Just found out heliox costs $400 for a single tank fill

I was pricing out some deep mixed gas dives for a job off the Gulf Coast and nearly choked when the supplier quoted me $400 per tank for heliox. Where do you guys find affordable helium mixes without cutting corners on safety?

3 comments

3 Comments

mila_brown1024d ago

Bulk ordering with a buddy dropped my cost to under $200 a tank.

jake_torres6819d ago

Bulk ordering sounds great on paper but honestly it locks you into a specific gas blend that might not work for all your dives. What if you get stuck with a bunch of trimix you can't use because your buddy flakes or you change your dive plan? Splitting a tank is a gamble with your safety margins too, especially if one of you breathes harder and uses more gas than the other. Plus you're still paying up front for a big order which isn't cheap even with a discount. I'd rather pay a bit more per tank and keep my options open than commit to a whole batch of something I might not even need.

susan_bell24d ago

Came here to say the same thing, basically. My buddy and I split a bulk order of trimix last year and it brought the per-tank cost way down, like almost half of what you're being quoted. @mila_brown10 is right about that approach, it's been a game changer for me. The scary part is how much the price jumps if you don't have a dive partner to go in with you, especially when you're trying to stay within safe gas limits for those deeper profiles. It's crazy that we have to hunt for deals just to breathe underwater safely.