Bottle top ups and retest.

[Vic Thompson]

My own personal opinion : for myself, I look at the total cost of getting a bottle filled (which includes direct travel costs and time). My local shop (8 miles away) charges £5 for filling small bottles and £8 for filling big ones, along with £45 plus fill for a full retest (an additional £8 in my case).

I'm happy to pay that sort of charge as I quite well believe them when they say that Bottle Filling is a Loss Making Situation for them due to the high cost of running a Compressor and the lack of incidental sales to Airgun Users who pop in for a Bottle fill only and nothing else.

My Club has their own Compressor and based on running costs (and depreciation) over the last two years I'd guess that filling a 12 Ltre Bottle costs maybe £15 or more, they are not a cheap item to run and few people appreciate the true cost of running them.

If your dive shop is five minutes drive away you'd struggle to make any real savings by driving a lot further and saving £5 in the process.

JMHO, Vic Thompson.

[Retracted_Yeti]

CTS in Speke, tested and filled my 3L bottle for £15.

Think a fill is around £3.50 to £5 depending on bottle size.

HTH.

Roy.

[max headroom]

the other thing to look at is the charging gear they use. does it have a water trap. you want air, not water filled air. another reason i chose a water filtering pump.

[Micky Spillane]

I must be bloody lucky where I live I put my bottle in for checking at APS Marine, they did the research and found it was leaking (damned thing was empty after filling rifle once) They didn't try to push things but when I said it were getting close to retest date Brian said "now you've mentioned it why not get it re-tested while it's away". I recommend APS Marine to anyone who is in need of divers air or air gun air. A thoroughly nice firm. Just outside of Salisbury.

[Martin(rockape)]

I took my bottle to Midland Dive Equipment in Liecester to be tested. Its going to cost me £39.90 this includes a fill.

A fill for a 12 Ltr 300 bar bottle is about £4.95 or £5.95

Regards

Martin

[Gavlar]

If you come to Basildon at all (a fair way from Witham but perhaps on your travels??) Thameside Fire Protection in Cranes Farm Road will fill a 12l 300 bar bottle while you wait. I think last time it cost me £5.

[rapidresponse1]

I just use a new fx pump now

[BRYAN3]

I just use a new fx pump now

That might be the way that I go too.
I just put a fill hose on my 12 ltr bottle and checked the fill level. Result 250 bar which is a bit cheeky with their fee being double everyone elses.

[Aimstraight]

That might be the way that I go too.
I just put a fill hose on my 12 ltr bottle and checked the fill level. Result 250 bar which is a bit cheeky with their fee being double everyone elses.

Last year 7L 300 bar test and fill £32 plus any serviceable parts; £40 total. The fill was only 270 bar which I was not happy about, but it seems that others on this thread have paid extra for a fill after test. That 250 bar fill you had is very poor.

That £64 they charged you for test was expensive (presumably to cover cost of them sending to a test centre). Unlikely to fail, but if it did, that's more money gone. You need a more cost effective fill/test centre next time. Expensive test but preferable to a new cylinder with airgun valve which now seem to be priced around £214; and they know it

[angrybear]

That might be the way that I go too.
I just put a fill hose on my 12 ltr bottle and checked the fill level. Result 250 bar which is a bit cheeky with their fee being double everyone elses.

Dive shops might have a compressor that only does 250bar, dive cylinders are usually A clamp 232bar so they don't need the extra 50bar, always worth asking & worth an extra 20-30 mile drive to a shop that does the full 300bar.