Is is possible to breathe from your BCD?

[SnorkelLA]

That's a pretty excellent point, Superlyte

 

[DevonDiver]

Personally, this sounds like an implausible urban myth to me... I don't see what failure would impact both regs, but still leave the LPI fully functional.

That said, as a hypothetical discussion;

1. You could breath directly from your BCD, via the LPI, but might want some extremely strong anti-biotics afterwards.

2. Breathing from the BCD would mean you lost buoyancy - ultimately under-mining your emergency ascent to the surface.

3. You could 're'-breath via the BCD (inhale and exhale through the LPI), as Superlyte states - CO2 would be the significant issue, followed by depleted O2... if more than a couple of breaths were taken. Your buoyancy would remain however.

4. You could breath tank-air directly via the LPI - depress the deflate and inflate buttons simultaneously and breath from that. If the corrugated hose was u-bent/crimped, you shouldn't get much BCD air in that mix.

 

[theduckguru]

A little Dawn detergent in the BC every once and a while might not be a bad plan.

 

[flots am]

I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine and he was telling me about a "friend" of his that supposedly had regulator issues at depth, but his BCD would still inflate. He told me his friend said that he was able to make a swimming ascent by adding air into his BCD, then immediately putting his oral inflator into his mouth, pressing the deflate button, and breathing, but with some minor difficulties due to water. My friend told me that he "called his bull****", but I personally think that it may be *possible*, assuming you could crane your head around to get the hose in an upright position to breathe

It sounds like crap to me. You would need two simultaneous second stages that failed closed, which is less likely that winning the lottery.

While it is possible to move air from your BC to your lungs and back again if you want, it accomplishes nothing except giving you an opportunity for an astonishingly nasty lung infection.

If you don't have anything to breathe, share with your buddy. If you lost your air and your buddy, do an Out of Air Ascent

Just follow training. You'll live longer.

flots

 

[WoodyLompoc]

and he didn't use his octo because,,,,,?

 

[SnorkelLA]

I only heard it "friend of a friend", so I can't answer any questions

 

[Superlyte27]

It sounds like crap to me. You would need two simultaneous second stages that failed closed, which is less likely that winning the lottery.

While it is possible to move air from your BC to your lungs and back again if you want, it accomplishes nothing except giving you an opportunity for an astonishingly nasty lung infection.

If you don't have anything to breathe, share with your buddy. If you lost your air and your buddy, do an Out of Air Ascent


Just follow training. You'll live longer.

flots

In my scenario, i'd choose lung infection over death everytime. Knowing that these avenues do exist, should the unthinkable happen, is ammo in fighting off that bastard called Death.

 

[tadawson]

The question was clearly not "Would you want to breathe from your BCD" but was "*CAN* you breathe from your BCD" to which the answer is an unquestioned *YES*.

I certified in 1978 before the octo was that common, and I recall this being mentioned in training . . .

Since the air in the BCD is at ambient pressure, it will breathe just like a reg. No need to hold down anything on the inflator as long as the BCD already has air in it . . .

The biggest issue I have heard is not bacteria in the BCD, but fungus . . . I recall a recent report of a guy who did this (and saved himself) but then a fungus got into his lungs, and he later died from that . .

If I was SOL at depth, would I do it? Probably . . . I'd rather take a maybe with dirty air than a drowning . . . But only if all else failed, which, as others have stated, is highly unlikely.

- Tim

 

[freewillie]

Sounds like something we should submit to Mythbusters.

 

[idive2]

I don't know the dangers of this from an unclean air perspective. I don't believe the inflator hose would have
to be in any particular position if you were attempting to suck air from the BC. By pushing in on the deflate button
with your mouth over the mouthpiece you would be hooked up to whatever is in the bc. Same as when you orally inflate
only in reverse. The chances of reg failure pretty low but a totally out of air at depth would definitely have me thinking
where my next breathe is coming from. I have always kept this in the back of my mind as something that MIGHT be a
very last resort type thing and no guarantee how much air would be in the BC. I believe the deflate button would have to be
depressed otherwise air would not be contained in BC during normal use. I would test this theory but that fungus story has me
a little concerned !