Hey!
Do you need a diving qualification to get bottles filled with clean air at a dive shop?.

Depends where you go to get them refilled, i have never been asked to show my qualifications.

Stu.

Never been asked either - getting gasses other than air could be a problem unless you rent your own J-cylinder of oxygen or helium. Paintball/airgun enthusiasts also get fills for their guns from dive shops and I'm sure that not all of them are divers.

So long as your tanks are in test (every 2.5 years) you should be OK - its illegal for a paid employee to fill them - unless you have your own compressor ;-).

Some places have been known to grumble at filling bashed up muddy cylinders so its a good idea to wash the crap off of them first. I usually hide the raw metal showing thruogh the base of my tanks by putting a cylinder boot on them - the dive shop likes this because they can stand them upright to fill.

The biggest PITA is paying for fills of cylinders that you've only used a little air out of. Also when you get poor fill pressures due to fast filling and low air banks. Find a dive shop that will pump your tanks slowly, let them cool and top them off again. Its worth it (or get a compressor).

I would agree with Duncan. However I would urge you to check your pressures before you leave the shop. Although still worm it should give you a good idea as to how good the fill is. If not what you expect talk to the shop and ask to be topped up.
Good luck
KenJ

Again - I can never over emphasise being able to get a decent fill. For an open water diver 10 or 20 bar under what they wanted just means a shorter dive. For a cave diver this can make the difference to being able to get through a sump or not. A crap fill can mean no dive.

My dive shop appreciates this and will cool my tanks in a bucket of water and then top off again to over the working pressure so that its a spot on fill when I need it.

Deliberately overcharging cylinders is a practice that I would not publically condone - but if you are doing it it is safer with smaller cylinders as the wall thickness is greater and there's more margin of safety.

At least one cave diver has lost his life when a tank he was filling himself exploded.

Since you are in the Yorkshire Dales, I suggest that you join the CDG Northern Section. They have access to a coin operated compressor in Ingleton. The savings on air fills will substantially increase the value of the subscription! Plus if you want to get seriously into cave diving, joining the CDG and meeting some good divers would be very much in your interest.

Mark

MSD is right about the benefits of joining the CDG but bear in mind that (because of insurance reasons) there is a fixed number of keys to the compressor and these are currently only allocated to qualified divers. Even some qualified divers don't have keys because there are not enough for one each, so key allocation tends to be based on activity levels.

It does take time to become qualified (partly because you have to log your progress and experience) so don't assume that joining the CDG Northern Section means quick easy fills. It would be a sensible thing to do though if you are serious about cave diving.

I agree with everything Pitlamp says. However, if you are diving with other CDG members from time to time, you can of course get a fill if they are going to the compressor.

Diving with other experienced divers is by far the best way to learn to cave dive. I learnt a hell of a lot just carrying for other divers. Just seeing how they prepare for a dive is very important, because the success or failure of a dive depends just as much on all the preparation as on what you do once in the water.

Mark