Post Your Latest Gear Failure!

[Pedro Burrito]

Instead of bragging about your latest purchase, how about your latest gear failure?

• A few weeks before my latest trip, my Big Blue CF900 (my second favorite light) would not turn on or if it did turn on it wasn't bright.
• On my latest trip, my Big Blue AL900 (my favorite light) flooded during the dive. First I noticed that it was on but I had not turned it on. It would not turn off then I noticed it was flooded. Then the battery failed and acid bubbled up through the base after I surfaced.
• Then my 5 year old Suunto Gekko would not turn off after the dive. It kept beeping for hours and I finally had to remove the battery. I think the pressure sensor failed because it kept registering depth, incorrectly compared to my other dive computer, even after the dive ended.
• Then my wife lost her dive computer. I'll start another thread about that one.

I've had weird things occur on dive trips before but all the failures were getting me a little nervous.

 

[kr2y5]

I recently unscrewed the P-valve from my drysuit leg while opening it... fortunately, that was under the shower, so the consequences were not dire. This experience taught me to better appreciate the fact that tighty may or may not be righty, depending on context... I no longer crank my P-valve shut hand-tight. A couple months before that, my first stage fell apart in the water while a "helpful" soul forcibly turned it under pressure to help "optimize" my house routing (while completely shredding the captured O-ring in the process).

 

[ajduplessis]

The handle on my reel came loose during my ascent. Somehow I managed to not drop the nut/handle and was able to make the repair.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I had the battery die on my Mares Puck as soon as I hit the water last time I was out diving locally off my kayak.
I did the dive(s) anyway because I had a manual spg and a compass. I've dove there many times so I knew the terrain and depths.
The thing is that computer was brand new from Leisure Pro.

 

[boulderjohn]

This is not my most recent, but it is just a tiny bit amusing.

Back when Salvo was a new company, the dive shop with which I was associated contracted with them for tech gear, and they had to make a huge initial investment because, well, I guess Barry needed a car or new burglar tools or something. I bought their top of the line regulators for my doubles. After the company folded, I ended up O2 cleaning the regulators and using them for my decompression cylinders. The second stages had faceplates that screwed on about 1.5 turns before being done, and they were constantly coming loose. On one dive, I saw something out of the corner of my eye--it was the faceplate fro one of the regulators fluttering as it descended into the abyss.

We were at a remote site that I visited about 7-8 times a year. It is very deep, around 300 feet, and by the time you hit 100 feet, it is very dark. I didn't bother looking for it. I did not have any serious decompression dives for the rest of the weekend, but I was doing a lot of simulated decompression dives. I made a new faceplate out of--you guessed it--duct tape. It really worked well. I would not have trusted it for real decompression, but it worked just great for what I was doing. I went home and put that second stage in some box of junk.

That was a number of years ago. About a year or so ago, I was back at that site, which is little more than a hole in the prairie. There is an old tin shed on the site, and nothing else. I went in and saw something familiar hanging from a nail--the faceplate from my regulator! Someone had found it sitting on a ledge down in the depths, knew it was mine, and had left it there knowing I would eventually return. It had some rust around the edges, but otherwise it was fine.

I have a lot of regulators these days, and believe it or not, I am using that one again for some situations. If you dived with me during the past few months in Florida and noticed that my alternate was a Salvo with a hint of rust on the edges, you now know what that was all about.

 

[SouthSideScubaSteve]

While on my first live-aboard trip a few weeks ago, I had gear failures on the first three dives of the week!

On the first dive, my Cobra failed to register depth at all (evidently the pressure sensor failed), making it simply an SPG ..... I switched to my backup computer and finished the dive. Then on the SI I attached a manual SPG on the open High-pressure port on my first-stage

On the second dive, the rubber cover over the "inflate button" on my power-inflator split and the piston underneath popped out into my hand (I caught it). After verifying that it would still function if I re-inserted the piston & that I could manually inflate, I finished the dive (I was already at my max depth for the dive and knew I'd simply be dumping air for the rest of the dive). In addition, the Cobra (which I was still carrying to see if it would return to function) registered depth suddenly at 63' and then proceeded to never register any change as I ascended (two strikes for the Cobra). So on the SI I installed a spare power-head, removed the Cobra entirely and moved the backup SPG to the position where I normally have my Cobra.

As I began to descend on dive #3 of the trip, I grabbed the SPG which was now clipped where my Cobra would normally be, and watched as my left weight pocket dropped to the sand 65' below!! Evidently the hose on the SPG was longer than the hose on my Cobra and had gotten looped around the handle on my weight pocket... With no weight in my left pocket and a full AL80 on my back, my trim was way out of whack; so since I was diving as part of a three-man team: I pointed out my pocket to my buddies (I was only 10-12' down at that point), waved them off and thumbed the dive and spent the extended SI switching out hoses on the SPG!!

For the record, I had my gear serviced/ checked before the trip... Just goes to show why carrying backups and a well stocked save-a-dive kit are prudent things to do!

 

[bradells]

Just the other day I ripped my wing and a glove on a barnacle. Noticed the glove right away, the wing wasn't until a few minutes at cruising depth, while keeping on adding air to the wing every few minutes .....

$120 mistake .... And no more doubles diving for this trip, grrrrr!


BRad

 

[Raze]

The connection between the intermediate hose & 2nd stage of my brand new, out-of-the-box Mares MV Octo sprang bubbles. Fortunately this was at a pool. Took it to an LDS and they said there was no O-ring installed in the swivelling connector.

 

[al248005]

Bad day for me yesterday....turned the dive computer on for the first time after the winter down time...battery was dead. So I figured I'd dig the old backup out...battery dead in it too. So put the regs on a tank to test breath them and now I find out not only do I have 2 dead computers my octo is free-flowing. I guess its the diving gods of telling me not to go today. When it rains it pours!

 

[dmoore19]

Couple of years ago. The glass fell out of my Datamask. It was at the end of the night dive so I surfaced 50' from the boat. Borrowed a mask for the next days diving. I have a SPG in my bag, I was wearing my BUD so I was able to finish the trip without missing a dive.

It was an interesting trip anyway, we lost a day's diving because a Hurricane came by. When we got home I noticed one of my fins had a crack and the second hand had fallen off of my watch. Everything was replaced for free and insurance reimbursed me for the loss of the day of diving. All in all not a bad ending.