Crazy secondary air source behavior

[redacted]

Sounds to me like you have some equipment maintenance problems. Some are yours (a wet suit thru in the washing machine ) and some sound like like your tech service is not getting done right. Mouthpieces falling off and octo freeflows should be rare occurances with properly maintained regulators. I'm guessing you are describing the oceanic slimline octo. Its specs make it a little hard breathing (1.5 to 2 inch cracking pressure rather than the 1.2 or less for high performance 2nds). The problem you describe could be caused by the lever height adjusted too high and then compensated for by too much spring pressure.

I suggest you look at a higher performance octo that you would not mind doing a dive with. And perhaps a class on your gear so you can learn to inspect, clean and fix things like your mouthpiece retainer and the BC dumnp valves.

It really is a shame to lose expensive dives due to equipment problems.

 

[SparticleBrane]

If you have a crappy 2nd stage as your octo, and in an OOA you pass the octo...that really tells me a lot about how you think of your "buddy".

 

[opalobsidian]

Spectrum, Muddiver, Victor and Webmonkey....

Thanks so much for the very helpful, practical advice!

Awap, I didn't know there are classes available in gear maintainance, I will definately look into one, especially since my next destination is Indonesia in June!

Actually I have learned some very useful lessons from these equipment failures, especially the dive without inflation capability on my BCD! But no reason to keep learning the hard way, eh?

Pamela

 

[Whitelightnin]

One thing that can cause a second stage to "breath wet" is the exaust valve. It can be torn or have a hole in it or be folded along the edge or sometimes, just out of position.

If your first stage has a pressure creep, it usually shows up as a leak on one of the second stages. The first stage pressure gets high enough that it overrided the spring in the second stage & it starts leaking. Whichever second stage has the weakest setting will be the one to leak. If you are breathing off the reg fast enough, you will keep the pressure reduced enough so that it doesn't leak. If you breath too slowly or stop breathing long enough, it will start to leak again. Also, when you start assending, it makes more likely to leak as the pressure is being reduced on the outside but the pressure is still high on the inside of the first stage. However, IP creep usually doesn't cause a freeflow. If it is truely freeflowing, it is out of adjustment. It could be a combination of the two.

Don't pay too much attention to the people on here who seem to spend all their time criticizing others. Some people just aren't happy unless they are making someone else unhappy.