And you never mentioned the risk of lung over expansion injury for the ones that don’t actually know how to dive

Unfiltered air from just a bicycle pump is dangerous. Some oil and other small parts can come in the tank and then in your lungs.

1:30 alright let me crank up the volume. 🚀

my dad has been scuba certified for over 25 years. He recently got two 2 liter tanks that come with back packs. Since he knows how to use them and has taught me everything I need to know on the dangerous of over expansion and decompression sickness, these are a blast to use in a lake. But you should get scuba certified so you know what ur doing as in knowing how to inspect the tank and get it hydrostatically tested.

I was issued one in the military. We keep them in vehicles in case of a water rollover. 5 carried in a vehicle can save the life of a trapped crewmember. Ours are filled using an air compressor and checked every time we went on a mission. They were part of the vehicle inspection.

This is also very dangerous when marketed towards non-scuba certified users. People who aren’t certified know very little, if nothing at all about the dangers associated with diving. These dangers are very very easily preventable with the property knowledge and training, but without that, they can be catastrophic.

I've seen these for military use, by Visit, Board Search and Seizure teams, or troops riding helos over water. The rationale is in case your bird goes into the drink or you flip your RHIB and need to swim out from it, the tank will provide you just enough to do so. Its 100% not for anything outside these very narrow purposes.

Thank you for the investigative information.

These were called HEEDS (helicopter emergency egress device) in the military. We used them for egress out of a helicopter that went down in the water. We did not however fill them up with air from a bike tire pump. They were filled with compressed air from scuba tanks.

In addition to not mentioning lung over expansion dangers, you didn't mention the issues maintaining the cylinder. Safe compressed air (a hazardous material) practices have been established over decades of experience, research and training. DOT requires this bottle (over 2") to be hydrostatically tested every 5 years. In some countries it's 2 years, and visually inspected annually per the CGA (Compressed Gas Association) pamphlet. This will never happen as these tanks will never pass through the hands of trained fillers and inspectors. To make matters worse, the filters in the pump do not extract moisture making the inside prone to oxidation. I can't imagine these companies not being sued out of existence immediately. There really should be some legislation introduced to ban them before the body count gets too high.

Me and my son are going to get into the hobby and you have no idea how much money you just saved me cuz we're both beginners and I was looking literally at these things on eBay thank you very much sticking with my snorkel

I remember these being advertised as emergency use only when I got certified back in 1996. Dangerous for people to just grab these and go. Lung expansion injury could happen if somebody did something regrettable like dive really deep and tried to take in a deep breath and head to the surface. My scuba instructor had to watch somebody die of that and it was a traumatic experience for him. He remembers trying to do CPR on him and him and 2 other people would do CPR and go throw up because his lungs were getting into their mouth. EMS showed up but it wasn't enough and he died. Serious stuff.

I’m a free diver my self and it takes years to train your body to hold your breath for four minutes

There’s a reason scuba divers call these things “Three breaths till death.”

Not meaning this in a funny way, but I would be more concerned with lung over expansion injuries rather than fatigue in pumping up the cylinder. You failed to mention that people should undergo special training when breathing compressed air. If you ascend from 10 m holding your last breathe of air, you may rupture your little alveolis!!!

Diving is a serious hobby that takes some technical attention. If you used this without any diving knowledge you are at risk of suffering a multitude of things that may go wrong. Shallow water blackout, Samba, lounge collapse or decompression sickness are just a few of the things that could easily shorten your life (kill you). I recommend this only as a backup addition to your scuba tanks. Anything else is playing with a lions balls at feeding time.

Hello Christian This bottle was not developed to be used for diving. Anyone who claims that is almost a murderer. That would be life-threatening. This bottle was developed to release a fixed anchor on a sail or motor boat in an emergency... As you have already noticed The air in the bottle only lasts about 2 minutes at 10 meters. In addition, it should only be filled with a compressor to avoid contamination. And not to forget the regular TÜV. Best wishes to you from Stress and Rescue and Master Diver

Bought my Spare Air for the Safety and Emergency use of its intended useful purpose but I did play around with it at the swimming area at our Lake Park. I used the adaptor it came with to fill it off of my Scuba tank at which the Spare Air has a popoff on the regulator to show its full. It sounds pretty unsafe, and I don't think I'd even consider filling a Spare Air with a bicycle pump considering there's no filter to prevent pump oil or other contaminations from entering the Spare Air.

