To me, it’s a bit like renting scuba kit including the 2nd stage regulator. When I was doing a bit of scuba, everyone who was travelling abroad to dive rented the cylinder at the location but brought their own 2nd stage reg.

A basic system can be bought for not much, but it isn’t good for long trips (low capacity, and – if applicable – not much good at higher altitudes).