air fills

[Terry]

                               30 years ago, for every $500 you spent in a dive shop you got a year of free air, (thanks Club Scuba) and your tanks were actually full.  On holiday weekends ice was kept in the water filling tanks so your cylinders were filled cold.  Not the nonsense spewed today, of your tanks heating up so they can't be filled to their rated pressure. Air in dive shops is the same as gasoline in gas stations, it is not now or ever was, a profit making endeavor it was meant to bring you though the door. One of the local shops, near me that I use to  to frequent, I no longer do because they could not "fill" my tanks. Ten percent or more below rated pressure at the dive site is not considered acceptable by me and makes me feel screwed if I payed for it. The higher the pressure goes the more per cubic foot it costs the dive shop, do to the load on the electric motor turning the compressor and the expense of rebuilding the high pressure stage cylinder. $7.00-9.00/cyl. is outragous in todays economy. To the dive shops that dont agree, we can get everything else on the internet, next will be compressors.    TRINITY