Thank you! Was about to buy one of these today so I'm very glad I watched your video first :)

I've had mine for years (filled by tank). People scoff at them and say they are no good for making a surface accent when out of air. I say they are probably correct depending on depth. I don't use them for that. I use them to get to my dive buddy for their air in the rare case that we're separated at a distance. I have never had to use it. At about 60ft, it gives me about 20 breaths. Redundancy is a good thing. This is not the best solution, but it is one solution. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

You see thats the thing. Thats for emergency when a scuba diver's tank is out of oxygen when he needs to resurface or something. Or when a lifeguard needs to save someone when they are already drowning. So they will obviously take the time and effort to pump it for 1 hour. No one has the time for that just to go swimming in a pool

If me and da bois get one of these we will think were Poseidon or something

Here in Brazil spear fisherman like it for survival causes. Nobody goes around playing with this, but if something get stuck in something, extra air means life or death.

Great review, short and to the point, and fair in all respects.

I think this would be a fantastic tool for the big wave surfing community! Big wave hold downs can be very scary and severe especially when you are disorientated and dont know which way is up. Knowing you have some spare oxygen is going to help keep you calm tilll you are able to reach the surface.

The most op strat of them all, go scuba diving

Seen these used as emergency equipment for going into certain environment like testing stuff on or under water where you may become trapped for a minute if it sinks and need time to get out. They're small and can be strapped to you and pull out in an instant, 2 minutes is all you need to escape.

Seriously this is so helpful rather than wasting my money thanks!

Something off with the calculation. 0.5 a liter tank filled to 200 bars is 100L not 25L as mentioned at 2:08 ;)

These should not be sold to or used by untrained divers. Even in a shallow pool the risk of suffering a pressure related injury to the lungs including death is considerable. These bottles were designed as an emergency device for divers and aircrew not recreational use.

I just bought a 1 liter, and I think I will be happy as I only want to swim a bit off shore to set a crab trap during season. So a 1 liter, the smallest I would recommend should be find for small adventures, or metal detecting, using the snorkel until you want to dig.

i got this in my recommended and thank you for this information

Thanks for the video, I almost bought one the other day because we're going to snorkel for the first time on our next holiday, but it seemed a bit too good to be true. I'm going to focus on holding my breath instead ;). Cheers

You are absolutely right. When I saw the commercial for these tanks I thought oh thats really cool. Until I saw them pumping them up with a hand pump. Anyone ever try inflating a bike tire by hand? I would imagine its like that times 50.

Thank-you, you have probably just saved my life.

Appreciate the explanation 👍🏽

A Fantastic veiw and well articulated you are correct in your assessment and review! I have it and it is a not a pony bottle and its no 15 cbf but a 0.5 liter is at 60 feet is only 3 or 4 breaths that's it it's just to get help or your octopus! 👍🙂🍻Cheers!

Electric pumps are a thing. Also, if you can hold your breath for 4 minutes, you can use the small tank to maybe triple that.

I was just about to order one when I saw an honest review. He said you need 1000 pumps for 20 breaths! Yes, that shocked me enough thankfully

I can do 75 meters under water without a tank at all. Thank you for the very accurate review and saving that I buy one! 🙂

I could have used one of these when I got stuck on the third floor of an apartment building fire, the smoke was suffocating on the stairwell escaping.

The way I see it, you can learn to free dive 4 minutes, go to 10 meters, stay there for 4 minutes and then use the small tank for extra 2 minutes. That way you can stay underwater for 6 minutes. Well, sounds dangerous to do that. But it's an option.

Good review, thanks.

we only use these at my zoo for a back up. We fill them with a 3000+ PSI scuba tank. It takes seconds, i would never use this as a means to dive...it is what it is, its a backup if you in a dangerous situation with regular scuba gear.

You scared me there by saying it's a scam. After watching your video through I was able to breathe easier (pun intended) after realizing you were talking about time. I thought you were going to say it doesn't work at all. I don't really care about time anyway...just need it as a backup to breath hold if I do spearfishing or underwater video shoot when I go to Jamaica. I am 59 and have been free diving since I was a kid in Jamaica, so I'm no stranger to the water. Being older and heavier now, and haven't been diving for a while, Idk if I'll be able to handle free diving the same as those long gone days, so that's why I got one of these in the closet. As long as it works (even if it's for a minute) I'm good. Pumping it will only give me the workout that I need anyway, so no worries there either. I also have several air compressors if I can't handle it...just don't know if connections will fit, though. I'll have to check it out one day. If not, I'll pump, no sweat...or a lot of sweat, but I'll pump.

