This article will review the Faber FX Series 100 cu ft High Pressure Blue Steel Tank, a scuba tank made by Faber, an Italian company, and sold in North America by Blue Steel.<\/p>\n
We will look at this high-pressure steel tank and compare it to several other diving tanks on the market, looking at price, performance, and overall quality to see which tank offers the best overall value to buyers.<\/p>\n
Faber, a company highly respected for making quality diving cylinders, makes this steel tank whose model number is FX100DV. It is sold in the Western hemisphere by a company called Blue Steel.<\/p>\n
Steel tanks are becoming more popular amongst divers at all experience levels. Before we discuss more details about this Faber tank, let’s take a look at the basic choice divers now have between selecting the standard aluminum-80 tank and new high-pressure steel tanks.<\/p>\n
As we will see, it isn’t always either\/or, but rather a situation where it depends a lot on the needs of the diver or even a particular dive.<\/p>\n
Many years ago, steel tanks were the gear<\/a> of choice for divers. They were strong and reliable and while not exactly trouble-free, they usually worked just fine.<\/p>\n But one key issue with steel tanks was they took a lot of care, because if you were neglectful with them and allowed moisture to get inside the tank, you would soon end up with a rust-bucket, a compromised cylinder you could no longer use.<\/p>\n This is just one reason that, by the 1980s, steel tanks were being replaced by aluminum<\/a>, and this is still the dominant material for building scuba diving cylinders.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n The basic reasons are:<\/p>\n Of all these, the first is the most important. It isn’t that aluminum doesn’t need care; it does. But if moisture does get into the tank it is much less likely that situation will wreck the tank beyond being useful. And that makes aluminum a much easier material to maintain, and everybody likes easier, don’t they?<\/p>\n In addition, the lighter weight, cheaper prices and the prevalence of aluminum tanks mean it’s a lot cheaper and easier to rent aluminum diving tanks in places where you either can’t or just don’t want to travel with your own tanks.<\/p>\n So, if aluminum is so great, why go back to steel?<\/p>\n Great question! And like so many questions about diving, it doesn’t have just one simple answer. The main reason, though, is that steel is just a lot stronger and more durable a metal than aluminum. This allows divers to have more air in their tank<\/a> while not dramatically increasing its size.<\/p>\n With aluminum, you will run into a problem satisfying both of those demands, because any tank delivering on them would have to withstand higher pressure in the tank to pack more air into it. You would basically have to thicken the walls of the aluminum tank so much to do this it would violate your second requirement. An aluminum tank would have to be bigger and bulkier to achieve the desired result.<\/p>\n Or, you could go back to steel with its superior strength that will require less mass in the cylinder to obtain the same high-pressure capacity. This means that while the steel tank may weigh a bit more than aluminum (because steel is denser than aluminum), it won’t be as bulky.<\/p>\n And, there are other advantages to steel. Steel is not as vulnerable to dings and dents as aluminum. Also, steel has more negative buoyancy, which means that a diver can reduce the amount of ballast weight they carry when they dive with steel tanks, especially in colder waters.<\/p>\nAluminum Takes Over<\/h3>\n
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Back to Steel<\/h3>\n