Question Have you (or anyone you know) ever seen a yoke regulator dislodged while diving?

[js1221]

Happened to my wife on a dive trip in the Bahamas during our Christmas dive trip. We were diving off the Aqua Cat and on the 2nd dive of the day. Since my wife and I have different dive styles, we have different dive buddies. I had already dropped in, and was hovering above the bottom at about 25 feet. My wife and her buddy followed shortly after that. When they both got to the bottom there was a loud pop, and suddenly my wife was surrounded by a massive amount of bubbles. Her buddy grabbed her and they made an emergency swimming ascent to the back the boat. When they surfaced the tank was still releasing a large amount of air. The deck safety turned off the air and pulled my wife onto the boat. The yoke was off the tank and the O ring was still in place. Looking at the tank valve the dimple for the yoke screw was extremely worn. Now my wife had used this tank for nine previous dives and the crew had checked the yoke screw before she entered the water. She switched tanks, went back on the dive and no further issues the rest of the trip.

 

[L13]

Happened to my wife on a dive trip in the Bahamas during our Christmas dive trip. We were diving off the Aqua Cat and on the 2nd dive of the day. Since my wife and I have different dive styles, we have different dive buddies. I had already dropped in, and was hovering above the bottom at about 25 feet. My wife and her buddy followed shortly after that. When they both got to the bottom there was a loud pop, and suddenly my wife was surrounded by a massive amount of bubbles. Her buddy grabbed her and they made an emergency swimming ascent to the back the boat. When they surfaced the tank was still releasing a large amount of air. The deck safety turned off the air and pulled my wife onto the boat. The yoke was off the tank and the O ring was still in place. Looking at the tank valve the dimple for the yoke screw was extremely worn. Now my wife had used this tank for nine previous dives and the crew had checked the yoke screw before she entered the water. She switched tanks, went back on the dive and no further issues the rest of the trip.

This is the first incident so far in this thread that sounds like it might be what the OP was looking for.

 

[Lorenzoid]

This is the first incident so far in this thread that sounds like it might be what the OP was looking for.

That scenario sounds even less likely than what I think the OP had in mind--the reg bumping into something with enough force to dislodge it.

 

[berndo]

For reference, I believe both yoke and DIN have the pros and cons, but I don't think this theoretical failure mode is a significant factor... but I am open to being proven wrong!

What do you think are the cons of DIN regs? Other than that the valves aren't very common outside of Europe.
The yoke is a weird design choice. I wonder why they made it that way initially.

 

[James79]

What do you think are the cons of DIN regs? Other than that the valves aren't very common outside of Europe.
The yoke is a weird design choice. I wonder why they made it that way initially.

Largest issue for me is that I dive and tinker on a lot of vintage regs (all yoke), so it pays off for me to stay standardized. And some of the vintage yokes won't fit over pro valves (DIN with yoke insert), so all my tanks are pure yoke valves (some with HP ports).
I know DIN tank availability has been mentioned by some (rentals at destination), as you mentioned above.
I'm just not a fan of the attachment method of the DIN fitting on the regulator (the potential to loosen the fitting from the reg rather than from the tank).
That's it that I think about, but like I said at the start of this post I have other factors driving my preference than just the attachment method itself.

Respectfully,

James

 

[James79]

Happened to my wife on a dive trip in the Bahamas during our Christmas dive trip. We were diving off the Aqua Cat and on the 2nd dive of the day. Since my wife and I have different dive styles, we have different dive buddies. I had already dropped in, and was hovering above the bottom at about 25 feet. My wife and her buddy followed shortly after that. When they both got to the bottom there was a loud pop, and suddenly my wife was surrounded by a massive amount of bubbles. Her buddy grabbed her and they made an emergency swimming ascent to the back the boat. When they surfaced the tank was still releasing a large amount of air. The deck safety turned off the air and pulled my wife onto the boat. The yoke was off the tank and the O ring was still in place. Looking at the tank valve the dimple for the yoke screw was extremely worn. Now my wife had used this tank for nine previous dives and the crew had checked the yoke screw before she entered the water. She switched tanks, went back on the dive and no further issues the rest of the trip.