You neglected to mention expansive barotrauma that can be sustained on rapid, unregulated ascents. All considered, I still like the idea of a small air reservoir for when one is doing some pelagic hunting.

That looks like the HEED bottle I flew with in the Navy. For us, it was intended to help exit the helo if we crashed in the ocean and only hand a few seconds of air. I never got the opportunity, thank God, to test it in real life besides the helo dunk tank training. Looks cool I just don’t think anyone would mistake this as a long term device.

Just a tip, Eric fatah who is a well known freediver used a small 1L tank with a stage 1 regulator to breath nitrox and extend his bottom time while freediving and prevent shallow water blackout The use of nitrox in freediving is called technical freediving

How long can you stay under water. How deep can you dive safely with it? This seems like it's just enough to get you back to the surface safely.

I think this is amazing for free diving as an emergency backup, because alot of people dont think freediving is that dangerous but it really is, you are on a limited breath hold and say your out of air and your ready to resurface, if something bad happens at that time, or you are a little too far from getting to the surface you can pull one of these bad boys out, i think if you have an air compressor and you have a pool at home this is an amazing idea, esspecially if you have multiple bottles

Thank you for bringing the truth !

It is actually possible pump up a tank like this to 2500psi. I personally have a three stage hand pump for pumping up a psp air rifle. It can go up to 3500psi but I never take it that high. It does use a different type of quick connector because a standard bike shrader valve would probably blow out at around 300 or 400 psi.

I think it is important to consider the amount of physical activity while using these spare-air tanks. Divers are trained to move through the watercolumn almost effortlessly, minimizing oxygen 'consumption' enabling the diver to breathe through the spare-air for a significant time.

Designed to make a assent in an emergency. I had a 13 cubic foot pony bottle as a back up. If you follow dive safety you won't need a spare air or pony bottle.

I typically keep on my left shoulder, a Luxfer S13 bottle with a K-valve, Conshelf XIV 1st& 2nd on 6' hose, SPG on 6" hose. That gives me plenty of time if I have to dump my entire BC or hand the bottle to a buddy.

Hahaha, that backing music is the OG DCS blackshark menu music. ❤️❤️❤️

They are really made for scuba divers and are used for emergency air to make it to the service.

Never use just a common garage compressor to fill your tanks, your local dive shop will do it for five bucks, not a lot of money when your life depends on it

Very good point!

I find that, freediving, I spend too much energy equalizing and have little time left to actually explore. Even a mini tank, I would hope, would be useful in this case. And yes, with an electric pump.

I used the smaco mini tank to work on the main drain in the deep end of my pool. It was definitely a chore to hand pump but wasn’t that bad. If I was going to be using it a lot then I would just buy a electric pump. It did exactly what I needed it to do so I’m pleased with the product.

Scuba tanks are filled with compressors equipped with filters to prevent particles from the compressor tank getting into the scuba tank. There is no guarantee that solid particles from the hand pump, the compressor, etc.

I have a similar (SEA Mk2) size bailout bottle. Manual states at 3000 psi fill, it will give approximately 21 breathes at 20 feet depth. The deeper you go the less breathes you'll have. 10 breathes at 40 feet. Which is enough to get you safely to surface, NOT to be used for normal diving.

They are not a scam they are made for emergency use only not daily

these are made for safety and reserve in case ur big tank fails so u can get back to the surface i think

We have the 1L tanks works great with a compressor for scuba. We use the gear to check the anchor when anchoring out we also use it to check the hall under the water line. Or swimming around our boat or from the dinghy

Thanks for sharing this video i appriciate it im not gonna bother now they seem dangerous if u dont have knowledge of scuba diving etc

Could you pump it with a mini compresser?

This would double the capacity of the local pool. Those swimming under and those on top. Great idea.

They do NOT work as backup air for scuba divers!!! If you are a diver, you should know that, and be able to do the math. "Six breaths to death " it's been called and rightfully so. If you're diving safely, you _can't_ run out of air at depth. If your equipment fails, you got your spare and your buddy to get to safety. If you get trapped at depth so badly that you use up all your reserve air, that little bottle won't make the difference.

