We’ve all been there. The car stereo isn’t working so you begin to play “scientist” and turn things off and on, jam a few buttons, run a few “tests.” That may work for your car stereo but when firefighters start to do it with their SCBA air compressors, it's a fast track way to put your compressor out-of-service.

As an employee of AOS Services, the child of a diver and a former diver myself, I’ve been around compressed air most of my life. And yet, I’m somewhat bashful to admit that I didn’t fully understand why we tested our air. 

So, with a mixture of my own curiosity and a desire to bring awareness to others about the importance of air testing, I visited TRI’s Air Testing Laboratory here in Austin, Texas to find out more.