Air 2 / Standard Inflator question

[Terangitea]

Hi, if this is answered somewhere else I must have missed it.

I have 2 BC's: the Equator with Air 2, and a Nighthawk with a standard inflator. I also have a spare Air 2 inflator that I'm considering swapping onto the Nighthawk. Hopefully I can articulate my question in a simple and understandable way.

Both inflators that are currently on their BC's have a flange on the screw-in base where they attach to the BC. The spare Air 2 I have has no such flange, simple a round screw base, and it is also different in that it doesn't have the air release tab on the mechanism at the BC point of contact....clear so far?

Obviously these are inflators from different years/models, so I would like to know if they are compatible to be swapped with no adverse repercussions? Additionally, would it just be a smarter way to swap them by merely cutting the zip tie where the hose attachs at the top of the inflator, and leaving the base attached to the BC alone completely?

Thanks for the advice/help

 

[rhwestfall]

Are you saying one is like this:

know as a "pull to dump"


And one is like this:

known as a "standard elbow"?

The "pull to dump" has a cable in it that needs to be connected to a pin in the device to allow the dump valve to be opened...

 

[Terangitea]

The 2nd pic is the design for the spare Air 2 Inflator I have, and I thought all of the inflators are pull to dump, but I haven't had the need to break one down in quite some time....could have changed?. The attached inflators are slightly different. First pic is on my Equator, 2nd is on my Nighthawk and is a standard non Air 2 Inflator, and both have the "extra" flange, or flare where the inflator attaches to the BC. Just wondering about compatibility for the different base designs.

 

[rhwestfall]

looks like variations of the same thing, but one must be "new and improved"....

 

[Terangitea]

Yes, simply a redesign for "improvements" perhaps, but cause me to wonder about compatibility for exchanging them. The flair design seems possibly problematic, and I'd like to avoid breaking them down without being sure of the trouble I'd be causing myself.

T

 

[rhwestfall]

Are those release levers on the heads?

(glad I haven gotten anything "new" in years....)

 

[Terangitea]

That would be no...my spare Air 2 has a design matching your 2nd pic with just the standard elbow. Seems strange to me that the Air 2, being an upgrade to a standard inflator, would have just the standard elbow.

 

[Newdiv]

As long as the interior diameter of the hose is the same. You can just cut the zip tie, attach the cable to the cross pin and reattach to the air2 body and zip tie.make sure the zip tie is as tight as you can get it.

 

[Terangitea]

I was thinking that would be the best way to go, but sometimes indecision gets in my way. I'm in the process of looking at serial numbers to get manufacturing years sorted out to have a better idea of what I have....something I should have already had on file. My job for the last 15 years has supplied all my gear, so my personal gear has had minimal use. Now that I'm retired I need to sort all my personal gear out. Thanks for the input.

 

[Terangitea]

Per Scubapro, all 3 inflators were manufactured in the same year (2013)...via the serial numbers. The different designs would make one think otherwise, and it was suggested that the straight elbow connector on the spare Air 2 inflator hose is designed for tech use. It wasn't used that way in our shop, but there you go.

As for swapping the standard inflator for the Air 2 it was suggested that the best way to do this was simply remove the inflator control from the bottom of the hose rather than try to remove the hose from the connection point on the BC...mostly due to the different designs. I'm told the pull dump cable is more a part of the BC rather than the inflator hose itself, so the dump cable would still be in the hose, and merely need to be reconnected at the bottom of the hose where it connects to the inflator mechanism.

It's been years since I've taken the repair class for this, so might be time to update the knowledge.

Thanks...T