Bursting SPG

[mizzie]

I just took Open Water last August (PADI) and I was taught to turn the SPG down so the face pointed at the ground and turn the air on slowly.

 

[iluvtheocean]

It isn't "that" explosive. Just don't point it at your eyes - watching the gauge as you pressurize the regulator (as I've seen some divers doing...)

was thinking and have seen glass slivers fly a good distance - and against a rounded surface like a tank... any direction

i use an AI computer and i still turn the face away initially as well... as everyone says.. better safe than sorry.

 

[DiversSupplyPDC]

Those that say it can't happen are sadly very wrong.

3 months ago on Narcosis in West Palm I was putting my gear together when the gauge blew out on the guy's SPG next to me. Only the second time I've seen this happen in 40 years of diving BUT it does happen.

I teach ALL my students, of any level, to face their SPG into the back inside of their BCD and keep their fingers away from the front of it when they turn their air on.

...and most of these gauges are built today with plastic/plastic and not glass/metal.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

was thinking and have seen glass slivers fly a good distance - and against a rounded surface like a tank... any direction

i use an AI computer and i still turn the face away initially as well... as everyone says.. better safe than sorry.

As long as it's not a wireless AI computer...

 

[Nemrod]

In the olden times the first spgs did not have safety plugs and they had full diameter hose ends instead of the tiny pin hole type used now. Inside the gauges there is a bourdon tube. If the tube were to burst or crack the gauge could explode. Since many of the early gauges also had a thick acrylic lens, not sure what would have failed first, the case or the lens.

I would not worry too much over a modern gauge exploding. However, common sense might dictate not holding anything with compressed gas up to an important body part and then turning the air on. Just saying, in case.

N

 

[drbill]

We were taught to do the same thing back in the 60's. Been doing it since then, never had a SPG blow in all that time. It's been just a habit for a long time.

Wow... I didn't have an SPG back in the 60s, just a J-valve.

As for looking at my SPG when I pressurize it, my eyesight forces me to look from a distance and I always do it at an angle that puts my face well to the side of the dial. I've never had one blow in all the years I've been diving, but I still believe I could win the lottery... some century.

 

[manni-yunk]

I was never taught to turn it away - BUT I LEARNED THE HARD WAY. I had an SPG face explode off while pressurizing a tank about 2 years ago on my boat. Scared the crap out of me. the face of the gauge became a projectile and fired out into the ocean. Lucky it didnt hit me in the face. Since then, I always aim it at something safe, even though I know the likelihood of it happening is EXTREMELY low - it still happens.

It was loud and more starteling than anything else, but the projectile could have done damage to an eye, or cut someone.