1st stage locked on tank valve (dumbest thing I've done in a while)
- Thread starter raoulsttexas
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Bombay High
Contributor
good guess !!
LarsB
Contributor
I had a worse experience than that recently.
My brandnew regulator (bought a few days earlier) with 300 bar DIN connector and the ACD (automatic closure device) feature did not fit tightly into the valves of the 230 bar tanks of some dive center.
This is because the new 300 bar connectors go deeper into the valve than the 200 bar ones do, so their (metal) front face already hits the back of the valve while the o-ring hasn't made tight contact yet.
Usually this is solved with a second o-ring of the same diameter as the one already present on the DIN connector (see picture above), on top of this o-ring, held in place by spit.
However this failed in my case because the spit had dried, between the time of rigging up and actually going to dive.
Everybody involved became a bit frantic because this was supposed to be a drift dive and we were supposed to jump off the boat at that time.
So a dive instructor took a smaller o-ring, forced the ACD open, and put the o-ring around this cylinder - in fact, into the slit which is actually the air inlet.
Now after making the connection with the tank's valve and opening the tap, surprise, surprise: no air came out of the first stage!
Worse: the first stage was locked to the tank valve, while there was no pressure whatsoever inside the first stage itself!
So unscrewing the LP plugs and even unscrewing the finimeter was totally pointless, because pressure only existed in the small chamber of the valve itself.
But there was no way to release that pressure, because the bottle's valve did not have a second opening, as some valves do (for connecting tanks together to form a double tank, AFAIK).
And even with plumber's pliers and brute force there was just no way to unlock the first stage.
Eventually, a few days later, they succeeded in releasing it, in their shop (I was not present).
I wonder how they did it?!? They never told me.
(They also did not respond to my email asking for refund of my inspection and repair costs)
This is how the connector's wheel of my regulator looked afterwards:
Any ideas on how to release a first stage in such a case, without damages?
My brandnew regulator (bought a few days earlier) with 300 bar DIN connector and the ACD (automatic closure device) feature did not fit tightly into the valves of the 230 bar tanks of some dive center.
This is because the new 300 bar connectors go deeper into the valve than the 200 bar ones do, so their (metal) front face already hits the back of the valve while the o-ring hasn't made tight contact yet.
Usually this is solved with a second o-ring of the same diameter as the one already present on the DIN connector (see picture above), on top of this o-ring, held in place by spit.
However this failed in my case because the spit had dried, between the time of rigging up and actually going to dive.
Everybody involved became a bit frantic because this was supposed to be a drift dive and we were supposed to jump off the boat at that time.
So a dive instructor took a smaller o-ring, forced the ACD open, and put the o-ring around this cylinder - in fact, into the slit which is actually the air inlet.
Now after making the connection with the tank's valve and opening the tap, surprise, surprise: no air came out of the first stage!
Worse: the first stage was locked to the tank valve, while there was no pressure whatsoever inside the first stage itself!
So unscrewing the LP plugs and even unscrewing the finimeter was totally pointless, because pressure only existed in the small chamber of the valve itself.
But there was no way to release that pressure, because the bottle's valve did not have a second opening, as some valves do (for connecting tanks together to form a double tank, AFAIK).
And even with plumber's pliers and brute force there was just no way to unlock the first stage.
Eventually, a few days later, they succeeded in releasing it, in their shop (I was not present).
I wonder how they did it?!? They never told me.
(They also did not respond to my email asking for refund of my inspection and repair costs)
This is how the connector's wheel of my regulator looked afterwards:
Any ideas on how to release a first stage in such a case, without damages?
Fish in a Barrel
Contributor
LarsB
Contributor
Dear Fish in a Barrel,
thanks a lot for your reply!
Where is that burst disk located?
Does "stabbing" mean the disk needs to be replaced afterwards?
Is there no way without damaging ANY part?
Thanks again!
LouieLouie
Contributor
Fish in a Barrel
Contributor
Huh. I did not know that. What, if anything, do they use in Europe?
And now that I think about it, I don't know if my idea is even possible. It looks like most burst disks are hidden behind a nut that has a 90° bend to the vent channel.
Last edited:
ianr33
Contributor
Burst disks? Burst disks? We don't need no schtinkin' burst disks!
There are none. Just a tank with a valve
It could be that because of the much higher burst pressure of steel tanks there is no need. OTOH, I've seen Alu tanks without one as well.Hear hear!
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