Took me 5 dives to notice the color tag on my own tank was wrong

Was doing some work on a pier repair in Norfolk last month and kept wondering why my air felt off. Turns out my tank had a green band instead of yellow, which means it was supposed to be nitrox not regular air. I checked the fill log and sure enough, the shop mislabeled it. Anyone else ever catch a mix-up like that on a routine fill?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma89615d ago

You kept wondering why your air felt off" - that's the part that gets me. Most divers wouldn't even think to question it until something serious happened. Here's an angle nobody's talking about: what if it was the other way around and you got nitrox when you wanted regular air? Then you'd be risking oxygen toxicity without even knowing it. The color coding system exists for a reason, but it's only as good as the person checking it. I've seen dive shops get sloppy with their tagging and it makes you wonder how many close calls just get dismissed as "bad air days." We put way too much trust in those little plastic bands without double checking the gas ourselves. That pier repair job could have ended a lot worse if the mix was wrong.

gavinwood14d ago

That "put way too much trust in those little plastic bands" line hits home. It's like the barcode scanners at the grocery store - we just assume the system is right until we get home and find out we paid for organic grapes but got the regular ones. Difference is with air tanks, the mix-up could actually kill you instead of just messing up your fruit salad.