beanojones
Contributor
- Messages
- 3,204
- Reaction score
- 348
In the ocean everything fails eventually due to accelerated aging of sun and salt, and even without the ocean's corrosive effects, everything fails eventually, seomtimes just due to plain chance, or improperly R&D'd designed and a collision of manufacturing tolerances.
No part of my gear (and/or rental gear, and/or customer's own gear) has not suffered failure at some point, even to the point of total loss of function.
BCD bladder: pinholes, pinch flats, sewn seam bursts, sealed seam bursts, elbow leakage, total corrguated hose separation from elbow/ inflator, total corrugated hose separation in the middle of the hose, pinholes in the corrugated hose.
Inflator: sticking, rubber button ripping, dump button disengagement with the spring shooting the button out leaving just a hole in the area, nipple o-ring failure, nipple corrosion leading to the inablity of of the schrader valve in the hose to be pushed, nipple tolerance defects leading to a nipple/hose being tossed out, scratching of the chromed O-ring sealing surface on the nipple leading failure of the hose/nipple joint, general sand/grit inside the inflator leading to problems
Tank attachment point to BCD/ backplate: buckle failure (plastic snapping, metal fingers separating from cam buckle), webbing failure, backplate threading area eyehole failure, cam band slippage leading to a floating tank. Though the most common problem is the fact that most divers/DMs/Instrcutors do not know how to thread the webbing through the cam buckle to begin with, making even perfectly functioning equipment unable to hold a tank in place.
not BCD problems:
Tanks: Both Neck O-ring, and Face O-ring partial to total failure, Valve going out of round from transport hits, Valves chemically welding to tank, leading the knuckle ripping damage to Valve exterior, Failue to maintain seats leading to impossible to open/close tanks, Knob loss (a few times in the middle of air depletion exercises), rounding of the spindle making closing opening the tank impossible.
Regs: Everything from every hose to every individual part of first and second stage doing something.
Hoses: Most 'exciting': LP hose bursts, and Miflex knockoff crimping failures. The LP hose burst can be dealt with by garden hose pinching the hose down sometimes, the Miflex knockoff crimping failures have led to a loss of the entire HP hose and attached gauge. Hemispherical swivels have separately completely several times
Second stages : second stage lever failures of several kinds (sudden total function loss), mouthpiece separation from second stage, mouthpiece separation from self, entire inlet still attached to LP hosecoming out of second stage body due to housing cracks and/or locking swivel actually un-screwing the hose free over time.
First stage: Swivel separation, main body cracking, yoke/Din fitting separation from main body, etc.
Electronics/electrics: Every fails eventually, from simple battery death, to depth(pressure) sensor failure, to general programming errors cause out of bound exceptions, to exploding battery compartments.
SPG: swivel failures, nipple separation from SPG body due to housing cracks and/or locking swivel actually un-screwing the hose free over time, flooding, face scratches making it hard to read, spring failure over time, needle falling free inside the gauge, stickers in the gauge wandering around inside the gauge
(A prediction: someone will tell me I am blah, blah, blah, and they cannot believe I am blah, blah, bah. Am I even a dive instructor? Where do I come up with this ****? Then, a few years from now, when they see an actual similar situation, they will realize I was not just making this **** up. I guess I should just make this my signature.)
No part of my gear (and/or rental gear, and/or customer's own gear) has not suffered failure at some point, even to the point of total loss of function.
BCD bladder: pinholes, pinch flats, sewn seam bursts, sealed seam bursts, elbow leakage, total corrguated hose separation from elbow/ inflator, total corrugated hose separation in the middle of the hose, pinholes in the corrugated hose.
Inflator: sticking, rubber button ripping, dump button disengagement with the spring shooting the button out leaving just a hole in the area, nipple o-ring failure, nipple corrosion leading to the inablity of of the schrader valve in the hose to be pushed, nipple tolerance defects leading to a nipple/hose being tossed out, scratching of the chromed O-ring sealing surface on the nipple leading failure of the hose/nipple joint, general sand/grit inside the inflator leading to problems
Tank attachment point to BCD/ backplate: buckle failure (plastic snapping, metal fingers separating from cam buckle), webbing failure, backplate threading area eyehole failure, cam band slippage leading to a floating tank. Though the most common problem is the fact that most divers/DMs/Instrcutors do not know how to thread the webbing through the cam buckle to begin with, making even perfectly functioning equipment unable to hold a tank in place.
not BCD problems:
Tanks: Both Neck O-ring, and Face O-ring partial to total failure, Valve going out of round from transport hits, Valves chemically welding to tank, leading the knuckle ripping damage to Valve exterior, Failue to maintain seats leading to impossible to open/close tanks, Knob loss (a few times in the middle of air depletion exercises), rounding of the spindle making closing opening the tank impossible.
Regs: Everything from every hose to every individual part of first and second stage doing something.
Hoses: Most 'exciting': LP hose bursts, and Miflex knockoff crimping failures. The LP hose burst can be dealt with by garden hose pinching the hose down sometimes, the Miflex knockoff crimping failures have led to a loss of the entire HP hose and attached gauge. Hemispherical swivels have separately completely several times
Second stages : second stage lever failures of several kinds (sudden total function loss), mouthpiece separation from second stage, mouthpiece separation from self, entire inlet still attached to LP hosecoming out of second stage body due to housing cracks and/or locking swivel actually un-screwing the hose free over time.
First stage: Swivel separation, main body cracking, yoke/Din fitting separation from main body, etc.
Electronics/electrics: Every fails eventually, from simple battery death, to depth(pressure) sensor failure, to general programming errors cause out of bound exceptions, to exploding battery compartments.
SPG: swivel failures, nipple separation from SPG body due to housing cracks and/or locking swivel actually un-screwing the hose free over time, flooding, face scratches making it hard to read, spring failure over time, needle falling free inside the gauge, stickers in the gauge wandering around inside the gauge
(A prediction: someone will tell me I am blah, blah, blah, and they cannot believe I am blah, blah, bah. Am I even a dive instructor? Where do I come up with this ****? Then, a few years from now, when they see an actual similar situation, they will realize I was not just making this **** up. I guess I should just make this my signature.)