"Air Trim" - actually saw one today....

A couple of scubaboard divers (thanks for the time with us today Mitch and crew!) were on board for a couple dives today, and one of the folks had one of these BCs.

I don't think I could ever get used to the idea, but the guy who had it liked it plenty, and it didn't seem to have any bad effect on his trim or buoyancy control.

I thought it looked and seemed strange in operator, but it certainly appeared to be functional.

Maybe some day I'll try diving one....

My 2 cents:

Not everybody knows how the system works, this my hinder rescue.

More parts = More failure points.

Peace.

and I had to look it over to figure it out.

I'm still not quite sure how you dump it RELIABLY if the tank is empty (that is, if there is no "power deflate" available) I did figure out that there is an oral INFLATE tube for it.

(One of the "selling points" appears to be that the "dump" buttons works without gyration, irrespective of your position in the water - no "positioning" yourself to dump air. Ok, good as long as it works, I guess.... but what if it fails?)

There are two manual pull dumps. One on the right shoulder, the other on the left rear dump.

The oral inflator is a real b**ch, but it does work.

Rachel

you're back to the same issues as with any other BC - you have to have the air near the dump.

Ok... but doesn't that mean that the user will typically not be "conditioned" to position his or her body thus? And as a consequence, if the power deflator fails, will the user have the presence of mind to get their body in the right position TO DUMP before their ascent gets out of hand?

I thought it looked interesting, and the guy who was wearing it had good trim and buoyancy control; while it may be "strange" it definitely didn't hinder his ability to dive well.

Obviously, I have one of these systems and I haven't tried to dump it when I have no air flowing using the dump valves. Having 2 valves makes positioning a little less crucial if you know where both the pulls are located. I'll be in the pool tomorrow night and I'll give it a try and let you know how it works.

I don't think the system itself is bad. I have become increasingly annoyed with it for other reasons, but I don't think the system is bad.

R

I was in the pool last night and turned off the tank and tried to deflate my airtim bc using the power inflator/deflator mechanism and as long as there was some positive pressure it worked but if all the air was purged from the line, it didn't release the tiniest bubble of air and I had to use the manual dumps.

Now we all know the question to that burning question....

Rachel

My wife has a dacor with the airtrim, she swears she wouldn't trade it for anything. I dive a Scuba Pro Knighthawk. Scuba Pro has one with the cool inflator, but the dumps are all scewed up, (you have to see it to understand how screwy it is). Classic air was the one I saw, but it has no power deflator like the dacor.

I bought an Air-Trim BC as part of my gear package when headed to Bonaire last November. Being very curious I opened the valves to figure out how it worked and found that while it is a "power deflate", it doesn't actually suck the air out so you have to be positioned such that the air can get out of one of the valves. It is nice that you don't have to figure out which is it is however.

It is merely a "remote control" air powered switch for the shoulder and bottom dumps. As such it has the convience of one place to grab for "up" and "down". Having the control in a handy spot that doesn't float around is nice. The manual inflate is a real pain to use, though it wouldn't be used much. The point of being non standard is well put, so I always made sure my buddy was aware of how it worked and where the manual inflate was.

It worked well in Bonaire, though to get trimmed out I had to snap a couple of ankle weights around the tank valve. In Gilboa before my trip Mike F. had to work with me to get the trim right. That's where I got the ankle weight trick. Now I'm thinking about giving the BP/wings setup a try to see if I might be a potential convert. I saw the post about the "travel" bp and it does look like it might be easy for carribean diving. A normal bp/wings setup might be easier for local diving. I'm in the process of scanning threads for advice on what to look at.

I started out with the Mares Dragonfly with airtrim and basically enjoyed diving in it. The only complaint I had was that if you were horizontal in the water column you had to lift your shoulder to get it to dump air, and it was bulky. The position of the airtrim valve was the best part of it. Mine also had the MRS weight system which was also real nice.

I have since switched to a Zeagle Ranger which is a lot more comfortable but am considering going to a b/p and wing setup.