Pros & Cons of Air2

[Boogie711]

Boogie's tired of beating his head against the wall.

 

[Ontario Diver]

Boogie's tired of beating his head against the wall.

Move along folks , nothing to see here, move along, nothing to see here, move along people

<Grin>

 

[Squalus]

I have yet to see and Air2 become disconnected unless, you forgot to ensure that it was properly connected in the first place (I am guilty of it once). I prefer the Air2 because it is in a convenient place, streamlined, reliable, and maintenance is simple. After seeing octos being dragged around, makes me shudder to think what is in the mouth piece should I have to use one.

 

[Quarrior]

Air2 is an expensive cure to a non-existant problem.

 

[liberato]

For solo diving with a pony and Air 2 is nearly ideal as it provides the capability of having a backup 2nd stage on the primary tank with out the problem of an octo getting in the way of or getting confused with the pony bottle's second stage.

Also ideal if you get stuck with a "same ocean buddy." In any case, this is the configuration I like the best. My air consumption goes way down when I don't worry about the lack of redundancy (however unwarranted statistcally) of the first stage.

Given that I dive primarily doubles on deeper dives I no longer use an Air 2 as it requires a much longer corrogated inflator hose than I prefer to use with my BP/wing, but I still encounter situations where one would come in handy now and then.

This is a good point. If you do go this route a stock hose is probably too short. Most BC manufacturers make alternate lengths with appropriate dump valve cable length to allow full head rotation when in use. Backplate/wing users usually like shorter hoses (at least it seems that way to me, I don't have one).

Like any religious issue, make up your own mind. There are tradeoffs to everything.

 

[wedivebc]

Air2 is an expensive cure to a non-existant problem.

OOA situation is a non-existant problem? You wish

 

[Dan Gibson]

Most of the time that would be the reason. This does leave room for many divers who don't really pay attention and just jump in and have a problem. You have to admit, there seem sto be more and more of the divers out there these days.

However, I did witness the Zeagle version disconnect after being inadvertently knocked into in an OOA drill in a pool session. The student had just disconnected before and reconnected. The problem is they did check (i.e. give it a tug) and it appeared to everyone involved that it was secure. Then the OOA drill was given about a minute later. This student didn't perform the donation too smoothly and smacked the connection point with an wild hand movement. I'm not saying these things will kill everyone who uses them, but there is a potential for problems. More than likely, it will end up being operator error.

I have yet to see and Air2 become disconnected unless, you forgot to ensure that it was properly connected in the first place (I am guilty of it once). I prefer the Air2 because it is in a convenient place, streamlined, reliable, and maintenance is simple. After seeing octos being dragged around, makes me shudder to think what is in the mouth piece should I have to use one.

 

[Dan Gibson]

In your case maybe not. In a case where the diver didn't have an alternate, I think the answer is yes, terminate the dive. Or better yet, don't go into the dive with the thing already disconnected thinking you will just orally inflate. If I'm your buddy (assume I don't pay attention to may gas supply) I'm going to be pretty pissed if you don't donate. Better yet, the donor might get a nice little suprise he didn't count on when he pops this thing in his mouth

I have chosen to disconnect my air2 underwater to correct my hose routing. Since I often dive with a pony, having to disconnect an air2 would not necessarily be a dive terminating event.

 

[Parrothead_Diver]

My thought is this:
1) In an OOA situation with the other diver breathing from your primary and you breathing through the Air2 you need to start your ascent.
2) During your ascent you should be dumping air from your BC on the way up to maintain neutral bouyancy.
3) If the common practice is to hold the inflator tube above your head while ascending. How can you also be beathing from it at the same time?

This means 1 of 2 things,
1) Your OOA buddy gets to breath on the way up while you blow bubbles, (i.e. Emergency Swimming Ascent).
2) You have to alternate between breathing and dumping, which is something I have never seen anybody practice.

Just my .02

 

[Mandy3206]

I've my Duoair (Tusa clone of the air2) for 6 yrs now, and had no problems with it in the aspect of disconecting it from the LP hose. I test mine regularly in my dives and breathes OK every time.
I service it one time due to a small air leak, and it has worked well ever since.

Every yr, I disassemble it completely and inspect it to see if any wear has occured, allways clean it, lube it and assemble it back (very easy for the DIY diver).

I love the one less hose feature and it's allways there when I reach for it.

In the future, I'll be switching to doubles, and I think that the long hose primary second stage aproach is going to be the setup then, but for singles, it can't be beat by no octo.

I agree that most air2 type octo bashers have never use one.