You can use an electric pump that plugs into your car lighter port, so you have to do very little work if any at all and it will be filled up in about 10 mins or less. Electric pumps are relatively cheap.

As a scuba diver I know how bad these things are ( I own one for scuba emergencies only) get certified and dive safely

I am a scuba diver, I wanted this to use where packing in scuba gear was difficult. I ordered from Snorkl but it was a scam, I was given a tracking number and at fist said it was in route to Ohio but after 6 weeks the item was delivered (package was only one ounce in weight according to USPS) in Los Angeles . I do not live in California. I live in OHIO....IT'S A COMPLETE SCAM !!!!!!!

If you could cheaply get a 2L tank it could be used as a safety device for cars that crash into bodies of water. It’s surprising how often this happens. Cars often flip upside down and if your windows aren’t down it can be very difficult to get out of the bottom. Most people aren’t acclimated to holding their breath more than 90 seconds or so.

You have probably saved more than one life with this post all good energy to you...

I plan to buy this tank but I changed my mind upon watching this video ty for the info

It's quite good as a tool onboard a yacht with a full-size scuba tank to fill it. The pony can be used when doing things on the underside of the boat by freediving then extending underwater time with a breath from the pony bottle. Possibly also handy to extend a freedive if you see a crab or fish but you need more time to get in range but need air. Not everybody can hold their breath for over a minute, we're not all superfit athletes and perfect specimens like your girlfriend!

I use a fill wip from another tank great safety backup especially if you don't always dive close to another diver

These are good for when you fishing vessel capsizes and you have to swim through a window to get to surface. Other than for emergency only I wouldn't ever use it

Um, spare air is for an out of air emergency. One does not "swim around" with these, it's for getting to the surface asap.

these tanks should only be used as a emergency tank just to get to the surface safely. The most you are going to get is 3 minutes. This is a tank for scuba divers only. For when a scuba diver, regulators both freeze, up and you can't find your partner, or some how you ran out of air . Which would be a terribly trained scuba diver, if that ever happened. This is not for some one that has no training its dangerous, for a none trained diver, has no business using this . Sorry but its not a toy .

These are meant for emergency uses when I last saw them advertised, 2min at 10m is way enough for you to get to the surface in an emergency

As a trained Free Diver The Air in the well, air is not pure oxygen like in a scuba a tank,so co2 could still be in that container, so decreasing your time of “Underwater Fun.” Lung problems after repeated use were never mentioned either.

I remember hearing about these in the Whitewater kayaker community. There was some debate about whether they might help someone who ended up pinned under an undercut rock or pulled into a nasty hydraulic. There was an a lot of consensus as to whether it could really be helpful in that kind of chaotic situation. I’d be curious if there are any white water kayakers out there who keep one on their vest.

Good Review

Thank you for that.

Big Big Thanks. I was going to buy a few. Not anymore

As someone with asthma free diving is not an option, so thanks for letting me know the best way to use these!

These tanks are meant for emergencies like car ending up in lake

would these be any good for kind of assisted snorkling? Absolutely cannot hold my breath, and I wanted to do some very light swim throughs at a depth of >5m- would it be good for this or still a scam for this purpose ?

So, I have oboard air compressor on my truck for when I offroad, so I got that covered. I also understand that for real diving without proper training it can be dangerous, I did the class many years ago but never used it after that, but would you say that for messing around in a deep pool or for shallow uses at the beach no deeper then 5 meters it should be pretty safe?

Thanks for the info , i was actually considering buying one but defo not to pump it up with the hand pump 🤣🤣... I've got a diver canester already that i use to top up my paintball tanks at 300psi. So it all comes down to the mouth piece.. is it valid is it good? Worth buying? Recommended makes? Thanks for the video.

This makes me think of 100 meters down

"free diving" also known as extended drowning

Spare air tank is great. I own two for many years and use as a back up when diving.

looks like the rescue tanks that we had for emergency evac in case of helicopter crashes at sea

I'd use this for free diving after I can't hold my breath anymore and take a hit of this to replenish my air to stay underwater longer

Thanks man i would buy things like this because its a Good idea but often there are shit

Can I just mention as a qualified scuba diver the dangers you could get into and should only use if u know what to do Dangers:lung over expansion ,breathing in toxic air , and getting deeper will use up more air , u can get the benze and decompression sickness , also theres tank failure . These tanks are usually checked to not made and sold instantly

*But can you refill it with one of those Walmart automatic air compressor pump.*