Freeflow, what would you do?

[caribean-ted]

Hey gang, just want to get some views how people would handle this.

100ft down, 12 mins into your dive, 2400psi left in your tank.
Your reg goes into freeflow and you cant stop it. Your in back and nobody is looking back. Do you try to reach your partner or assend. You have already tried to stop the freeflow.

How would you handle it?

Myself, i experienced one in Tobermory while diving the Arabia at 104ft. temp was 38F
My reg went into freeflow and as I tried to stop it I was running out of air. I was only 10 mins into the dive, my buddy had just okd me few seconds previous. My mistake was not staying close enough as I was busy filming. I tried to get his attention but to no avail. I decided at that temp, it was possible I could cause his to go into freeflow with the extra load on sharing air. So I assended breathing in and out all the way to the surface to prevent problems. As it was only 10 mins it wasnt too bad. I was fine but at the time I wasnt sure how long the air would last so a decision had to be made in a hurry.
I just want to see how you would handle the same situation if it happened to you
I dont want to hear I would never get myself into that situation. LOL Just how you handle it if you did.
It may help someone here who hasnt experienced it yet.

 

[SubMariner]

Hey gang, just want to get some views how people would handle this.

100ft down, 12 mins into your dive, 2400psi left in your tank.
Your reg goes into freeflow and you cant stop it. Your in back and nobody is looking back. Do you try to reach your partner or assend. You have already tried to stop the freeflow.

How would you handle it?

Myself, i experienced one in Tobermory while diving the Arabia at 104ft. temp was 38F
My reg went into freeflow and as I tried to stop it I was running out of air. I was only 10 mins into the dive, my buddy had just okd me few seconds previous. My mistake was not staying close enough as I was busy filming. I tried to get his attention but to no avail. I decided at that temp, it was possible I could cause his to go into freeflow with the extra load on sharing air. So I assended breathing in and out all the way to the surface to prevent problems. As it was only 10 mins it wasnt too bad. I was fine but at the time I wasnt sure how long the air would last so a decision had to be made in a hurry.
I just want to see how you would handle the same situation if it happened to you
I dont want to hear I would never get myself into that situation. LOL Just how you handle it if you did.
It may help someone here who hasnt experienced it yet.

The Arabia is a hard enough dive without something like THAT happening!

If you were not within arm's reach of your buddy to give you assistance, you did the right thing by ascending.

BTW, did the free flow stop once you had gotten to the surface? Did you find out what caused it? If it's not a cold water set up sometimes the cold + pressure will trigger a free flow -- esp when you are down that far in Toby (and have already gone through several thermoclines).

 

[caribean-ted]

I took it out of my mouth and purged it. I shouldnt have done it, it has an enviro kit also and is cold water set up. The extra load and as you said, pressure and cold caused the freeflow due to crystalizing. It ran dry as I surfaced. I dove a few times the previous day with no trouble.
From that Ive learned, keep it in my mouth, breath normal and dont put a load on it. Especially in cold water and that kind of depth.

 

[DevonDiver]

1. Shut down the effected (sidemount) cylinder.

2. Switch regulators, if required.

3. Signal buddy to abort and ascend.

No dramas... with the right gear

I did have a catastrophic cold-water freeflow when I was a novice diver. Depth was 36m. Water temp was 4c (freshwater quarry). Breathing from the free-flow regulator (as I was taught) caused my teeth to become encrusted with ice (ouch). So I changed to my pony and ascended. Back gas exhausted long before I reached the surface.

On deeper dives, if you don't have redundant gas, your buddy skills/discipline need to be top-notch..... or you need to be pretty confident of your ability to CESA from depth and not get DCS. In short... get redundant gas...

 

[Kevrumbo]

(Coming from a technical wreck diving perspective): You never let breathing gas expire away uselessly in all its noise and vision obscuring bubbles. If you have a Drysuit, you will need some tank pressure remaining to inflate it for additional positive buoyancy should you successfully make it to the surface.

Shut your tank valve down. When you need to take a breath, crack open the tank valve and shut it down again. Repeat as needed, switch to your back-up reg/octopus as well if the unregulated flow of gas from the malfunctioning primary reg is too much to handle.

Perform this tank valve "feathering/modulation" technique while doing a CESA (if your buddy is nowhere to be seen and you're essentially solo). . .

With your left hand, slow your CESA rate via BCD/wing hose deflator dump button . . .with your right hand reach back, feather/modulate your tank valve and take breaths as needed.

All it takes is practice (and IMHO --should be a mandatory skill taught in basic open water courses. . .). If you must, loosen your BCD or Backplate/Wings kit and reach back & pull your tank up to the back of your head to facilitate reaching the cylinder valve.

The motivation after realizing that you can breath off a catastrophic non-fixable free-flowing 2nd stage reg, is to shut down the tank valve to stop further hemorrhaging of precious breathing gas. Crack the tank valve, take a breath as needed and shut down the tank valve, modulating the valve while performing the CESA as described above.

Actual incident that happened:
Cozumel 2006, my adjustment knob on the second stage blew-out resulting in a catastrophic nonfixable free-flow, on a single-tank dive in 6m of depth, during a weightbelt lead check. I actually could see the gauge pointer/indicator hand on the SPG sweeping from 200 through 150 bar literally in an instant before reaching back to shut-off the cylinder valve. Switched to my bungied back-up reg around my neck and then modulated/feathered the tank valve behind my head while doing a CESA. (Again, this should be a skill regularly practiced starting in basic open water).

 

[PfcAJ]

I'd swim over to my buddy. Back-guy needs to keep a reasonable proximity to middle guy or front guy (in a 2 man team). Film guy should be middle guy or front guy in a situation like you describe, imo.

 

[rhwestfall]

until I get the doubles thing sorted out (AN/DP/TriMiix classes this summer), its the slung 30, and a shut down of the offending reg. I dive h-valves on a single tank in cold water, and its big tanks for me (HP 120) so there is gas to spare. Buddy is not allowed to get that far away, especially in Tobermory....

 

[waterpirate]

until I get the doubles thing sorted out (AN/DP/TriMiix classes this summer), its the slung 30, and a shut down of the offending reg. I dive h-valves on a single tank in cold water, and its big tanks for me (HP 120) so there is gas to spare. Buddy is not allowed to get that far away, especially in Tobermory....

an/dp + tmx is going to make for a hectic and exilerating summer for you! Best of luck! My solution = isolate, shutdown right post and switch to bungeed backup.
Eric

 

[Hickdive]

I'd shut down the offending reg and swap to my back up and abort the dive.

If I wasn't sure which reg was freeflowing I'd isolate, then work out which was causing the problem, switch to the other, shut down the malfunctioning one, re-open the isolator and abort the dive.

 

[victor]

Opencircuit single tank with primary and secondary.
1. First check the location of my buddy.
2. Take out or mouth and shake, press purge button, knock against other hand
3. Still free flowing then take alternate and put in mouth
4. Kink low preasure hose to freeflowing reg and squeeze thus stopping bubbles and waste of air.
5. Attract buddies attention to the problem if they have not already come to my side.
6. Check and share PSI
7. Make a common decision on how to abort the dive. e.g. straight ascent, swim to anchor line, etc.
8. Inform any others of our decision if they are still around.
9. Expected duration less than 2 minutes