cjensen

cjensen

Well Known Member
Let me preface this by saying I know *nothing* about oxygen bottles. Never had to use one in the King Air, and I've never sucked on the stuff in anything unpressurized...

I have in my possession, one Scott oxygen bottle that is calendar expired...

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It's the backup bottle out of our PC-12, and can no longer be used in anything certified. It is currently empty, and capped off. My question is, is the bottle usable and safe, or is the expiration a hard and fast rule?

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Need some schooling on this. I never intended to put oxygen in, but getting up that high could be useful...

:confused:
 
RE: O2 bottle

If the bottle is high presssure(2000 psi) and refillable, just take it to a welding shop and ask them to have it hydrostatically tested. They will know if it can be recerted. It will come back within a week and have a 5 year stamped date on it and you are good to go. The cost is usually $20 to $35 for the recert. Dan
 
Composite Cylinder

guccidude1 said:
If the bottle is high presssure(2000 psi) and refillable, just take it to a welding shop and ask them to have it hydrostatically tested. They will know if it can be recerted. It will come back within a week and have a 5 year stamped date on it and you are good to go. The cost is usually $20 to $35 for the recert. Dan
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Don't think they will hydro that cylinder, it is a composite cylinder, not steel or aluminum. That is the reason for the expiration date. By the way, it is looking like a cylinder of that type was the cause of the hole in the Qantas 747 a couple of weeks ago. If it were me, I'd cut it in half and have two nice flower pots. :D

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
While recycling some copper wire, I noticed some oxygen bottles at the recycler. He said people bring them in all the time. I bought one with a recent date for 3$--sure beats testing, at least if you have a system that uses the medical kind.

Bob Kelly
 
It's a fiber-wrapped cylinder, the expiration is a hard and fast rule. I have a side business dealing with high pressure air systems, I deal with this daily. Metal cylinders have no specific expiration lifetime, you simply hydrotest them every 5 years and keep going as long as they pass test. Fiber-wrapped bottles (both fiberglass and carbon fiber) still have to be hydrotested every 3 or 5 years (depending on the design) but they have an additional restriction of 15 years maximum service life. The restriction has to do mostly with the lack of knowledge of what stressed fiberglass acts like as it ages. It MAY be safe to use until some farther-out date in time, but nobody knows where that line is at, and I for one don't intend to go exploring for it.

You won't find a reputable law-abiding shop that will hydrotest or fill it, and it would likely void your insurance policy to fill it yourself and use it in the airplane.
 
Probably know this already by you can get new a D cylinder oxygen tank with toggle valve on ebay for about $53 shipped--just bought one. Here's an ebay number for another: 370073898257.
 
G-force said:
At least make something cool out of it like a lamp or something :)
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Use it as a portable or shop compressed air bottle. Should do fine at 200-250 psi I would think. DOT might not like you driving around with an expired gas bottle in your car - if they caught you.
 
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