You damaged your BCD HOW??

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Diver-6873

Contributor
Messages
167
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Location
Kralendijk
# of dives
1000 - 2499
OK folks, here is a weird one. We live in the islands and shore dive 8-10x per week. Our gear is in the back of the pickup from the house to the dive sites and between dives. On Wednesday, just into dive #2 I noticed a small hole (~1mm or less) had developed in my wife’s aqualung pearl BCD a few inches away from the upper dump valve. It was a shallow dive so we completed it without incident.

Upon surfacing we inspected the hole and it appeared like a small burn hole. What we think actually happened was that the flip-macro lens on her GoPro in her gear box was aimed in such a was during our surface interval that the sun burned the hole (remember using magnifying glasses to burn bugs when you were young ..... before everyone had their eyes glued to game systems and phones, the same concept)...

We have a friend at our local shop trying to repair the hole now, but wanted to see if anyone here has had success repairing a similar sized hole in a similar location on a similarly constructed BCD.... just in case we need to get creative.

Lesson learned, keep the camera and flips out of the sunlight....

Thanks!
 
I’m not sure I could ever trust a patched BC. At some point, that patch will fail. Worse still, it’ll probably be after you’ve forgotten all about it and aren’t expecting it.
 
I agree, I wouldn't want to trust a patch. It's not like a BCD holds much pressure but still it's a likely future failure point. If that model bcd has a replaceable bladder, then replace the bladder. If it doesn't have a replaceable bladder, then replace the bcd with a model that does offer such a feature. I've replaced the bladder on mine. It cost $100 for the part and was super simple to do. It was my first time replacing a bladder so it probably took me a good 15 minutes.
 
I’m not sure I could ever trust a patched BC. At some point, that patch will fail. Worse still, it’ll probably be after you’ve forgotten all about it and aren’t expecting it.

Not sure how you can trust a BC at all then. They all will eventually fail and it will be when you aren't expecting it. You can't predict when a seam will fail, the sonic weld/glue that holds the inflator will give up the ghost, or any number of modalities of failure that could inflict a BC.

OP,
post a picture if you can as without a visual everything you described is abstract....but perhaps a small patch glued in place using aquaseal/seam grip and then smothered over with aquaseal/seam grip to make the repair as permanent as possible. It may not be pretty but it should be a fairly solid repair.

-Z
 
It depends on the diameter of the hole. Aquaseal works well to repair small holes in the BCD. The hole has to be circular, otherwise there is no safe way to repair a torn BCD bladder.
 
Well, I likely have a 80 tp 100 dives on my patched BCD, which after just 70 or so dives had a hole in the bladder, near the bottom where maybe it got pinched to hard (I don't see how it could have been cut). I noticed it only after arraving back from Egypt. The way the BCD was packed does not make it very likely the damage ocurred during transit. Who knows. Could it have been that the tank on the LOB was sitting on that spot? Doubt it, but am not sure... and I should have noticrd that leak then. After all, when I did notice it, back home I was rinsing the bladder inside with water and a sizeable stream came out....
So maybe during transit after all. But how, with the wetsuit and other clothing all around... unknown.
Anyway, I moved on to BP&W and also SM.
 
You might also be able to patch it from both sides since the damage is only a few inches from the upper dump valve.

You can remove the dump valve and maneuver a patch smeared with aquaseal/seam grip in place...then patch from the outside.

Take to a pool to test once the repair has dried/cured. Also test by inflating until the over pressure valve/purge valve opens on its own. If it holds consider it good.

If it doesn't then you have lost relatively nothing on attempting to repair it and your wife has a reason to update her gear...perhaps a bp/w?

-Z
 
I’m not sure I could ever trust a patched BC. At some point, that patch will fail. Worse still, it’ll probably be after you’ve forgotten all about it and aren’t expecting it.
Do not trust any BC, patched or not. Trust the sum total of your ability, training and equipment to get you through when (not if) some of your equipment fails. Whether you insist on no repaired gear or not, there will be that one dive when a never-repaired-before piece of gear has its first failure.

There is a rule of thumb in personal finance: "If you can't afford to replace it, you can't afford it". To paraphrase it, if you can't survive a piece of gear failing, you shouldn't dive in that configuration. Bring your training and equipment up to the point where you can, then dive.

For BC failures, the technical solution is dual chamber wings. The recreational solution is ditchable weightbelts or weight systems. Your rig must make you neutrally+ buoyant after you discard the weights, otherwise it's misconfigured for rec diving.
 
Yes, curious how your friend intends to patch. Very few recreational BCDs are considered patchable by their manufacturer. If trying to patching my own in your situation, my first thought would be "can I reach the hole from the inside through the dump valve opening, and can I then clean it well enough to hold a patch." Also, does the bladder stretch at all like an Oceanic Biolite? If so, even less likely to hold a patch well. (I don't think the Pearl stretches.)
 
I wouldn't want to trust a patch.
I'd trust a patch made with this more than I'd trust the original material. It's ridiculously strong. Dab a small droplet on the puncture, and Robert is your mother's brother.

Just don't use it to glue your new drysuit seals. You'll never get them off again.
 

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