cold water

[glbirch]

glbirch - heh. A Cold Lake dive sounds like fun - any good open water right now? Dunno about depth though - I dive wet and at 100' there's not a lot of suit left - gets a tad chilly in deep 4C / 39Fwater. (I like the air to be warm when I get out, too - maybe when it's at least 10C out and sunny?) I wouldn't count on Cold Lake being a harder workout for the regs than they've already been through, though - was diving in the Thunder Bay end of Superior last year
Err the answer to your other question is - returning to my 'roots', looking for better work, pretending to write a thesis and plotting to either move or take some dive trips to the BC coast.

Open water? Uhm, well, after an hour with the chainsaw, sure. My dive was on a ridge. Bottom was around 40' or so, so you don't have to go deep. If you want warmer air temp, try the lake around mid-April. Ice is still thick enough to drive on, but it can be really nice topside.

Been out to BC a couple of times and liked it but every time I think about going back, and look at the costs involved in a week of serious diving, I realize that for a little more cash I can pop down to mexico for a week.

 

[ScubaRon]

You need to start thinking about regulator freeze when the water temperature drops below 47F.

The guy in this thread had a MK25AF/S600 freeze at 43F.

 

[Warren_L]

The moisture content of the air can contribute to freeflows as well. It's difficult to pin down a temperature at which you should be careful as there are other factors involved outside of the reg itself.

 

[SDAnderson]

I suspect the problem was coincidental with the trip. More Murphy's law than softer seats or o-rings.

This happened in March 2002. My first thought was coincidence, too. Actually, my first thought when the thing went bang was less coherent, so maybe coincidence was my third or fourth thought.

I took the reg to Jack's in Kona after it popped and the tech told me that they had been getting a number of these blow-outs, all from folks coming from cold-water areas with recently serviced regs. He said that he had called SP for advice and was told that the company had shipped a bunch of softer durometer rings and seats as a test to cold-water shops to see if they could work on the longstanding freeze-up issue. Apparently, the problem was that the rings were just too soft for warm-water (my blowout actually happened on the boat when I turned the gas on, the reg had been sitting in the Hawaiian sun for a while and was no doubt very warm) destinations and SP had been busy shipping replacement kits left and right. I don't have any idea how many kits/regs were affected or even if it was a true story, but it sure sounded good.

 

[Paco]

I've used my Titan LX under the ice with no free flow. In cold water, though, it seems to moan at me some. Anyone experience this?

 

[Newfie]

I dive a MK20/S600 set-up at about 0C water temp this time of year and have never had a free flow in the 150 or so dives I've used it. I usually keep the "inhalation effort control" set to minimum resistance. Doesn't seem to make a lot of difference either way.

Free flowed last night. The long surface swim (in abt -5C air temp) before descending may have been the factor. What was surprising to me was the rate in which the tank emptied - abt 1 minute from 2500 psi. There you go.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Never say Never.....Free flowed last night. The long surface swim (in abt -5C air temp) before descending may have been the factor.

LOL...I said the same thing about the SPEC equipped MK 10 and then froze one up about a week later. In my case I had a rather long mid-dive surface interval after a buddy froze up and then froze up myself about 20 more minutes into the dive. Of course so did the last remaiing buddy with an Apeks, so I did not feel too bad. In retrospect, we really should have bagged it when the first buddy got out of the water.

What was surprising to me was the rate in which the tank emptied - abt 1 minute from 2500 psi. There you go.

Scary how fast they will do that. I dumped a nearly full steel 72 in under a minute at 140 feet with a Mk 15 once.

 

[pufferfish]

LOL...I said the same thing about the SPEC equipped MK 10 and then froze one up about a week later. In my case I had a rather long mid-dive surface interval after a buddy froze up and then froze up myself about 20 more minutes into the dive. Of course so did the last remaiing buddy with an Apeks, so I did not feel too bad. In retrospect, we really should have bagged it when the first buddy got out of the water.



Scary how fast they will do that. I dumped a nearly full steel 72 in under a minute at 140 feet with a Mk 15 once.

Regarding those surface intervals as they seem to be particulary problematic with second stage free flows in sub zero air temps assuming one has a diaphragm or dry bleed first, what do you think about keeping the second stage in a bucket of water between the dives? You would just fill it up for the half hour between dives so it wouldn't freeze. It always seems like people switch tanks over and then jump back in the hole a half hour later and the second stage starts free flowing as it is frozen from the first dive.

I'd love to be able to put a Jutland tent with heater over the hole and keep the regs and tank air warm before and between dives like they do in the Antarctica.
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