Atomic o ring blew at 60'

[mikeycanuk]

As the title mentions I had a blowout 10 minutes into a dive with a HP120 in Cozumel. Lost 2500psi in 30 seconds. All went well with sharing my wife's air and our 12 year old son had thumbed anyway the dive due to ear issues. The O ring was split in 2.

I think I might have damaged the O ring. We took our computers with us off the boat each day. On this day (4th day of diving) I couldn't get my Cobalt to go in far enough to twist and connect. I tried 3-4 times to push and twist only to try my wife's, her's had the same thing. Lightbulb went off that there was pressure in the lines. Hit the purge on the octo and sure enough the lines depressurized. No problems connecting.

Thankfully I had a spare hose and 9/16" stubby wrench so all was good to go for the next day. I also had a small leak in the hose itself about 4" down from the first stage.

I'm ordering 2 hose assemblies and getting my LDS to replace all O rings with every service on my Apeks. I was surprised when he told me he doesn't change them as part of a reg service.

On this day the boat was 2.5hrs late (with no phone call), the weather wasn't good, and my son had ear issues then this. At least a bad dive day tends to get everything dealt with all in one day!

Just a tip that a spare hose and wrench should be in everyone's save a dive kit.

 

[Akimbo]

I don't understand how an O-ring failure on the HP side could drop the pressure that fast through the flow restrictor in the regulator and hose. Which O-ring was it?

Life Ending Seconds, 3000 to Zero in 72 Seconds

 

[mikeycanuk]

On the hose side of the Atomic there is a small piston about 3/8" long, at the end there is a tiny O ring. On the log it showed 2950 then 30 seconds later 440. I can double check the readings but it I remember looking at the log going "wow"....

 

[flots am]

As the title mentions I had a blowout 10 minutes into a dive with a HP120 in Cozumel. Lost 2500psi in 30 seconds. All went well with sharing my wife's air and our 12 year old son had thumbed anyway the dive due to ear issues. The O ring was split in 2.

I think I might have damaged the O ring. We took our computers with us off the boat each day. On this day (4th day of diving) I couldn't get my Cobalt to go in far enough to twist and connect. I tried 3-4 times to push and twist only to try my wife's, her's had the same thing. Lightbulb went off that there was pressure in the lines. Hit the purge on the octo and sure enough the lines depressurized. No problems connecting.

The only thing that lost air was your computer. Your tanks and regs were fine.

There's a pinhole in the regulator in the opening that feeds your computer or SPG. It allows very little air thorough.

If you blow the o-ring, all that happens is you get a stream of small bubbles and the computer or pressure gauge reads incorrectly.

It would take hours to drain your tank though that hole.

If you had actually lost gas that quickly, you wouldn't need to look at the gauge. You would be in the middle of a huge violent cloud of bubbles.

flots.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

If you had connected a working gauge back on the surface you'd have found that you lost hardly any air at all. There's no reason to get anything serviced because of this incident.

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[Akimbo]

…It would take hours to drain your tank though that hole...

More like 20-30 minutes according to the test referenced in my previous post.

 

[scwdive]

I'm glad you and your family came through the dive well! It must have been a bit stressful.

I believe you made great decisions given the situation, both sharing air and having your equipment checked properly afterwards.

It looks like there is a fair amount of great information in the previous posts to consider going forward with your diving adventures.

Good Luck! Great Diving!

 

[flots am]

More like 20-30 minutes according to the test referenced in my previous post.

Atomic has an extremely tiny bleed hole. There's no way it could drain a tank in 20-30 minutes.

 

[mikeycanuk]

Now it makes sense, never thought it through but the computer couldn't read the pressure properly. It sure was a huge stream of bubbles though, and what a racket. Makes me doubtful I'll ever do the Devils Throat in Cozumel, that would have been scary.

Thanks for the understanding.

About the reg servicing I'm on the free parts but yearly $ service plan with Apeks, it just didn't seem a good idea to never swap them out on a one or two year basis. My son had a slow leak from further down the attachment, not sure where.


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[teknitroxdiver]

Now it makes sense, never thought it through but the computer couldn't read the pressure properly. It sure was a huge stream of bubbles though, and what a racket. Makes me doubtful I'll ever do the Devils Throat in Cozumel, that would have been scary.

Thanks for the understanding.

About the reg servicing I'm on the free parts but yearly $ service plan with Apeks, it just didn't seem a good idea to never swap them out on a one or two year basis. My son had a slow leak from further down the attachment, not sure where.


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The free parts covers the replacement parts for the first and second stage regulators. It doesn't have anything to do with your high pressure hose. There are only a few failure points for a regular HP hose. The o-ring at the first stage, a failure of one of the crimps, a failure of the hose itself, or the spool where the hose connects to the gauge. The spool is the source of 99% of small streams of bubbles. A quick release like you have adds a few more o-rings and more possibilities for failure there, but it's still rare. It should only cost a few dollars for the tech to swap the o-rings on the quick disconnect at your yearly service, and I would suggest doing so.