How long can a diver stay underwater with one tank of oxygen?
Divers shudder everytime they hear their breathing gas referred to as “Oxygen”, there are in fact uses for oxygen in staged decompression diving, but the vast majority of divers will never touch oxygen and will only ever use plain old compressed air or a mix of air with an increased level of oxygen commonly known as Nitrox. So now that I have removed the oxygen niggle, I can answer the question that is actually being asked which is, “How long can a diver stay underwater with just a single Al80 tank (The most common tank used by recreational divers.) Unfortunately there is no simple answer as the time that a tank lasts is entirely dependent upon the depth of the dive and the workload of the diver. The deeper the dive the larger the volume of gas used in every breath. However to give an idea, on a normal easy going dive to 60 feet (20m) with an Al80 cylinder filled to 3000 psi (200 bar) the dive should last aproximately 35 – 40 mins including a reserve. An equivalant dive at 30 ft would
