So whats the deal?
I just bought an Aeris Contour BC form Scubatoys back in June for a trip that was supposed to be in July-well the trip got pushed back until recently, and so after getting all my gear I had just checked it out in fiance's pool and then put it back in the box until the trip. It had seemed fine in the pool, but since its only 5 foot deep I couldn't do much checking and didn't have someone else checkin me out while I was in the water.
It held air and all my other new gear was working so I thought it was a-ok!
Well on the trip we get out on the first dive and my buddy notices a very slow but steady stream of tiny bubbles escaping from where the inflator hose attaches at the shoulder. My BC was doing ok, it wasn't affecting my buoyancy all that much, I added 3-4 puffs of air over the course of the dive and decided to get it fixed after surfacing.
Once topside, I checked to make sure the hose wasn't just tweaked in the fitting and then I took it to a local shop (in Moorea French Polynesia theres only a handful of dive operators, and only one that was willing to take a look at it since all the others are hotel based operators). He took it apart and to both of our surprise it wasn't going to be an easy O-ring fix as we thought. I guess this system is a "direct system", and it doesn't use an o-ring, but a direct connection between two rubber surfaces? Between my lack of french and his lack of english that's what I got out of the conversation. He was an aqualung and scubapro dealer, so he didnt' want to void any warranties or mess it up. So he cleaned it and checked it and it was still leaking. Since there were no aeris or oceanic dealers anywhere to call, he used some silicone grease and some sort of crazy tape to seal off around where the inflator hose screws on. He was sorry he couldn't do more and refused to charge me anything. I tried to give him money but he refused-a truly nice guy. The fix he concocted held up 100% and allowed me to dive the rest of the trip, albeit carefully watching the situation.
What do you think the deal with it is? Could a brand new BC have a bad inflator hose like that? I know Scuba Toys checks all their regs and everything before they ship them, but do they check BC's? I'm totally satisfied with my gear, and the service I got was amazing. I'm just wondering if anyone else has run into this issue with this BC or other Aeris BC's, and did it happen again? How do you fix it?
I just bought an Aeris Contour BC form Scubatoys back in June for a trip that was supposed to be in July-well the trip got pushed back until recently, and so after getting all my gear I had just checked it out in fiance's pool and then put it back in the box until the trip. It had seemed fine in the pool, but since its only 5 foot deep I couldn't do much checking and didn't have someone else checkin me out while I was in the water.
It held air and all my other new gear was working so I thought it was a-ok!
Well on the trip we get out on the first dive and my buddy notices a very slow but steady stream of tiny bubbles escaping from where the inflator hose attaches at the shoulder. My BC was doing ok, it wasn't affecting my buoyancy all that much, I added 3-4 puffs of air over the course of the dive and decided to get it fixed after surfacing.
Once topside, I checked to make sure the hose wasn't just tweaked in the fitting and then I took it to a local shop (in Moorea French Polynesia theres only a handful of dive operators, and only one that was willing to take a look at it since all the others are hotel based operators). He took it apart and to both of our surprise it wasn't going to be an easy O-ring fix as we thought. I guess this system is a "direct system", and it doesn't use an o-ring, but a direct connection between two rubber surfaces? Between my lack of french and his lack of english that's what I got out of the conversation. He was an aqualung and scubapro dealer, so he didnt' want to void any warranties or mess it up. So he cleaned it and checked it and it was still leaking. Since there were no aeris or oceanic dealers anywhere to call, he used some silicone grease and some sort of crazy tape to seal off around where the inflator hose screws on. He was sorry he couldn't do more and refused to charge me anything. I tried to give him money but he refused-a truly nice guy. The fix he concocted held up 100% and allowed me to dive the rest of the trip, albeit carefully watching the situation.
What do you think the deal with it is? Could a brand new BC have a bad inflator hose like that? I know Scuba Toys checks all their regs and everything before they ship them, but do they check BC's? I'm totally satisfied with my gear, and the service I got was amazing. I'm just wondering if anyone else has run into this issue with this BC or other Aeris BC's, and did it happen again? How do you fix it?
