possible for reg to blow up underwater?

[Land Locked]

I have personally seen first stage fail underwater. The point of failure is the high pressure seat in the first stage.

This can happen to a lot of used/ rental/ unserviced reg. Which makes sense to us that dives a lot to get it serviced every year.

When the failure occur, your first stage will seems like it is free flowing and you will find that most of your air get drained pretty quickly and there is nothing you can do except to turn off the tank valve and ask your buddy for air. There may or may not be a pop sound and the rate of free flow also depends on how bad is the seat broken.

Not nice to try at all....

Regards
Andrew

This happened to me, and guess what, it was just serviced "total overhaul" I think
it's called a level 3 service. Turns out the NEW high pressure seat was defective!
ABTW there was no pop or warning sound, just freeflow.

 

[Xman]

Just to add my 2 cents worth. It was my Mk20 first stage that blew in half. Scubapro claim thast there is no inherent fault, but have since replaced the brass part that was originally holding the LP swivel to the rest of the 1st stage to a stainless one. Personally, I would not now use a 1st stage with a swivel. They can and do fail, and are an unneccesary potential failure point IMO.

 

[ekiledjian]

i may just be paranoind of equipment failure now but is it possible for our regs to blow up underwater? does anyone actually know someone that has experienced this? o ring failure? what is the worst case scenario in regards to equipment failure underwater?.

A reg cannot "blow up". You can however experience equipment failure. Most failure however is cause by human error and not because of the equipment. THe biggest problem is failing to check the the air level in the tank, the O'ring on your first stage or the operation of your reg AND octopus BEFORE getting into the water.

What I saw on my last trip was a diver that checked his gear then his buddy (by mistake) closed the air source. The diver went under a couple of feet and realized he was out of air.

A small leak of the O'Ring on the surface may worsen and empty you tank. Although this is bad, if you check your gauges every couple of minutes, you will notice something is wrong and take appropriate action. The worst that can happen, if the O'Ring is very old, is that the pressure will cause it to break and shoot away. You will then loose all your air within minutes. IF you are going deep or do not trust the rental equipment you are diving with, you can buy a ponny bottle such a Spare-Air.

Good luck

 

[jonnythan]

The worst that can happen, if the O'Ring is very old, is that the pressure will cause it to break and shoot away. You will then loose all your air within minutes. IF you are going deep or do not trust the rental equipment you are diving with, you can buy a ponny bottle such a Spare-Air.

Good luck

This is inaccurate. The post just before yours is evidence that regulators can "blow up" underwater and, very suddenly, with no warning, leave you without even another breath.

Recommending Spare Air as a backup gas source for "going deep" is totally inappropriate IMO.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Was this the neck o-ring? Perhaps I should have made my statement a bit clearer.

I'll keep my eyes on the sky! :xyxnervou

Sorry for the late reply.

Yes it was the o-ring at the neck of the tank. Very bizarre looking, and rare, but not unheard of.

Looked like a rubber blister bulging out of about 1/3rd of where the valve and tank meet. Never would have thought that it could squeeze through such a small crack that is thinner than a piece of paper. But it did!