transferring scuba regulator from tank to tank underwater?

[tregrrr]

It's likely to kill the SPG, though, if any water goes down the HP hose. Don't ask me how I know . . .

two questions and a reconciliation:
how much is an SPG worth??
how much is your life worth??

can we agree to buy a shiny new SPG as a gift to self for living through the day??

I personally would be tempted to get the old one sealed and mounted as a personal darwin award; Diver was fitter than the SPG

 

[Atomic_Diver]

I belive it could possibley be done, however the risk of rusting the interior of the first stage exsists..

 

[TSandM]

Oh, if I had to do it, I would! But I'd rather invoke the "lost deco gas" contingencies.

 

[hypertech]

What a crazy question. Purging out the water isn't a solution because he asked with out it being flooded.

The only thing I can think of is to create an airspace and use that. I don't think a mask will have enough volume. Perhaps if you have a hood or a bag or something that you could use to create the airspace you could do it. Hopefully you are located somewhere where you can sit on the bottom and between the two of you, you are heavy enough to hold down the bag.

I want to know what you are breathing on if one tank is empty and the other is failed (and how you got in that predicament). If you have no air source at all, its time for CESA. If there is an air source, stop fiddling around and ascend.

 

[vshearer]

Seems like I remember those DIR guys keep their second stages hand tight, and you did mention second stage malfunction.

 

[hypertech]

Here's a thought ........

Is he a fan of Oceanic gear?

The oceanic DVT has a little piston that closes off the first stage. It won't flood when taken off a tank underwater. Cracking the good tank to blow out the little bit of water between the tank and the reg and it might do it.

To my knowledge, oceanic is the only one with this little piston inside the yolk fitting.

 

[tregrrr]

Oh, if I had to do it, I would! But I'd rather invoke the "lost deco gas" contingencies.

lost deco gas was already invoked but since we all know Murphy can smell an opportunity to mess with divers better than a great white can smell blood...


Actually, I remember one 330' that I drove the boat for went to s##t in a handbasket similarly

From the debrief that I was party to, two members wound up having deco-gas issues that resulted in a 20 minutes buddy breathing practice off a stage bottle. IIRC they got to depth and turned a cylinder on only to realize it had leaked down on the ride out and the other had a LP hose let go when charging up again for use. there was enough back gas to do lost deco, but they were comfortable buddy breathing and decided to practice that in order to stave off having to stay on the Tx and run a longer dive in <40F water.

if the situation was less tenable, switching the dead reg/ full bottle with good reg/MT bottle might have been a salvation. as it was they decided to use it as a buddy skills training opportunity

yeah probably both malfunctions that could have been/should have been caught surface side, but weren't.... You know how it goes: if it can go wrong it will go wrong. If there is a way it can go wrong that is worse, that is the route the malfunction will take.

 

[redacted]

It's likely to kill the SPG, though, if any water goes down the HP hose. Don't ask me how I know . . .

What was the failure mode on the SPG? I have killed on that was flooded but the failure mode was the case leaking which should have nothing to do with the flooding. I have other old SPGs that look like they have seen a fair amount of SW through the HP circuit in their life and they are still working OK. Usually the bourbon tube is made of copper and can take at least some exposure before is starts to effect accuracy. And accuracy should suffer well before the tube loses the ability to hold pressure.

 

[Mike Boswell]

Assuming you have another tank to breathe from, it might be possible to unscrew the SPG from the good reg, stick the SPG HP hose in your mouth, and blow air into it while you (quickly) switch regs. I dunno...

 

[Tinytechie]

I was thinking the Oceanic approach all along, but reading through the most obvious working answer is the one of turning the first stage opening down and not tipping it, of course it hold the air inside it and therefore can't flood. Like it! I think that's how I'll do it if this should ever occur... by a strange act of mistakes and physics... and yeah what the hell went wrong on the other reg... they are made fail safe for a reason... still... upside down.. like it.. done.