Dangers of leaving portable O2 bag charged?

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train54

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I heard that someone in my company got reamed for not bleeding off the Oxygen on their portable airway bag the other day. I got to wondering what the reasons would be to avoid leaving the bottle charged with the regulator off?

Any ideas anyone?

All I can think of is that it would be extra wear on the "O" rings/gaskets and possibly the regulator too?

Just curious. Thanks!
 
All I've ever heard about is the 'wear' on the o-rings.


Honestly, if the higher ups chewed him out for that, and there's no official policy on that, they can go do things to themselves not repeatable on this forum.


First thing I do when I get on the truck in the morning is make sure all O2 tanks are opened, primed, and working. They stay that way while I'm on the truck because I learned early in my career that with critical patients, you really don't think to make sure they're on, and then you get to the hospital and notice that the NRB is deflated...
 
I honestly don't know. We leave all of our O2 charged (main tank and portables).
 
O-rings only wear when being compressed and released by removing the regulator.

The only issue that could be a problem is a leaking regulator could lead to an empty O2 tank when you need it most. Even if you check it at the beginning of your shift, it could leak and empty before you manage to check it again and without you hearing it leak.
 
ffemt8978 said:
O-rings only wear when being compressed and released by removing the regulator.

The only issue that could be a problem is a leaking regulator could lead to an empty O2 tank when you need it most. Even if you check it at the beginning of your shift, it could leak and empty before you manage to check it again and without you hearing it leak.
Click to expand...

Been there done that last week.
 
At the 2 companies I've worked for:
Busy company: Main and portable O2 tanks left charged all day, and half the time not turned off and released at the end of the shift.

Slow company: left uncharged unless needed for that patient or when checked in the morning.
 
Our portables stay charged. Onboard gets turned off but that's because the units are stored outside and they were having a problem with the changes in temperature causing expansion and contraction of the O-rings and causing the main tanks to blow the rings. The cab and box are heated via shoreline power but the onboard tank is in an exterior compartment that isn't heated.

I've run into portables that were empty when the tank was put away running at 1/4 LPM or something dumb like that but I check the portable tank at SOS. We carry 4 spares too so if it is empty it's not like the world is going to end.
 
I've actually had an O-ring blow into pieces while the bottle was charged (had been sitting there charged, not just being charged). Scared the hell out of me and my patient! However, it was one of the :censored::censored::censored::censored:ty plastic O-rings, and likely just a freak occurrence :ph34r:
 
Where I used to work, we normally left our portable oxygen bottles in the following condition: valve off, regulator attached, flow set to zero. The only time we would turn the oxygen bottle valve on would be when we were actually using it or when we were checking the pressure in the bottle. Since we always had our portable oxygen bottles with us, if we needed to use the oxygen bottle, we simply had to turn on the valve and set the flow to the rate desired. This prevented leakage of oxygen from the bottle and thus prevented us from having an empty oxygen bottle.

The main oxygen bottle on the truck was normally turned on and checked, flow rates of the regulator set to zero, and left in that state. At the end of the shift, we would turn the main valve off and bleed the line out. We would also do the same with our portable oxygen bottles, valve off, regulator bled out. That was to keep high-pressure gas from staying in the system and giving us a false reading.

If we forgot to turn the main valve off and bleed out vehicle's system, we might only get into trouble if the main O2 tanks ran dry over night. Maybe. If it became a habit.
 
We leave our bottles off but it is only to help prevent the regulator getting bumped and bleeding the bottle out. If the neck gets knocked off your gonna get a surprise no matter what. I worked for a company years ago that where we smoked was near where we stored the main tanks. A deputy ops director came by one day and freaked out. Yelling how we were going to blow up the station. So at the next monthly training they had a AGA Gas rep come in.... He didn't have anything to say when I asked him what the LEL and UEL of O2 was
 
How did you keep from yelling at him that oxygen IS NOT FLAMMABLE.
 
JPINFV said:
How did you keep from yelling at him that oxygen IS NOT FLAMMABLE.
Click to expand...
After trying to explain that to our ops director I gave up
 
Ones I know

1. Constant pressure left on the "remaining oxygen" level meter on regulator can cause it to freeze, so it never shows lowering remaining level or you have to whack it to unstick it. If pressure path to the regulator is left open (cylinder valve opened) and the regulator flow valve is closed, pressure equilibrates to the higher level. The pressure reducer is dynamic, reduces flowing/turbulent moving oxygen. Valves right on cylinder are designed for higher pressures.
Maybe nowadays the regulator gauges are also ratred for 2,000 PSI?

2. If turning it off is a step to insure the set is left in operating order and with adequate supply, then that inspection is no longer being done.
 
Keeping it charged leads to a much higher potential for an empty cylinder when you need it most (remember that the likelihood that an obscure issue will present itself is proportional to the immediate need of that particular piece of equipment). Things get knocked around and even slight leaks will drain the cylinder by the time its discovered.

And those plasticy seals are designed to be seated once (and once only, meaning that you shouldn't even reseat them). Never, ever double up. Most services in my area use the reseatable neoprene/brass gaskets. Have heard too many stories of "freak" accidents related to those plastic seals. Its more common than one might think. I used to do travelling road shows on oxygen cylinder safety and in the first few months every service I worked with had a first hand account of one of these failures.
 
because the oxygen systems leak, and it's cheaper to have the crews turn off the bottle when not in use than fix the leak.
 
I check all four cylinders (main, stretcher, bag, spare) at the start of shift, and then turn all of them off and bleed the pressure from the regulator. We have the nice regulators that don't need a key, so it's not really a hassle to give it a quarter turn while dialing up the flow.

If they're left charged all the time, at some point a dead cylinder will show up at an unfortunate time. Like a highrise, and your partner already left to get the stairchair and you only have one portable and lost his cell number.
 
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