What equipment failures have you seen underwater?

[mpez0]

The most common equipment failure I've seen is camera housing (or, more rarely, light) floods.
Had a few minor ones. Minor means no permanent damage. Most were seat/O-ring related, but one was an improperly glued optical insert in the housing port. Fortunately, that only started seeping under pressure and I noticed it at 70 fsw with a couple of tablespoons of water under the video camera.

Another one I've experienced and not seen mentioned is a failure of the Schrader valve in the BC, that led to a very slight but constant inflation of the BC.

 

[MagicChicken]

My semi-dry failed to let the water flow in and out the suit.

Had to pee really bad during the 3rd dive.

You can't imagine the stench...

 

[caseybird]

Were you interested in something better for your BC or for your tires???

The standard LPI hose employs a Schradder valve (tire stem valve) to seal the hose when it is disconnected from your BC. Few, if any, inflators also incorporate that valve. So that valve, which seems to work OK in both tires and LPI hoses, may not have been the source of the leak.

Nope, the schreader (sp?) valve was built into the inflator. We took it apart in the shop. It was slightly corroded. Cleaned and lubed it, it works fine.
Good for tires, maybe not ideal in the marine environment.
This is a minor problem to be sure, but the OP was asking about gear failures. A few people have posted about slow leaks. Interesting.

 

[DiverDurf]

"Right after" my 4th checkout dive, my instructor suggested we go on a final fun dive to finish out our air. We entered the water and were floating around the top talking, etc, and all the while I kept hearing this very small, but irritating hissing sound coming from behind my head. It was so minor that my buddy couldn't even hear it while we were talking. I finally pointed it out to him only to find that the o-ring I had used for the past 4 dives went on the fritz. That was my first introduction to a real (but very small) gear failure, but it was easily remedied of course.

On dive #7 I had a free flow Octo right after entering the surface, but my buddy was very experienced and took it apart while we were floating and fixed it (grit kept it open). I also had my main reg. free flow momentarily but a good knock apparently loosened the grit/sand left behind by the last renter. I HATE using rental gear now but have no choice until tax returns come in. So I just thoroughly check my rental gear each time, and I even replace the o-rings when I first get whether they need one or not (peace of mind).

 

[John_B]

I've been through two pretty exciting freeflows, been backrolled on by a clueless dolt, lost my weights at depth and have seen countless others do the same, descended with my snorkel in my mouth (OW dive #3!), saw a guy giant stride off a boat without a regulator in his mouth or a mask on his face, had my mask kicked off my face by inattentive divers more than once, got my regulator a-clamp tangled in fishing line during a night dive, had a regulator diaphragm that wouldn't seal, and had a LP hose blow up when the rental reg was charged on the boat right before a dive.

Two incidents really stick out.

On my seventh dive with my new jacket BCD the so-called "Reliant" inflator (a misnomer if there ever was one) stuck and would've sent me rocketing to the surface if it weren't for the reaction of my experienced buddy, who calmly disconnected the quick release on my inflator hose. (Everybody practices disconnecting their inflator hose when the regulator is charged, right? I didn't think so...)

When I took it in to be fixed I found out the inflator was part of a recall but mine wasn't caught before it went out the door and into the water. The shop replaced it with a newer design.

So on dive number eight with the BCD -- the very next dive -- the inflator worked fine but at the end of the dive the shoulder pull dump release separated from the fitting on the BCD, dumping all the air in it and leaving me with no buoyancy except to swim up the rig. The shoulder pull dump part of the inflator hadn't been attached correctly to the fitting on the BCD when it was replaced. Over the course of a dive with me tugging on the damned thing to dump air, it eventually gave out. My buddy (not so experienced this time) said, "Gee, I wondered why you had a little stream of bubbles coming from your shoulder the whole dive."

That was when I started down the path to the darkside.

 

[hawksbill]

Briefly this is what I recall of equipment failures during a dive.

Tank pressure guage stuck at 500 when tank is MT.
Freeflowing reg.
Freeflowing drysuit inflator stopped by quickly removing hose QD.
Frozen freeflowing BC inflator or second stage at 20 F surface temp.
Atomic second stage regulator hose nearly comes disconnected after having gear serviced and atomic rubber strain relief at the second stage regulator hides the loose hose connection for the last time before being removed from my gear.
1 or 2 broken rubber fin straps in many many dives.

Not too exciting, or very many failures considering, but, I do excercise care at the surface before going in.

 

[caseybird]

I also drowned a camera. That was my fault, I got complacent about lubing the o-ring. I got 30 feet down looked at the clear camera housing, and water was inside and boiling. I guess 4 1700 mah AA cells will do that in salt water.

 

[J.R.]

Turns out the metal portion of the hose was corroded to the point that a simple tug to check pressure was enough to rip the hose off. Of course the corrosion was hidden by a stress reliever

Dang... what ever happened to 'annual maintenance'???

Haven't actually seen any "failures" per se... beyond, perhaps, a fin strap break. Most of what I've seen are regs that freeflow because *somebody* didn't get annual maintenance... hoses that show the "you should start thinking about replacing me" bubbles... drop-pocket weights hit the muck because the diver didn't insert them right...

... but 'failure'... hummm.... can't really think of one...

(humm... ok, after reading a few other posts... yea... wet suit floodings (mine... didn't check to make sure the inflator valve was tightened...)... camera housing floods (not mine)... SAW TANK STRAP BREAK ONCE... of course it *might* have had something to do with the fact that the DM wearing it had just done a back-flip entry from a dock that was about 6 feet above the water... )

 

[super7]

Minor flooding of my camera housing.
Enough to soak the desiccants, but not enough to damage my camera.
Changed the 1yr+ old o-ring, and hasn't leaked since.

 

[phil robson]

During one of my early dives I had a 1st stage free flow at about 90 feet in cold water.
I was lucky enough to be diving with a very experienced buddy who handled the situation. That experience really taught me how important it is to keep practicing skills, I did wonder if I could have coped as well and made a point practice OOA, and other scenarios at the local pond with another buddy of mine.

A few weeks later while diving lake Huron on a similar wreck, another less experienced dive buddy of mine experience free flow at depth and really panicked, I'm sure the earlier experience help me in coping with the situation.

Most recent issue was a few months ago while shore diving I noticed early into the dive my reg was breathing wet, at first a little, but as I got deeper (60 feet) more and more water. I adjusted the valve, but no good, so decided to call the dive.

We slowly swam back up the wall, and did the safety stop OK

When I got out the water, I noticed the rubber mouth piece had split (probably getting into the water, waves where pretty rough and we where getting push around a bit) .

I had a spare, so replaced it for the night dive.