urgent question- need to recharge a tank

[pigirl]

Is there anyone here in the western MA area that can tell us where to recharge a tank with liquid nitrogen? We've had a mishap with the sperm bank and will need to recharge the tank as soon as it arrives tomorrow (Saturday).

Thanks!

Allison

[JollyGG]

Just call your local gas supply place and they should be able to help you out.

[pigirl]

never mind

Now the bank is saying they can't ship to us at all this month. I don't know if I'm more pissed or disappointed.

Thanks for the advice, in any case.

[pigirl]

Ah, we need the help after all

Another cycle, another mishap. This time the bank is closing for a month. They'll ship to me before just they close, but I'll still get the tank about two weeks before I ovulate. They're sending a "dry shipper," which I guess is the norm. (No liquid nitrogen so it can be shipped via FedEx, but a little sponge inside that releases nitrogen vapors to keep the tank cold.)

So my question: with a dry shipper, if you know you're going to have to recharge the tank, when do you get it done? Right away, and then again every few days? How do you check to see if you need to recharge it?

I'd appreciate any advice. And at least we have a few days to work this out, this time.

Allison

[quasar]

You might want to ask the bank how long they guarantee the tank to be frozen for using the dry tank. I am pretty sure that Xytex uses the dry tanks and they were good for at least 7 days before needing to be recharged. I think this is a pretty conservative estimate just to cover themselves since when we recharged ours after a week, the vapors were still coming out and everything was still nice and frozen.

As a side note... I searched dry nitrogen shippers and came across a dog breeding site that sold the tanks http://www.majesticgaits.com/mve.htm. For their dry shippers the least holding time was 14 days and most were around 21. Some of them look very similar to the one we got from xytex. So I think you should be fine to wait at least a week from when they ship out to recharge and not have to rush out. Did you find a place that would be able to do it for you? We used an oxygen supply company called Praxair. I looked it up and it does appear they have locations in MA, just not sure if there's anything near you.