To work out how to price air fills, start with what one fill costs you, set a single-fill price with a margin you are comfortable with, then price your prepaid air card a step below that so regular divers pay less per fill and you get the cash up front. The card discount should come out of your margin, never out of your cost.
Below are the three steps with a worked example, then how to run the card at the counter. Every number is an example to show the math, not a market price. Use your own bills and wage rates.
Fill costs arrive at different times: an electric bill monthly, filters every so many running hours, an air test each quarter, an overhaul every few years. Put everything on a monthly basis and divide by the fills you do in a month.
Compressor running cost. Electricity, plus any cooling or ventilation for the fill room.
Compressor maintenance. Oil, valves, belts and seals, plus a fund for the scheduled overhaul.
Filters. Cartridges are replaced on running hours, so this cost rises with fills.
Air quality testing. The periodic lab test of your breathing air.
Cylinder inspections. Your storage bank cylinders need periodic inspection and testing, and every customer tank needs a check of its visual inspection sticker and hydro date before filling.
Staff time. Checking, connecting, filling slowly, topping off after cooling and ringing it up. Often the largest line.
Equipment replacement. The compressor, fill panel and banks will need replacing one day. Set aside a monthly amount so it doesn't land as one large bill.
Here is an example for a small shop that, say, does 400 air fills in a month. These are example figures only.
Cost line (example)
Electricity for the compressor
Compressor service and overhaul fund
Air quality testing (a $120 test each quarter)
Storage bank inspections and testing
Equipment replacement reserve
Total running and fixed costs
Spread over 400 fills, that is $1.50 per fill. Add staff time: if a fill takes, say, 6 minutes of hands-on time and a staff hour costs you $20 including payroll taxes, that is $2.00. In this example, one air fill costs you $3.50.
Say you charge $12 for a standard air fill. Your margin is $8.50 per fill, about 71% of the price. That margin also covers rent and counter time, so it should not be thin.
Costs like the replacement reserve and the air test don't shrink when fills drop. Treat the whole $600 as fixed to keep it simple: at 200 fills in a quiet month, it becomes $3.00 per fill and a fill costs $5.00. Prices that work in slow months leave room for a card discount.
A dive shop air card, whether paper or an air fill punch card in your system, trades a lower price per fill for cash up front and a diver who comes back to you for every fill. The question is how much per-fill margin to give up for that.
Treat each card size as its own deal. A larger card should carry a larger discount, because the diver commits more money up front. Here is an example ladder built on the $12 single fill and the $3.50 cost from Part 1.
Margin per fill
The diver who buys the 20-fill card saves $60 against single prices. You take $180 today, and even at the slow-month cost of $5.00, each punched fill still earns $4.00.
Keep the per-fill price above your slow-month cost. If the biggest card gets close, you are paying regulars to fill their tanks.
Make the steps easy to see. Round prices and a per-fill figure on the counter sign help divers pick the bigger card.
Treat the cash as fills you owe. Ask your accountant how to book prepaid balances, and don't price on the hope that punches go unused.
A 12-month expiry is a common choice, for practical reasons: it covers a full diving season, gives you a natural point to offer a renewal and keeps years-old balances off your books. You can also choose a shorter term, no expiry at all, or a longer term for a 20-fill card. Whatever you pick, state it on the card description and counter sign, and check the local rules on prepaid products first.
Nitrox fills cost you more: the oxygen, blending time and analyzing every tank. Say a nitrox fill is $18. If one card covered both, a diver could spend a $9.90 punch on an $18 fill, because a punch pays for one fill whatever that fill costs. Limit the air card to the air fill and sell a separate nitrox card, for example 10 nitrox fills for $150.
A diver who drops off four tanks uses four fills. One tank, one punch is the simplest rule, and it matches your cost, which is per cylinder. Decide a few things up front:
Twin sets. Count them as one fill or two. If they take much more air and time, sell them as their own item.
Large tanks. If a big tank takes much more air than your standard one, keep it off the standard card and charge it separately.
No second discount. The card already carries the discount. Point heavy users to the 20-fill card instead.
