overbreathing a reg

[diver4life]

Sorry,
Wrong area.

 

[diver4life]

Hello everyone,
I would like to know how easy/hard it is to overbreathe a reg. I had an incident in Coz a couple of days ago. As we were descending down I noticed my rental reg was breathing a little wet but I didn't think it was it was that bad. When we reached bottom around 60', we had to work pretty hard against the current to get with the DM and other divers.
I noticed that the wetness was greater and that I wasn't getting enough air. Then I started to panic. I tried to calm down but I just couldn't get enough air. I signaled my wife (buddy) and DM that i'm having trouble and going to call the dive. The DM tried calming me but it was way to late. My wife and I slowly ascended did a 3 minute stop and then surfaced. They switched regs for the next dive. But I was pretty nervous about the equipment at this point. I also noticed the depth gauge quit working on our ascent. I told the Dm and my wife that if I feel at all uncomfortable i'm calling the next dive. We did the 2nd dive without any problems. Thankfully. The DM used my reg on the second dive to check it out. He didn't think anything was wrong with it. I noticed him fiddeling with it and his mask the whole dive, but that doesn't mean anything. I've read here that a lot of times the tank isn't all the way open. I look back and i'm pretty sure I checked it myself. I guess it is possible one of the crew partially closed it thinking he was opening it. I don't want to blame anyone without being absolutely positive.
We dove Roatan the day before where my reg was hard to breathe there also. As soon as we started our descent, I switched to my octo and it breathed fine. Had no problems all day.
I know your wondering why I didn't switch to my octo in Coz. It all happened so fast. Sounds funny but with hardly any air I didn't want to give up what little air I had to try my octo, my wife's or anybody elses.
I will not dive again until my wife and I have our own regs.
Sorry for the long thread.
Regards,
Doug

 

[Web Monkey]

It's impossible to overbreathe a properly functioning, properly designed regulator. That said, it's entirely possible to overbreathe a poorly serviced or poorly designed reg.

Performance and reliability are the biggest reasons for bringing your own reg. You know how it's been taken care of. Note that I'm not condemning all rentals. I've seen rentals that looked brand new, but you just never know.

It's also easy to have problems if the tank is full of crud, or the tank valve is clogged or not fully on.

Breathing wet is a seperate problem. It means the housing or mouthpiece is damaged, assembled improperly or the exhaust valve is leaking. If you're getting water, the second stage needs to be looked at.

FWIW, you did the right thing to call the dive. The reason is irrelevant. If you're not happy with your breathing, it's time to head for the surface. Breathing is important.

There is no amount of hoovering that you can do that will make a good reg breathe bad. Good regs are designed to deliver a full air supply at several hundred feet, for two stressed divers sharing air. If you're having problems on a quiet dive at 60', something is having real problems.

Terry

Hello everyone,
I would like to know how easy/hard it is to overbreathe a reg. I had an incident in Coz a couple of days ago. As we were descending down I noticed my rental reg was breathing a little wet but I didn't think it was it was that bad. When we reached bottom around 60', we had to work pretty hard against the current to get with the DM and other divers.

Doug

 

[marcienko]

I do aree with Web Monkey 100%


Just my 0.2 cents

Regards

Maricn

 

[tstormdiver]

I'm not exactly sure what the situation was, but I used to use a Sherwood Brut regulator. On 2 seperate ocassions I've had water get into the reg. I do mostly quarry diving & The water temps below 60' are 42 degrees year round. Both dive were at about 75- 85'. The first time this happened I was in an AOW class doing the deep dive portion. I had multiple equipment issues on the dive (under weighted, weight belt slipping, Lost fin, & the first time in a wet suit, let alone a thick one). It started as a case of sensory overload from the issues & began to turn into panic. My breathing got very rapid & I started to take in water. An attending dive master saw what was going on & got me under control & brought me to the surface properly. The second time I was doing just a recreational deep dive. There was no real stressors other than I had been down for a bit & the cold was starting to bother me. Once again I started taking in water. I don't really remeber what my breathing was like at that time. I think my buddy said later, it was a little quicker than normal. Being that it had happened before, I knew what to do. I signalled my buddy & aborted the dive. I had made dives with that regulator both between & after these incidents without any trouble down to depths of 100' in the quarries. I've heard that it could have been me overbreathing the regualtor, the regulator began to freeze up & then again that it wasn't & I was suffering from narcosis & may have let the seal of my mouth around the regulator loose, thus allowing the water in. Since I had never Knowingly experienced narcosis before I couldn't honestly say. I have since upgraded to an Oasis, which has handled flawlessly in those conditions to date. I have, so far, taken that regulator to 102' & no problems. That my experience with it.