So, did something hit it and dislodge it? Or was it not properly seated in a worn out valve? Genuine question..... I know you said the crew checked it, but maintenance checks airplanes over and pilots still find things on preflight (or wish they had found it on preflight!). If it hit something, combined with a worn out valve body, that is closer to what I'm asking about (but still largely a fault of continuing to use a worn out valve).

Respectfully,

James

 

[TylerG.]

I just skimmed through some of the recent regs on this topic. I find it pretty odd that all the divers who recommend yoke seem to have less than 2-300 dives, while almost all professionals and ppl with 5-600+ dives push for din, quite odd. Maybe the words I used in previous threads such as "shear" and "dislodge" were a bit too harsh for your liking.
:

So to end this discussion I will conduct a little experiment. I'll take a modern yoke reg on an al80 with a couple hundred psi and generously bump it against a few things underwater. My local dive site has pretty shetty conditions right now so please allow a week or 2. Will post my findings and video here or on a new thread when done.

Respectfully,

Tyler

 

[James79]

I just skimmed through some of the recent regs on this topic. I find it pretty odd that all the divers who recommend yoke seem to have less than 2-300 dives, while almost all professionals and ppl with 5-600+ dives push for din, quite odd. Maybe the words I used in previous threads such as "shear" and "dislodge" were a bit too harsh for your liking.
:

So to end this discussion I will conduct a little experiment. I'll take a modern yoke reg on an al80 with a couple hundred psi and generously bump it against a few things underwater. My local dive site has pretty shetty conditions right now so please allow a week or 2. Will post my findings and video here or on a new thread when done.

Respectfully,

Tyler

Tyler,

I truly appreciate the offer of objective testing, and look forward to hearing your results. Shoot me a DM and I'll throw in some beer money in thanks!

As to the divers recommending yoke, most of them seem to be basing it on tank availability issues in some locales combined with dislike of the positioning caused by DIN to yoke adapters. I myself use yoke due to extraneous factors I mentioned above.

As to liking your wording or not.... doesn't factor. I work in a business where "words have meaning" is a constant quote.... talking about shearing a yoke or dislodging it via impact on an overhead is very different than a worn out o-ring or damaged sealing surface giving out (which does happen and is a valid argument against yokes). So I'm just trying to quantify if that's a valid concern or more of a conceptual "could happen".

If you don't mind a recommendation for the test methodology, I would use a tank with 500 psi (common back on the boat number, even though it isn't often a valid planning reserve) as having less than that usually means you already screwed up. That and using progressive impacts to try to quantify just how hard you have to hit it before it breaks or dislodges the yoke.

Respectfully,

James

 

[js1221]

So, did something hit it and dislodge it? Or was it not properly seated in a worn out valve? Genuine question..... I know you said the crew checked it, but maintenance checks airplanes over and pilots still find things on preflight (or wish they had found it on preflight!). If it hit something, combined with a worn out valve body, that is closer to what I'm asking about (but still largely a fault of continuing to use a worn out valve).

Respectfully,

James

She did a giant stride off the second deck of the boat, so about an eight foot drop. We know she did not hit anything coming off the boat. After that I cannot say, with any certainty, as to how well the yoke was seated. She got a new tank, with a more defined dimple on the tank valve and she made it a point to ensure the yoke screw was secured. She didn't have any more issues.

 

[axxel57]

In '97, when I was conducting a dive course in a hotel in the DR, twice the yoke of a fleet reg couldn't hold the pressure of the tank and the yoke screw slipped through the yoke threads with a loud bang (outside the water).
That was pretty embarrassing, because it happened at the hotel pool with lots of guests around it.
The first time I was just stunned, I didn't have much experiences with yoke fleet regs, I just put it aside, forgot about it and just used another reg.
A couple of days later it happened again with another reg, this time preparing for a dive while checking the equipment ( again outside the water).
This time I checked all our fleet regs ( Sherwood) and found out that a local 'specialist' seemed to have cleaned the threads of the yoke and yoke nut so aggressively with a steel brush that some of the yokes had real play between the nut and the yoke , so the nut could slip.
Those were very old and worn regs, so I explained my boss what had been the problem and that we would need new regs , which we received pretty soon.
I checked all dive center reg yokes for play and used in the meanwhile only those where I was pretty sure that they wouldn't be a problem.
I had been diving only DIN regs up to then, and that incident didn't really convince me to change to use yoke regs.......