Inflator hose with built in rapid exhaust

[sharkshooter76]

I’ve been using a Hollis st35 for the last 2 years which only has 1 dump valve in the bottom left. theres been a few times I’ve had a hard time getting enough air out through my inflator hose that I’ve had to use a head down decent in order to get down. Is adding a rapid exhaust inflator hose have any down sides or Asking for trouble? typical diving application is Spearfishing with the occasional sight seeing your when wife decides to go.

 

[rongoodman]

If you’re flat in the water, going a little head down shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re trying to descend, why wouldn’t you be so in the first place? Just do a little surface dive and descend while venting the OPV. You can always add a few kicks to move things along.

 

[sharkshooter76]

If you’re flat in the water, going a little head down shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re trying to descend, why wouldn’t you be so in the first place? Just do a little surface dive and descend while venting the OPV. You can always add a few kicks to move things along.

When I'm spearfishing it's not a problem because it's always a back roll and immediately into a head down descent. It's when I'm doing recreational dives that I'm having issues because wife or standard random diver on a charter boat freaks out over head down descents for some reason.

 

[Chrisk919]

Is adding a rapid exhaust inflator hose have any down sides or Asking for trouble?

It's just a shoulder "pull dump" - Some of the technical diving/DIR folks might have an issue with it but a number of BCD systems use one (two of my prior have)- but I guess my question is, if you can use the shoulder pull dump why not just depress the inflator hose valve and hold it up a little to dump some air from a head-up position at first? You can roll to a head-down once it's closer to empty.

I'm having issues because wife or standard random diver on a charter boat freaks out over head down descents for some reason.

Well, I don't know how fast your talking about, but if you're going from back-roll to heads-down immediately I can at least see a charter taking issue with that if you didn't pause and give a wave/OK before descending, i.e. did your reg fall out and you just drown? are you overweighted for your BC/wing and sinking uncontrollably? did you leave your buddy behind on the surface?

Depending on the insta-buddy, they may not have the experience to quickly roll heads-down, get fins behind them, and clear their ears on the way down.

 

[sharkshooter76]

It's just a shoulder "pull dump" - Some of the technical diving/DIR folks might have an issue with it but a number of BCD systems use one (two of my prior have)- but I guess my question is, if you can use the shoulder pull dump why not just depress the inflator hose valve and hold it up a little to dump some air from a head-up position at first? You can roll to a head-down once it's closer to empty.

Well, I don't know how fast your talking about, but if you're going from back-roll to heads-down immediately I can at least see a charter taking issue with that if you didn't pause and give a wave/OK before descending, i.e. did your reg fall out and you just drown? are you overweighted for your BC/wing and sinking uncontrollably? did you leave your buddy behind on the surface?

Depending on the insta-buddy, they may not have the experience to quickly roll heads-down, get fins behind them, and clear their ears on the way down.

I route my inflator hose through a d-ring on the shoulder strap so that my inflator doesn't float up and wave all over the place. The downside to this is that I can't get the inflator high enough to completely empty my wing of air.


We back roll and immediately head down to aid in hitting small targets. A good surface current and you can kiss that 8 foot pyramid goodbye if you hang out on the surface for anything. For this application it's a pretty fast descent i.e. Definitely hitting 100 feet in about 30 seconds. But I slow down when with less aggressive divers on sight seeing charters.

I went straight into a backplate when getting certified and diving so my only experience is with the hollis st35 since my usual diving crew all runs the exact same setup. Even my wife runs the hollis but she is over weighted so she gets down just fine with the inflator.

 

[johndiver999]

Adding a pull dump is not going to be cheap. I suggest you dump using the deflate button on the inflator. If you insist on keeping it trapped down, you might try rolling slightly onto your back with the head up position and this should put the bubble where you can vent it.

Another probably better option is to use a piece of bungi to retain the inflator and hose in the same general location, but when you want/need to deflate in a head up position, the bungi loop will stretch enough to allow lifting of the inflator and facilitate effective venting.

 

[sharkshooter76]

Adding a pull dump is not going to be cheap. I suggest you dump using the deflate button on the inflator. If you insist on keeping it trapped down, you might try rolling slightly onto your back with the head up position and this should put the bubble where you can vent it.

Another probably better option is to use a piece of bungi to retain the inflator and hose in the same general location, but when you want/need to deflate in a head up position, the bungi loop will stretch enough to allow lifting of the inflator and facilitate effective venting.

It's $130 so not too bad. I'm really just worried about if they break easily. Spend a lot of time pulling fish out of pyramids and holes so stuff definitely takes a beating. All my normal dive crowd keep trying to convince me to just overweight myself which I'm really trying to avoid.

 

[johndiver999]

I'm not sure how over weighting yourself is going to offset or be related to being unable to manually dump air from the inflator hose. To me, that sounds like a bad idea.

I have used the pull dump inflators. I have had one failure where the whole thing fell apart and consequently the BC was inoperable. They are an extra thing that can fail, but I personally prefer them. I never use my rear dump. I love being able to just yank down on the inflator and dump air. As long as you maintain them and are not super rough with it, they are fine. The BC I am using most often right now does not have a pull dump and I miss it.

Still think you should try a bungi on your corregated hose.

 

[sharkshooter76]

I

I'm not sure how over weighting yourself is going to offset or be related to being unable to manually dump air from the inflator hose. To me, that sounds like a bad idea.

I have used the pull dump inflators. I have had one failure where the whole thing fell apart and consequently the BC was inoperable. They are an extra thing that can fail, but I personally prefer them. I never use my rear dump. I love being able to just yank down on the inflator and dump air. As long as you maintain them and are not super rough with it, they are fine. The BC I am using most often right now does not have a pull dump and I miss it.

Still think you should try a bungi on your corregated hose.

I'm gonna give the bungee a shot to see if I like it. Being rough is pretty much the name of the game when I go spearfishing so that may be my answer.
Maybe I just need to tell whoever I'm diving with in going head first and to suck it up.
Overweighting will allow you to sink even with air in your bc. Being a tiny bit overweighted really isn't a big deal so long as you can still swim up against the weight efficiently.

 

[johndiver999]

Do you really have less than 50 dives?