Air Trim issue

[Maurice100]

I have a Mares air trim BCD which has been great for the last 50 or so dives, however on my last dive I had a problem the BCD would not vent air via the pneumatic air trim system when at the surface I fully inflated the BCD and was able to vent air using the air trim system on my second dive the system failed to vent once more returning to the surface I again was able to vent air using the air trim system, what could this be down to?

Thanks in advance

 

[Zak OHara]

Maurice,

This design has been in production for over 10 years and has proven to be very reliable. In fact the most of the mechanism is sealed from the enviornment which makes this quite reliable regardless of post dive care.
Other than major salt build up, or corrosion on the mechanism, the only explanation I can think of is if your tank was emptly. The Airtim system is designed to operate pneumatically which does require some air pressure in your tank. If this is not the case, I would definitely take it to an authorized Mares service center to be looked at.

I hope this helps.

Zak

 

[Maurice100]

Thanks for your reply, I had a full 300bar in my tank at the start of both dives, one thing I forgot in my first post was that at the surface a small amount of water was venting from the dump, as you say the system is sealed I will be taking the BCD for a service.

Thanks again

 

[ozzydamo]

Mine is playing up too, sometimes it fails to dump at the normal rate(goes really slowly) and the lower valve isn't working at all now. It's 4 months old, I have washed after each dive internally, so I would imagine its the valving failing.
It still is under warranty so I'll just take it back and let them sort it out.

 

[windapp]

I have an older Dragonfly, and I thought I was having a problem with the airtrim system as no air was dumping at 10 msw, but I pulled the dump cord, and still no air was dumping. It turns out, I had dropped one of my weigh pockets (I am guessing I put it in backward, and it only had the little velcro flap to hold it in instead of the whole big patch of velcro), and my BCD was actually empty.