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To prove what, exactly? That I was just unlucky and got a duff one, or that all his stuff is suspect?
If you got the duff one, then you would have to decide if it was luck or setup and your distrust could be reinforced. If there are others like yours, then it may not be a matter of trust but of standards. The problem you describe is just not a big safety issue. But I would expect that most shops would have disposed of such a hose in the trash can rather than used gear sales.
If you got the duff one, then you would have to decide if it was luck or setup and your distrust could be reinforced. If there are others like yours, then it may not be a matter of trust but of standards. The problem you describe is just not a big safety issue. But I would expect that most shops would have disposed of such a hose in the trash can rather than used gear sales.
Trust and standards go hand-in-hand; one has to be able to trust that high standards are kept. I was able to spot this problem, but what about all the internal parts that aren't visible? This where trust comes in.
Smiffy6four.....everything has been said except for "options for dive shops". Send me a PM if you want some ideas of possible alternatives.
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All day, Every day, underwater = HEAVEN Diving My Way - my non-professional website Blog about nothing - a place for me to force my opinion onto the reader. "It is better to remain silent and appear dumb, than to speak and remove all doubt." -- Winston Churchill --
Trust and standards go hand-in-hand; one has to be able to trust that high standards are kept. I was able to spot this problem, but what about all the internal parts that aren't visible? This where trust comes in.
I learned to test and inspect my own gear. It is not the kind of thing I'd trust to any dive shop.
I learned to test and inspect my own gear. It is not the kind of thing I'd trust to any dive shop.
I can see myself going that route, too. I used to be in the car repair business, got out of it, tried having work done on my vehicles at a variety of local shops, had issues, including catastrophic brake failure,
have gone back to doing it myself.
If you want it done right, do it yourself. Then you have only yourself to blame/praise.
When hoses start to crack, I start thinking of replacing them. But there is nothing to panic about. The rubber is just an outer shell and isn't the part that keeps the gas in. The truth is, I could probably dive hundreds of dives on a good HP hose with a few cracks in the rubber. In fact, head over to a dive site some time where there are technical divers doing decompression dives and look at the 6" hoses on their deco bottles. These short hoses are often set up with a short, hard loop and crack quickly. I'd bet you'd find some cracks.
But sure, I'd replace the cracked hose. If a dive shop sold me a used reg and I later discovered a cracked hose, assuming the reg itself is in good shape, I'd take it with shrug. My fault for not inspecting it and then trying to play up the crack and negotiate some new hoses into the deal.
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The complicated rigs, with multiple tanks, hoses, and regulators, start to look like experiments out of horror-movie laboratories. - Joe Haberstroh – Fatal Depth
Decompression algorithms are akin to measuring with a micrometer, marking with chalk and cutting with an ax. - Rick Murchison
The shop owner was right in that it's just a protective cover (even cracked, it's protecting the inner hose) and not an imminent threat. Even if a HP hose blows it takes about 20 minutes to empty the tank. It's an event you should be able to easily and safely handle.
The shop owner was wrong for not cheerfully replacing it for a customer that just spent $1500 with him and was very concerned about it, whether he felt it needed replacing or not. Very stupid business move on his part.
You were not over reacting because you did not know that it is not an imminent threat and the proper thing to do if you have doubts about the safety of a dive is to call the dive. I would have done the dives and made a mental note to order a replacement hose.
The shop owner was right in that it's just a protective cover (even cracked, it's protecting the inner hose) and not an imminent threat. Even if a HP hose blows it takes about 20 minutes to empty the tank. It's an event you should be able to easily and safely handle.
The shop owner was wrong for not cheerfully replacing it for a customer that just spent $1500 with him and was very concerned about it, whether he felt it needed replacing or not. Very stupid business move on his part.
You were not over reacting because you did not know that it is not an imminent threat and the proper thing to do if you have doubts about the safety of a dive is to call the dive. I would have done the dives and made a mental note to order a replacement hose.
I sell refurbished/used equipment in my shop(PC's) and I will always cheerfully replace defective parts, no questions asked(even if the client has some responsibility) in order to have happy clients and maintain my hard -earned reputation for quality and fair dealing.
20 mins to empty the tank? Wow, I envisioned maybe a minute or two. Would the reg still function, despite a system pressure drop like that? I.E. is a controlled ascent, with air, still possible?
20 mins to empty the tank? Wow, I envisioned maybe a minute or two. Would the reg still function, despite a system pressure drop like that? I.E. is a controlled ascent, with air, still possible?
If you take one of the HP port plugs out and look inside, you'll see that there's only a tiny hole leading from the HP chamber in the 1st stage out to the port. There's no need for any sort of flow rate to the SPG, in fact you want to have as small a volume of HP air in the hose and gauge as possible to keep the total pressure down. There's a much larger opening from the HP chamber into the IP chamber, so that air can freely flow to the 2nd stage. Surfacing after a HP hose failure is no big deal, the reg will still work fine. You'll just have a spectacular stream of small bubbles to look at on the way up.
In normal recreational diving, if a single equipment malfunction event is life threatening, then you need to re-think your approach to diving. This is why we use the buddy system, use back up gear depending on the environment, and most importantly only dive in situations we can get out of safely given our training and equipment. Nobody wants to dive with equipment they don;t trust, I'm totally with you on that one, but don't confuse inconvenient or even scary with life threatening.
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