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ryanarcher:That is unfortunate. It seems strange that he inflated his BC. Condolences to his family, friends and scuba buddies.
mccabejc:Unless it was a failed inflator valve. Not sure how you'd recover from that. You can't really disconnect the hose while it's pressurized. Hmm....need to give that one some thought.
mccabejc:Uh oh...I don't recall ever simulating a stuck inflator. Disconnecting the pressurized hose underwater with gloves on? Man, I don't recall ever doing that. I would probably have remembered the hose dumping air right by my ear. And I was a VERY good student
Let's see...the inflator sticks open, your BC fills up full almost instantly, you start ascending. If you can figure what happened, you press the dump valve on the inflator and hope it works. If not, you find the hose connector on the inflator real quick, and, wearing gloves, try to disconnect the pressurized hose. The hose would be dumping air from the tank pretty quick. Then you pull the dump valve on the BC to deflate it and stop your ascent. Hopefully you can get to the surface before the free running hose dumps all of your air.
Man, I've got to hop in the pool and work on this one.
MikeFerrara:Jim,
Are you saying that you don't know how to recover from a stuck bc inflator?
It's the most common bc failure and one of the most common equipment failures that I've seen.
Not only is it possible to disconnect the hose when pressurized but disconnecting the inflator hose and dumping in order to correct for a stuck inflator is a required skill in a PADI OW class and has been for years.
This is an extremely important skill.
scubacalifornia:But I don't remember that being a required PADI OW skill.
Kevin
Even though the low pressure hose to the inflator/deflator is pressurized it should not leak or drain your tank when disconnected as it is designed not to let air out once it is disconnected.If you look inside of the quick disconnect you will see the schrader valve that prevents air from escaping when disconnected.mccabejc:If not, you find the hose connector on the inflator real quick, and, wearing gloves, try to disconnect the pressurized hose. The hose would be dumping air from the tank pretty quick. Then you pull the dump valve on the BC to deflate it and stop your ascent. Hopefully you can get to the surface before the free running hose dumps all of your air.