Nitrox fills

[jasondbaker]

We ran into a problem this weekend trying to get air fills at a dive shop.

The problem was that my dive buddy was trying to get air fills in tanks with the green nitrox stickers. The dive shop would not put air in the tank because doing so would apparently violate DOT regulations. He would only put nitrox (22-40%) in the tanks. My argument was that the shop could put air in the tank and then just put 21% or AIR on the contents label. I was quoted a DOT regulation -- but that regulation was very open to interpretation.

I have found that some shops in MN will not put nitrox in a tank unless the tank has the fat green nitrox sticker. Some shops just want to see a small nitrox contents label on the tank. And some shops frankly don't care -- they just label the tank with o2%, MOD, and date on duct tape.

This is the first time I have encountered a shop in MN that would not put air into a tank with the nitrox sticker. He would only put air in if the sticker was removed.

I have probably been to 90% of the shops in MN. Is this dive shop right and every other shop in MN wrong?