That is perfectly reasonable and answers my question. Thanks!
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I always returned bottles with some pressure in them, just because it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. If you asked me why I did that, I would not have been able to give you a good reason.
Some scuba shops will not (or can not by law) refill a bottle with an open valve until the valve has been removed and the interior inspected and cleaned. This is because 99.9% of the time, chances are that salt water is in there, and lot of newer tanks are now made of aluminum instead of the old steel ones. There is enough change of temperature from daylight to dark and back over a few days for a tank to actually breathe in and out, and in places where there is humidity, the moisture stays behind after the air is exhaled during a heated time period. Or if it rains, water droplets are actually pulled into the tank with the drop of temperature and subsequent reducing air pressure inside the tank. Minimal, yet measurable. Ever notice how much a bottle of water expands and contracts in the sun? Same thing.
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