Can a Hookah system fill a dive tank?

[wsmac]

Typical Internet Forum Discussion....
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OP asks only if it's possible to fill a scuba tank from a hookah compressor...
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Gets 2 PAGES of replies mostly about taking scuba classes, dangers of scuba, commercial hardhat diving down to 2000 ft....
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hahahahaha..... dayamn... guess I'm not so good at reading between the lines when someone posts a question... I figure I should answer what was asked.... not branch out into wonderland.... LOL

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

I didn't mean I did the dive. I just did the googling. I am not about to go deeper than I need to go to get a task done and certainly not down into "technical" or "deep" depths. The record scuba dive was to I think 1080 something feet, 15 hours for a normal decompressing ascent but no chamber. Like I said, give it a google.

A few minutes research will tell any idiot that exceeding established limits is a potentially (or probably) fatal mistake. Its like skydiving. Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,000 feet. That doesn't make it a good idea, not does it make jumping from 10,000 feet necessarily a really bad idea.

If you ask me, NO recreational diving makes sense. I only do it when I have a good reason. Who cares about looking at a bunch of stupid fish in the water? I want to see them on my plate, not swimming around like they own the ocean or something. But the vast majority will disagree with me of course. And if they follow standard procedures, it is fairly safe.

BTW, Herbert Nitsch went down to 702 feet deep. Free diving, not scuba. Kids, don't try that at home, either! I have to assume that was with no decompression stops on the way up.

Free diving holding on to a rock or something is probably safer than with compressed what ever. God bless him having the lung capacity I guess the bends or narcosis aren't a problem. Just drowning.

[robbievardon]

GM I think that the descent was with a sledge which takes you down very quickly and means less problems coming up as he would not have been absorbing much gas from his last breath before descending, ie no stops reqd. The last I heard in terms of time for not breathing was more than 11 minutes. As to pressure, the body generally is regarded as incompressible with the exception of all voids ie chest,ears etc. How he coped with pressure on his lungs/chest I have no idea. Usually the last few hundred feet is covered by scuba divers placed at intervals to the surface for safety. If you know the answer please post it. If I find out will do same.

[a64pilot]

At those depths I believe his lungs would have essentially been totally collapsed.
I want to think from reading years ago that maybe some fluid fills the tiny amount of lung space there is at those kind of depths on a free dive.
I don't understand record deep diving, we have lost too many very good divers that way. Sheck Exely for one. David Shaw Is one that bothered me as he and I have very similar backgrounds, I just don't understand the fascination

[senzafine]

as mentioned above,a "fill"on a dive tank is greater than 2000 psi and a
hookah compressor operates about 100 psi.this is so far off i think you may
have misunderstood what he was telling you.

perhaps he was saying that a dive tank on the surface can be used
as a source of air instead of a compressor.i think i have seen a system like this advertised.

[MartinAdelaide]

Originally Posted by robbievardon

Good to see some sensible advice above, but a word of caution,by all means do a dive course but remember a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. When your instructor signs your bit of paper saying you are a competent qualified diver DO NOT believe him. You are neither of the above.

When I did my PADI Advanced Diver I had 120 dives logged. There were three divers who came directly following their Open Water course. One of them was so uncomfortable he looked like he was trying to fly, his hands waved so much.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by WindJunkie

I've been told by someone who supposedly knows, that a 12v hookah compressor can be somehow used to fill tanks. Does anyone know if this is really possible or just hogwash?

It's hogwash. And don't try it!

What's commonly considered an "empty" scuba tank could hold around 20 - 50 bar, or 750 psi.

Connect a hookah line to that, it will likely burst.

[robbievardon]

Sorry my post No 28 not working. Try and Google "Saturation diving" with Jason Anderson, or if you want a real insight into commercial diving look at the Sam Archer film {BBC} nearly an hour long. Not made clear in either is the problems associated with the use of helium. The voice distortion is (was?) sorted by filtering through a computer,the cooling effect of helium gas by heating the gas + they are in HW suits.Jason video is most likely around 200 ft. as the vis is good. As quoted by Sam the deep vis is usually zero, you know where you are when you bump into it. Night and day are the same. I did a quick check on fatalities in the USA, just under 20 % SOLO, which gives 80 % Buddy related deaths. Buddy is the safe way to dive according to PADI. We left the sea a couple of thousand years ago. It is now the most hostile area in the world. Too many people do an hour or two in the pool then a few dives in clear warm water and are then conned into believing they are qualified and experienced divers. Some of the posts in this forum show an absolute lack of the understanding of diving science by "qualified" divers!!! Martin good on you, you just might make it to retirement.

[a64pilot]

It's not saturation diving, or even professional diving, but many of those that cave dive prefer to do it Solo.
I'll occasionally dive with someone that I know to be a much better diver than I am, but usually I'm by myself.
I don't understand the reliance on someone else except maybe most people qualified as open water divers, really should not be diving, but only because they don't have the experience and training, anything that has a better than 90% first time pass rate, isn't very difficult or demanding training

[Siberian Sea]

You need a two stage high pressure compressor to fill a dive tank. Also the compressor must have special none toxic oil in it and the correct filters to remove the water vapor. Air supplied from your dive compressor should be very very clean as each 33 feet you go down is one atmosphere of pressure so each breath become twice as dense for each 33 feet. Anything contaminated in the air is also multiplied. Please don't drew around, a dive shop will fill your tank for 5-10 dollars.

[PhiSig1071]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Free diving holding on to a rock or something is probably safer than with compressed what ever. God bless him having the lung capacity I guess the bends or narcosis aren't a problem. Just drowning.

Bends or Narcosis are not a problem, the biggest danger is shallow water blackout.

(I'm a PADI Divemaster with 500+ recreational dives, I used to be the Divemaster on a liveaboard schooner)

Gas under pressure works differently, the percentage of the gas present in the mix, multiplied by the total number of atmospheres gives you the partial pressure. "Air" is about 21% oxygen, so that's .21 times atmospheres absolute (1 atmosphere is every 33ft in saltwater, plus 1 for surface pressure). In lay mans terms the partial pressure is equivalent to the same percentage at surface pressure, so at 3 ata/66ft it would be .21 times 3, or .63, which is equivalent to breathing 63% o2 at the surface. The problem is as your body burns the o2 while freediving you will have a much lower percentage of o2, which may be fine at depth, where the pressure causes the partial pressures to be high enough to sustain consciousness, but as you surface the pressure lowers, which lowers the partial pressure of the o2, and then the "effective percentage" may drop below the amount you need to remain conscious. At which point you can suffer shallow water blackout and drown. That's probably the number 1 cause of fatal accident for freedivers. I used to do a lot of freediving while spearfishing and I learned as much as I could about it.