 

[Iruka]

It's certainly possible that there was a problem with your reg, but very often I've found nervous beginning divers who think there's something wrong with it, when in fact, there isn't. Nervousness tends to cause shallow, rapid breathing which makes one feel as if he isn't getting enough air. As far as not switching to your own octopus, (alternate) if the primary wasn't breathing properly, you'd really use virtually no extra air to do this....just purge the octopus by exhaling when you take it, which is what you'd be doing every breath on the primary anyhow, although to a lesser extent.
Good luck diving in the future. If you're concerned it wouldn't hurt to try the reg out first above water & then just under the surface to assure yourself that it's working properly.

 

[PeCeDiver]

It's impossible to overbreathe a properly functioning, properly designed regulator. That said, it's entirely possible to overbreathe a poorly serviced or poorly designed reg.

Not true. :no
I had a stress situation at depth (50 meters, 150 feet) six months ago that forced my to bailout from my rebreather to my bailout bottle/reg. The regulator was a poseidon extreme which is probably one of the best deep regulators. Initially it did not deliver enough flow. I was breathing TX with 35% HE. This breathes more easily than air since HE is less dense. My SAC was probably around 70 to 80 liters/min because of a CO2 build up. So it is possible to overbreath a good regulator in perfect condition.

Safe diving,

Peter

 

[steve70638]

While it is certainly possible you had a problem with your regulator, I think the idea of "overbreathing" a reg at your safety stop is pretty much impossible. Remember, your reg is designed to permit very heavy breathing (and then some) up to and beyond the recreational limit. At the recreational limit (130 feet or whatever), even normal breathing is putting out far more air (as measured in number of molecules) than you could even possibly draw at 15 even if you tried to overbreath it!

Was it possible your tank wasn't fully opened at the valve? It is not unheard of for new divers to mess up the "open it all the way and then back it up 1/2 a turn" to "close it all the way and then open it 1/2 a turn!". It that was the case, then your SPG needle would have likely been "dancing" when you were inhaling.

 

[Web Monkey]

Not true. :no
I had a stress situation at depth (50 meters, 150 feet) six months ago that forced my to bailout from my rebreather to my bailout bottle/reg. The regulator was a poseidon extreme which is probably one of the best deep regulators. Initially it did not deliver enough flow. I was breathing TX with 35% HE. This breathes more easily than air since HE is less dense. My SAC was probably around 70 to 80 liters/min because of a CO2 build up. So it is possible to overbreath a good regulator in perfect condition.

I don't know anything about Poseidon, but if you could overbreathe it, it either wasn't a big enough or wasn't working right.

A first-class reg in good condition can deliver thousands of liters/minute (300 scfm or almost 8500 l/m). It's unlikley that you can suck anywhere near this much.

Terry

 

[redacted]

I don't know anything about Poseidon, but if you could overbreathe it, it either wasn't a big enough or wasn't working right.

A first-class reg in good condition can deliver thousands of liters/minute (300 scfm or almost 8500 l/m). It's unlikley that you can suck anywhere near this much.

Terry

I really think I could get that overbreathing feeling with any scuba regulator. It's more a matter of what you are trying to do than a regulator quality thing. I've gotten stupid and gone off trying to outswim a turtle. I turned him but ended up winded enough that even my well tuned Mk20/G500 didn't feel like it was delivering enough gas. But the cure is fairly simple: stop, relax, and breath deeply. It may be uncomfortable for a minute or so but if you don't panic, the overbreathing feeling will pass.

Perhaps we are saying the same thing but with a somewhat different concept of what "overbreathing" means. I agree that a properly functioning regulator will deliver enough gas to sustain you.