A Comprehensive Review of the SMACO S500 0.7L Mini Scuba Diving Tank

Is this Smoko S500 0.7 liter pony bottle, is it worth it? Is it a safe item to use in an emergency underwater? Well, let's find out. I begin unboxing the Smoko S500 mini scuba pony tank and you can see that it's packaged really well. The main items are separated by formed foam and the extras are in individual plastic bags. The Smoko tank comes with a special tank fill adapter which is used to fill the mini tank from a standard 3000 psi scuba tank. Extra o-rings and an adjustment Allen wrench, a QC inspection card, and a parts identification card. It's important that one study the user manual carefully. The Smoko S500 comes with a very nice lanyard to secure it to your person. The regulator head assembly is compact, it's lightweight, but it's well built. It includes a silicone mouthpiece, a one-way filtered inflation valve, a mini air gauge, an air adjustment valve, a burst disc, and a purge button. The tank is made of 6061 aluminum, the industry standard in scuba tanks. I inserted my inspection line into the tank and the threads and the tank inside were in perfect condition. As you begin assembly, take the protective cap off the threaded valve on the lower part of the regulator assembly. Check the o-ring to make sure that it's in good condition. Then take the regulator assembly and thread it into the tank. Make sure that it's not cross-threaded. No tools are needed to tighten as the o-ring will seal just by hand tightening the valve. To fill the tank, take the filler adapter and secure it to the one-way filler valve. Then secure the adapter to a normal 3000 psi scuba tank and open the valve. It only takes a minute or so to completely fill the mini tank. Once filled, turn the air off of the scuba tank and bleed the air from the adapter by opening the chrome pressure release valve. Check the gauge to make sure that the mini tank is filled and then test it by pressing the purge valve. After filling, I tested the breathing effort with my Magna Helic gauge, which was within spec at just over three inches of water. After I completed the inspection, assembly, and air fill of the Smoko S500, I was ready to get into the water and test it. I began by taking it into the pool and testing it in a closed environment with a constant water depth of six feet. It performed flawlessly. Breathing effort was good and I got around 11 minutes of breathing time on the tank. Having tested the unit in a closed environment, I then took it to the lake in an open water environment to a depth of 25 feet. Again, it performed flawlessly with no change in breathing effort even at 25 feet. I was still able to get around nine minutes of breathing time, which is plenty of time to do an emergency ascent. So, here's my conclusion. I highly recommend the Smoko S500 if you're using it as alternate air. I do not recommend that you buy this. It's not a toy. I don't recommend that you buy this and give it to your children and put them in the lake, or somebody that is not familiar with scuba, scuba certified, and you would need to go through all the certification because this is compressed air underwater. It has all the dangers of a full scuba. So, if you're using this for alternate air, it's great. I tried it in the pool, I tried it in the lake, and I know that if I got into an out of air situation that I could take the Smoko and it would get me back to the surface. It would even give me enough time to do a short safety stop if I had to. So, I highly recommend it if you're using it for alternate air.