LP Inflator hose on pony ?

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JohnN

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The tragic incident with Marcia has started me to wonder about the wisdom of adding an LP inflator hose to my pony tank.

I live in the land of cold water, so we're talking drysuit here. . .the marginal cost is zero because I have a couple extra, in a true OOA situation with my primary single it certainly would be useful.

I see minimal additional complexity, but have never seen this done.

Am I missing something?
 
Just me thinking here but if you are using a BC + drysuit you have two sources of buoyancy. Drysuit flood means you inflate wing and abort the dive. Wing failure means you inflate drysuit to provide neutral or slightly positive buoyancy and swim up. Why add an extra hose which may confuse you in an emergency?
 
^^^agreed. I think that is adding a gear solution to a training problem. I'm of course not implying Q was inadequately trained at all. It does seen to me that many folks are forgetting that their wings can be orally inflated. Take a breath off your pony, breath it into your wing if need be. Then abort your dive.
 
The tragic incident with Marcia has started me to wonder about the wisdom of adding an LP inflator hose to my pony tank.

I live in the land of cold water, so we're talking drysuit here. . .the marginal cost is zero because I have a couple extra, in a true OOA situation with my primary single it certainly would be useful.

I see minimal additional complexity, but have never seen this done.

Am I missing something?

Wht not? When I dive my ID's I have a LP hose on both regs. The one I 'm not using has a tire inflator in it to keep it sand free if I need it.
 
It would be useful for inflating a closed circuit SMB or lift bag, other than that, I don't see the point.
 
John N--to me if OOA in your primary in a difficult situation then every breath is golden. Therefore to me using your exhaled air to inflate your BC or wing makes a lot more sense.

---------- Post added October 16th, 2013 at 07:38 PM ----------

-UM I have to ask a "silly" question (ive never dived "dry") How do you orally inflate a dry suit?
 
John N--to me if OOA in your primary in a difficult situation then every breath is golden. Therefore to me using your exhaled air to inflate your BC or wing makes a lot more sense.

---------- Post added October 16th, 2013 at 07:38 PM ----------

-UM I have to ask a "silly" question (ive never dived "dry") How do you orally inflate a dry suit?

Well, you'd have to have a really old dry suit. You got me there, you cannot orally inflate a modern dry suit. However, if you're experienceing the OOA, you should abort your dive. As you ascend, the gas that is already in your suit (assuming you put some there as you entered your profile) should expand enough to keep you comfortable.
 
Not uncommon to have an LP inflator hose on a bailout. Rebreather divers do this so that they can add offboard gas to their unit from their bailout. I dive dry in the winter in Florida and use a similar setup. Using Argon is overkill here, so you either fill off back gas (unless you are diving Trimix), carry a small inflator bottle, or you add an LP hose to your deco/bailout bottle. I do both. I originally was a bit uncomfortable adding an additional point of failure to my bailout/deco bottles, but in the end the benefits outweigh the minuses. Now all my secondary regs have this. Its also pretty handy for shooting bags. I also carry a small drysuit inflation bottle, which normally provides all I need for the dive.But it is small, and could easily be exhausted. However being able to jack a stage bottle into the suit is a great option. You are not missing something. Just make sure to disconnect it from the suit before handing up to the boat, LOL.
 
Ah, now I understand. I think I was taking the OP out of context.
 
If he wants to use the pony as if it were a argon bottle and dual purpose it as emergency air. probably no foul done unless it is a small pony.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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