A paper air card lives in a shoebox and a wallet, and the two don't always agree. In Ribbe's dive shop software, the air fill punch card is attached to the customer, so the balance is always on file.
Create a retail product, for example Air Card - 10 Tank Fills, and tick Sell this product as a punch card.
Set Punches per card to 10.
Under A punch pays for, choose One specific product and pick your standard air fill. A card can also cover a whole category, such as Tanks & Air Fills, or anything you sell, but a single product keeps nitrox and large tanks off it.
Set an expiry in months, for example 12, or leave expiry off.
Give the card its price. The promotions engine is there for offers on top.
Repeat for a nitrox card. Sell the cards at the register or online. At the register the sale needs a real customer on the ticket, because the card is issued to that customer when the sale is rung up.
Ribbe product page for Air Card - 10 Tank Fills with punch card settings
The punch card settings on the Air Card - 10 Tank Fills product: 10 punches per card, a punch pays for one specific product (here, the Aluminum 80 Tank (Air) item), expires after 12 months.
Each card sold gets its own card number, such as PC-ABCD-1234. Next time the diver brings tanks in, put them on the ticket and add the fills. Each covered fill spends one punch and rings up at no charge. Two tanks, two punches. If a diver holds more than one card, the card that expires soonest is used first.
After checkout, a popup shows the card and its new balance, and the card and balance can be texted or emailed to the diver. The receipt prints the balance as well, for example PUNCH CARD PC-ABCD-1234 6 OF 10 LEFT. The diver never has to remember a paper card.
The balance sits on the customer's profile, on the Membership & rewards tab, and on the customer's Account tab at the register. Whoever is on the fill station can answer "how many do I have left?" without digging.
Customer Membership and rewards tab showing an air card with 4 of 10 punches left
A diver's Membership & rewards tab: Air Card - 10 Tank Fills covering the Aluminum 80 Tank (Air) fill, 4 of 10 punches left, Active, with its expiry date, the order it was bought on, and Adjust and Void buttons.
On the card product, the Cards issued tab lists every card sold with its customer, punches left, expiry and the order that bought it, plus totals. Punches outstanding is the number of fills you still owe.
Cards issued tab on the air card product with totals and a list of cards
The air card product's Cards issued tab: cards sold, active, punches outstanding and punches redeemed, then each card with its number, customer, punches left, expiry and the order it was bought on.
If a fill is voided or returned, the punch goes back on the card.
If the card itself is refunded, the card is voided.
Staff with the membership permission can adjust a card's balance by hand or void it, for example to correct a fill that was rung up on the wrong ticket.
A punched fill is not stacked with promotions or non-stacking coupons, so a fill promotion won't discount a fill the card already paid for.
The same tool sells any bundle: a 5-dive boat pass, a block of pool sessions or a set of rental days, priced with the same ladder logic. If you run boat dives, the dive trip manifest checklist covers the departure side. For the rest of the counter, see Ribbe's point of sale, and for courses, rentals and trips in one place, read our guide to running a dive shop on one system.
Start from your cost per fill (compressor, filters, air testing, inspections, equipment reserve and staff time, divided by monthly fills), then add a margin that holds in slow months. In the example, a $3.50 cost supports a $12 fill.
Enough to make the larger card worth committing to, and never so much that the per-fill price nears your slow-month cost. In the example, the ladder runs from 8% off on a 5-fill card to 25% off on a 20-fill card.
That is your call. A 12-month expiry is a common choice because it matches a diving season and sets a natural renewal date. In Ribbe, expiry is optional and set in months on the card product.
It can, if you scope the card to a whole category. But a punch pays for one fill whatever it costs, so a nitrox fill would use the same punch as an air fill. A separate nitrox card at its own price protects your nitrox margin.
Not yet. A card belongs to one customer and is spent when that customer is on the ticket. For now, sell each diver their own card; a 5-fill card works well for the partner who dives less often.
Run your air cards on Ribbe Sell prepaid air cards at the counter or online, punch fills by customer and see every balance on file. Try it with your own price list. Start a free trial