Naked SPG

[RTodd]

1) DIR gear is for in the water, not on the surface. If you don't need it in the water you don't take it.

2) A boot is rarely going to add any meaningful protection to a gauge that has a tank dropped on it unless it is huge. This introduces a non-streamlined item that is not needed and not DIR. (A simple boot is less obvious particularly when geared up in a drysuit, etc. But, every little compromise starts to add up.) The arguement for valve protectors while on a boat is just as valid but everyone generally accepts this as completely un-DIR. Gauge boots are in the same catagory.

3) I am a total klutz and trip or break minor stuff more than I care to admit. Even I have never impacted a gauge as described above. The better fix is to be more careful and just accept that there is some small chance a gauge might get broken on the boat. You can easily carry a spare. Personally, I always have one extra stage reg with me which provides most of the needed spare reg parts, including a gauge (albeit a temporary plastic one).

 

[rjack321]

I broke a gauge once, a glass and brass one on my deco bottle. Giant crack across the face. We never did figure out what I whacked it on. Oddly enough I have a naked plastic gauge on one of my deco regs (a leftover from years ago) and I've never broken that. Maybe I'm more careful cause it seems fragile.

All the boots I've seen don't really offer any meaningful protection and they do obscure swivel leaks, etc. If you are breaking stuff on a boat you just need to setup the boat and/or crew so you aren't tripping and sitting on stuff. Don't add equipment to solve this issue, cause you'll end up with pillows strapped all over

 

[limeyx]

I broke a gauge once, a glass and brass one on my deco bottle. Giant crack across the face. We never did figure out what I whacked it on.

Yeah, maybe that's because you were way too busy screaming about how you'd forgotten to zip up the d/suit and were flooding !

 

[Steve R]

I broke a gauge once, a glass and brass one on my deco bottle. Giant crack across the face. We never did figure out what I whacked it on. Oddly enough I have a naked plastic gauge on one of my deco regs (a leftover from years ago) and I've never broken that.

This has been my experience as well. I just ended up switched over to all plastic gauges after busting too many brass and glass. It may seem counter-intuitive, but my experience with both tells me the plastic busts less often. We have a few guys up here that have found similar results.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I'd probably bust too if I jumped naked into the cold waters of the frozen north.

 

[rjack321]

Yeah, maybe that's because you were way too busy screaming about how you'd forgotten to zip up the d/suit and were flooding !

Yes I know I'm a big wuss.

Serisouly though you and I just seem to break stuff together. Can you say $400 light cord??

 

[rjack321]

This has been my experience as well. I just ended up switched over to all plastic gauges after busting too many brass and glass. It may seem counter-intuitive, but my experience with both tells me the plastic busts less often. We have a few guys up here that have found similar results.

Yeah I like the brass+glass ones on backgas cause if it slips out of my hand or something its heavy enough to hang down predicably and I can find it again (with cold hands in dry gloves). Never broken one of these either.

On the deco/stage regs plastic gauges seems to work fine or even better.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

I just ended up switched over to all plastic gauges after busting too many brass and glass. It may seem counter-intuitive, but my experience with both tells me the plastic busts less often. We have a few guys up here that have found similar results.

I use brass and glass for my backgas SPGs, but most of my stage SPGs are plastic. I know that's probably not the "optimal DIR suggestion", but then I have not had that many problems with the plastic gauges. My experience has been that when they fail, it is usually pre-dive, so I just pack several spares (both spare stage regs and spare gauges). They are easy enough to swap out that I don't worry too much about the supposed "fragility" of plastic.

I do carry a complete spare left post reg for my doubles, so I can just swap that out on-site if something happens.

One other thing to add - most of my doubles/deco diving has been in caves, and I don't do a lot of boat diving beyond the single tank, recreational variety. I think things are probably more prone to getting banged around and broken on a boat, so I might change my view pretty quick if I started doing more of that.

 

[rjack321]

Weird I thought I was the only str-oke with a plastic gauge on my deco reg. All that I know is that in this application its been more reliable than the brass (N is only a whopping 3).

 

[RTodd]

Plastic gauges on stages work better. The brass or stainless ones (other than the smaller harder to read ones) make the stages even more nose heavy when empty.