Pony Bottle Configuration

[DIR Tec Diver]

skip the pony entirely and work up a good gas management plan prior to the dive. With a few dives, you will know the scenarios for your normal dive plans and be in good shape. Pony bottles don't really offer solutions just more to think about in an already stressful situation.

 

[Rhpenning]

My original post regarding Pony bottle was not out of concern for poor air consumption or diving beyond recreational dive limits. I use a hp 100 and watch my air carefully. It is just for an extra margin of caution for the unlikely catastrophic malfunction of the 1st stage or for diving solo ( for which I plan on gettting my solo cert.) Any thoughts?

 

[Uncle Pug]

Rhpenning once bubbled...
Any thoughts?

The best pony mount I've seen is the Ebay. If you really want to have redundancy for (ackkkk) solo (kkpffft) diving then you might as well set up a proper set of doubles.

For example... rather than a single with a 19cf pony strapped to the side why not go with a nice little set of lp steel 72s?

Cheap to put together... and you can do two dives holding back only one reserve.... instead of doing a dive with your single and then unrigging every thing to change out the single (which still has a reserve left in it) for a new tank.

I saw a bunch of folks yesterday using ponies with their singles and I'll bet my little 72 twinset didn't weigh anymore and it certainly made more gas available to me... plus much better hose routing!

 

[Big-t-2538]

Doc Intrepid once bubbled...

<snip>
added by Big-T ---> Rigging stage/deco/pony bottles
Find out how here:
http://www.dive-rite.com/resource/stage/index.htm
<snip>

Damn nice link doc....I like it.

 

[Rhpenning]

To further clarify, diving with a single hp100 provides all the air I need. I am not concerned about running out of air but rather more of the very unexpected. What are the stats on catsrophic failure of the cylinder and 1st stage/2nd stage failure that would render them completely unusable necessitating an out of air emergency ascent? If I am confident that I will not have an out of air situation under the circumstances that I dive in are you saying that a pony bottle is not needed?

 

[Uncle Pug]

Rhpenning once bubbled...
If I am confident that I will not have an out of air situation under the circumstances that I dive in are you saying that a pony bottle is not needed?

But if the redundancy of a pony is really needed then a better solution is a set of doubles. IMO.

 

[Rhpenning]

The question is, then, is the redundancy of a pony bottle necessary for my described typed of diving?

 

[Rhpenning]

Sorry Uncle Pug ! I guess you answered this by saying "yes" a pony bottle is not necessary for my type of diving.

 

[Uncle Pug]

...pony tanks bring with them additional complications that, IMO, outweigh any perceived benefit.

Adding the perceived benefit of a pony to make up for the perceived risk of diving a non-redundant rig is unwise IMO because it doesn't take into account reality regarding modern regulator reliability and pony bottle liability.

You need to assess the real risk of a first/second stage failure in a well maintained regulator that would leave a diver totally OOA.

You should also be aquainted with the liabilities that a pony bottle (or any extra piece of gear for that matter) presents.

Then you can make a sound judgement.

As for the type of diving you do... I really don't know what type of diving you do from your post so far. I surmise that you are planning to dive solo in the future.

If I were planning to dive solo I would at least have the redundancy of a small twinset. But then I don't dive solo... anymore... except last night... sorta.

 

[Spectre]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...

Cheap to put together... and you can do two dives holding back only one reserve.... instead of doing a dive with your single and then unrigging every thing to change out the single (which still has a reserve left in it) for a new tank.

I'm still looking for a compelling argument on how the second dive on a set of doubles is safer than a dive with a single and a bailout.

In my eyes, the inconvenience of swapping a tank out between dives is miniscule compared to the added complexity of doubles. Complexity in that you can't 'plan' to have enough gas in reserve, as the 'reserve' is completely dependant on how fast you get the sucker isolated. Also, for nasty access shore diving, I much prefer to be able to bring the tank down in the first trip, the pony in the second... rather than huffing a set of doubles.