BCD inflator button stuck

[Kettle]

I was diving on Saturday, down about 22m or so and had just hit the bottom. I was waiting for the rest of the group to catch up and went to inflate my BCD a bit and the button got stuck in. The thing just kept pumping air into the BCD and it inflated to an incredible pressure around my chest and I started floating up from the bottom. I managed to grap hold of the anchor before I got too high and I also held in the manual inflator button to try to get rid of the air in the BCD. It relieved some of the pressure but I was still struggling to hold onto the anchor and stay near the bottom. I fiddled with the button a bit and finally managed to unstick it. It was quite a scary experience, not sure how long it went on for, would only have been 20 seconds max, but enough time to get the adrenaline going. I continued the dive, avoiding using the inflator. Anyone else had this happen to them?

[rmediver2002]

I had something similar happen with a drysuit, the valves are even more prone to sticking than BC valves when they are not maintained properly...


Two good examples of why to practice removing your inflator hose with one hand often, this also shows how rapidly Murphy can arrive when your not staying on top of your gear maint...

Soaking your valve in a vinegar fresh water solution will get into the nooks and cranies and disolve that salt and debris...

Jeff Lane

[roturner]

Kettle once bubbled...
I was diving on Saturday, down about 22m or so and had just hit the bottom. I was waiting for the rest of the group to catch up and went to inflate my BCD a bit and the button got stuck in. The thing just kept pumping air into the BCD and it inflated to an incredible pressure around my chest and I started floating up from the bottom. I managed to grap hold of the anchor before I got too high and I also held in the manual inflator button to try to get rid of the air in the BCD. It relieved some of the pressure but I was still struggling to hold onto the anchor and stay near the bottom. I fiddled with the button a bit and finally managed to unstick it. It was quite a scary experience, not sure how long it went on for, would only have been 20 seconds max, but enough time to get the adrenaline going. I continued the dive, avoiding using the inflator. Anyone else had this happen to them?

Your are very lucky that you had something to grab onto. Stuck inflator buttons happen relatively often in my experience. The short term solution is to hold the manual deflate button open (which you did - that was good thinking) and to uncouple the inflator hose. This is most easily done if you hold the inflator above your head. Once the hose is uncoupled you hve the time to work on the button. Practice this a few times so you get a feeling for how easy/hard it comes off.

Clearly you need to get it looked at.

R..

[budgy]

Scarey stuff inflator valves sticking, after it happened to me I seriously considered going back to a wet suit and a mk1 fenzy.
Seriously the experience is unsettling but you coped with the situation and if it ever happens again you can be confident you know what to do.

[Kettle]

The BCD wasn't mine unfortunately, guess it's another thing I will include in my pre-dive check next time.

[freedive]

Did the BC have a dump valve you could have used?

[Kettle]

Yeah it did have a dump valve, but my hands were a bit full trying to hold onto anchor and fiddle with buttons.

[DeepScuba]

Work FAST, unhook the hose and dump dump dump. I know a guy who's inflator stuck on his Dry suit while doing deco!!!

By the time he got it under control he was on the surface (I don't remember the depth it started at). He missed around 15 mins of deco I think, he went to the chamber "just in case".

[Big-t-2538]

roturner once bubbled...
The short term solution is to hold the manual deflate button open (which you did - that was good thinking) and to uncouple the inflator hose.....Practice this a few times so you get a feeling for how easy/hard it comes off.

Ditto...you might want to practice taking the hose on and off in the water and with what ever gloves you might be using on future dives. This does happen.

[Tractor Tom]

... a few months ago. The dive before we had been at Higgins Lake, diving from the beach and a bit of sand got into my inflator button assembly. Went flying down the line towards the bottom and was adding air about the time I saw the anchor. I normally add in about 1/2 second bursts, and the darn thing STUCK! I wear a Northern Diver Wing, so I reached up for the dump, while banging the button with my other hand. Stopped after a couple of seconds, but it really got my heart racing. Left the inflator button alone the rest of the dive and used my drysuit to adjust bouyancy until I could get back up to the boat and I could pry it apart. Was at about 80 feet when it happened and didn't want to find myself rocketing to the surface from that depth!

Glad you managed to save the dive and not get hurt!