Faber 125 cubic foot 2400 psi steel scuba diving tank, $5
This scuba diving tank has several things going for it. It’s made from steel, its capacity of 125 cubic feet is much higher than the more common 80 cubic feet, and it’s made by Faber, whose products routinely cost a great deal of money.
As I’m routinely stating here at Auctionbandits, the purpose of these Entries is not to provide you with all you could ever want to know about a particular item, because there are countless places on the ‘net for you to do that. My purpose is to provide you with what you need to know to make educated buying decisions so that you can make money. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what you have to know about scuba tanks to make money on them.
The very first thing you should know about scuba tanks is that they’re heavy and expensive to ship. A scuba tank may weigh anywhere from around 35 pounds to over 50 pounds. No matter how little you may have to pay for a particular item, weight is an important consideration because it can get really costly. A tank like this one may cost a buyer $30 to over $50 to ship via UPS ground.
The second thing you must know about scuba tanks is that no matter how nice and valuable a particular tank 'looks' to you, it may easily turn out to be absolutely worthless. Let’s take a better look at this one.
Scuba tanks must be periodically inspected in two ways – visually and hydrostatically. The visual inspection procedure (or ‘VIP’) must be done annually, and entails simply removing the valve at the top of the tank and looking inside for any rust or corrosion. A visual is normally done at a dive shop, and the passing tank gets a dated sticker affixed to the tank advising of the tank’s status. Minor corrosion can usually be removed by rolling the tank with glass beads inside, for an additional investment, of course.
A hydrostatic inspection, commonly referred to as a ‘hydro,’ is more complex, which means that the local dive shop will normally send it out to a federally-regulated facility to have the test done. A hydro will cost you from $25 to maybe $40 or so. During the hydro, the tank is filled with water, and the top valve is replaced with one that can pump in water under great pressure. The scuba tank is then submerged into a closed container filled with water, and the scuba tank itself is then pressurized with water (usually to 5/3 of its rated pressure, so a tank rated at 3000 p.s.i. will be pressurized to 5000 p.s.i. for the test.)
Water is used instead of air because water under static pressure has almost no potential energy, and a tank failure during the test will result in nothing more than a teaspoonful or two of water squirting out into the exterior tank. An exploding tank full of air at 5000 p.s.i., on the other hand, could literally blow apart a building.
As the tank is pressurized during the hydro, the technician measures how much the tank expands under pressure, by simply measuring, via a small tube called a ‘barette’, the amount of water displaced from the container that the tank is sitting in.
The technician checks several things during the hydro test, the first of which is to ensure that the tank does not expand too much as it is being pressurized. He will also make sure that it doesn't continue to expand once it has been pressurized, and that it contracts to near its original dimensions once all that pressure has been removed.
If all goes well, a tank that passes its hydrostatic test will receive a stamp on the neck of the tank that indicates the year and month the test was made, as well as the federal code of the shop that did the test. The stamp on our Faber tank in this Entry looks a bit gnarly because Faber tanks are epoxy coated, and the stamping tool chipped off the epoxy before imprinting the steel.
And what if a tank fails its hydrostatic test? Simple - instead of a date stamp, the tank gets a hole drilled right into its side (so that it cannot be reused) and is returned it to the dive shop. How's that for customer service? Cruel, but necessary.
Now, a (very) few words about the tank valve - that chrome piece that screws into the top of the tank to which the scuba regulator fastens. Any tank you’re likely to encounter will likely have either a yoke (which this tank has) or a DIN (Deutche Industrie Norm) type valve. The primary visual difference between the two is how the regulator secures to the valve. A quick search on the ‘net will reveal way more about these two valve types than you could ever want to know, so I’m not going to beat it up too much here. Just be aware that these two types do exist. Although it’s generally accepted that the DIN type of valve is superior, the majority of tanks you encounter in the U.S. will be the yoke type. Believe it or not, some dimwit will occasionally ask you, 'Is this tank a yoke or DIN type?' Provided you have a clear photo of the valve in your auction, feel free to block such bidders, as they have no business around dive equipment if they cannot tell the difference.
My strategy for buying scuba tanks is simple. First of all, I stick with steel tanks. Most of the tanks you see will be made from aluminum, and although they come in various sizes, by far the tank you're most likely to encounter is the 80-cubic foot ‘aluminum 80.’ These tanks cost relatively little to buy new, and sell for relatively little on eBay. When you consider all the factors, there's just not enough reward potential to justify the bother.
I like Faber tanks, simply because the name so often spells certain profit. Interestingly, the majority of contemporary steel scuba tanks I've seen have been Fabers. Other tank brands like Sherwood, Worthington and PST, for example, sell quite well, but I don't see them.
I avoid old tanks, not only because they are less desirable than newer tanks, but because they are more likely to fail inspections. As you start seeing more scuba tanks in your travels, you’ll notice that many of them are really old. I've seen old steel tanks with necks sporting a half dozen hydro stamps from back in the 1960s and 1970s! Not only will your potential buyers not want old scuba tanks, but some shops will even refuse to do hydrostatic tests on these old tanks!
I don't pay more than a few dollars for any tank whose hydrostatic stamp has expired. The 99 in that mess of numbers and letters stamped around the top of our Faber tank is its year of manufacture, and the lack of hydro stamps tells me that it was due for its first inspection in 2004, and is long overdue. The lack of a hydro stamp also tells me that this tank has not been filled by a licensed dive shop recently, since none will fill a tank whose hydro has expired.
I’m very cautious of empty tanks. When you consider that moisture is responsible for the rust and corrosion a visual inspection is intended to find, it should be easy to understand that scuba tanks are filled with very dry air. A tank with no air pressure in it tells me that it may very well have spent time with the valve open, allowing moisture from the atmosphere to get inside and do its damage. Keep in mind that an open scuba tank will tend to ‘breathe,’ sucking in air and pushing it out with every change in atmospheric pressure and temperature. Condensation settles inside the tank and you have corrosion.
Just like most all scuba tanks, the neck of this Faber has all kinds of writing on it, indicating everything from neck threads to tank thickness to all kinds of stuff you'll never have to worry about. When I list this tank, I can put it all in the auction just in case a potential bidder wants it. But the only stuff that matters to me - and to most bidders - are the brand name, the date of manufacture, capacity in cubic feet and the rated pressure.
FABER – ITALY M8303 99/8537/ 033 044 99 +
OCEAN MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS / 125 CU FT
TD 3AAM – 184/DOT 3AA 2400 REE 99
From what I’ve seen so far, selling a tank with an expired hydro 'as is' isn’t worth it. A buyer is not likely to pay a bunch of shipping costs for a tank that may very likely end up being worthless. The best way to assure your bidders that they’re getting a solid tank is to have a VIP done, and a hydro if the existing stamp is close to expiring or has expired. Sure, you run the risk of a tank failing and being junk, but it costs little to find this out. And paying almost nothing for the tank in the first place is a really good start to stacking the proverbial deck in your favor!
This Faber steel 125 cu. ft. 2400 p.s.i. scuba tank sold on eBay for $255.
