Diving Without an Inflator Hose

[grf88]

A search on Decostop for "The Rockport Accident Report" may provide some insight into issues with frozen and free-flowing inflators. This 2007 tragic accident may have been avoided with a disconnected inflator but is a situation probably only found in very cold water.

 

[davehicks]

This is nuts. You could simplify your car by removing the brakes. Just drive uphill or run up against a handy tree if you want to slow down! Don't go removing basic safety functions just because they might fail. Instead set aside some time for training to understand how to cope when they do fail. Example: Stuck inflator overfills the BC, learn to pop it loose quickly.

Without a BC your bouancy skills and ability will be poor. Don't tell us you can just use your breath, that won't work at every depth as your wetsuit compresses and bouancy characteristics change. If you want to dive without a BC don't let me see you dragging yourself over the coral.

 

[davehicks]

If you worry about the infaltor failing or sticking, then it's time to service it. This is cheaply done in any dive shop and easy to do yourself with some basic tools, silicone lubricant, and a toothbrush. It's a spring, rod, and oring.

If you are thoughful enough to be thinking about failure points (And Congrats for that!!!) then make a list of items you should maintain.

 

[Kharon]

Would there be any issue diving without the inflator hose attached? Other than not being able to power inflate of course.

For a while I was using a soft backpack/harness with an oral inflatable vest that had a dump valve underneath the harness. It worked fine. I decided to change to a small donut instead because the mechanics of oral control and dealing with a dive flag became a wee bit problematic. I could do it - but ddn't want to.

 

[jale]

Without a BC your bouancy skills and ability will be poor. Don't tell us you can just use your breath, that won't work at every depth as your wetsuit compresses and bouancy characteristics change. If you want to dive without a BC don't let me see you dragging yourself over the coral.

Hi
This is wrong.
By being correctly weighted, with the correct tank(s) and the correct suit, you don't need to use your BC to control your buoyancy; your lungs are more than enough.
A lot of people don't use their BC.
Enjoy your dives.

 

[Scared Silly]

Would there be any issue diving without the inflator hose attached? Other than not being able to power inflate of course.

The only issue I can think of is that yer friends might think yer a blow hard.

 

[davehicks]

Hi
This is wrong.
By being correctly weighted, with the correct tank(s) and the correct suit, you don't need to use your BC to control your buoyancy; your lungs are more than enough.
A lot of people don't use their BC.
Enjoy your dives.

That was a lot of qualifications. I don't know how variable your diving is but I change between multiple wet suits (3-7mm), dry suit, open circuit CCR, steel or aluminum tanks, etc. I can't always control all of these options. If you go to 100 ft in a 7mm suit you are likely to need a BC. If you can get it all perfectly dialed in with every dive and location then more power to you. Most people are going to struggle and hit a wall.

Now let's talk about the lift needed to ascend with a flooded dry suit or buddy in distress. Or being required to don or doff your rig in the water because your are diving on a panga without a ladder. Without a BC inflator your are going to be doing a lot of huffing and puffing not to mention putting your self at risk. Doing this in 3 foot swells without a reg in your mouth may be dangerous.

 

[jale]

That was a lot of qualifications. I don't know how variable your diving is but I change between multiple wet suits (3-7mm), dry suit, open circuit CCR, steel or aluminum tanks, etc. I can't always control all of these options. If you go to 100 ft in a 7mm suit you are likely to need a BC. If you can get it all perfectly dialed in with every dive and location then more power to you. Most people are going to struggle and hit a wall.
Now let's talk about the lift needed to ascend with a flooded dry suit or buddy in distress. Or being required to don or doff your rig in the water because your are diving on a panga without a ladder. Without a BC inflator your are going to be doing a lot of huffing and puffing not to mention putting your self at risk. Doing this in 3 foot swells without a reg in your mouth may be dangerous.

Now of course you can always find examples of situation where bc is needed but I think we are talking about single tank diving here and with a good choice of equipment the use of your bcd is not needed.

 

[Charles Graves]

I think if you are doing a dive where the bottom is not below the rec limit, then sure, you could do it. For example, if the bottom is only 130 feet or something, or at most like 140-ish (or perhaps slightly more than that like 150-160 if you know for a fact you handle narcosis well or dont get it), then you could do it and you wouldn't need to worry about dying or getting nitrogen narcosis (at least not bad enough to where you wouldn't be able to exit).

However, if you dive where the bottom is like 300 feet or more, or something like that... (Something where you DONT want to have a runaway descent situation cuz its too deep).. Then you put yourself in a VERY dangerous situation by not having an inflator hose!!!

For example, let's say that for some reason your BCD has become under inflated (happens to me sometimes when diving) and then you need to inflate it. But, you can't inflate it fast enough to stay level. You keep sinking, trying to inflate, but you are getting out of breath as you sink farther down. You will then be forced to have 2 options:

1) quickly dump your weights and then you'll float to the surface, but perhaps too rapidly and then suffer DCS

2) Keep your weights on, and try to do it manually... and fail... and then float all the way 300+ feet down... and die of nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity perhaps, or both at those depths. Plus the pressure will be insane, and even if you were able to avoid narcosis and toxicity and inflate (extremely unlikely), then you simply wouldn't have enough air to make it back to the top, at least not with doing the proper deep stops and safety stops required at that depth.

You would 90% likely die from something, or at best, maybe if you are super lucky, only suffer severe assss DCS and probably be crippled or something.

My suggestion: Keep your power inflator unless you are in shallower waters (140 or less) or if you have a deathwish.

If you are in a cave, you actually dont NEED a power inflator if you are super super good with your buoyancy... although, it makes it much easier to maintain buoyancy with a power inflator, and the last thing you want to have is a silt-out in a cave because you started sinking and couldn't reach your buoyancy manual inflate valve quick enough. Trust me, I HAVE BEEN IN A SILT OUT ONCE... NOT FUN. And more importantly, even when you remain calm, it's tricky finding your way out and obviously, dangerous. (You could get lost, lose your line, run out of air, bonk your head on a rock and knock yourself out, etc).

 

[davehicks]

Now of course you can always find examples of situation where bc is needed but I think we are talking about single tank diving here and with a good choice of equipment the use of your bcd is not needed.

Yes, there are lots of good examples that dispensing with a BC Inflator is a bad idea. Except for trying to be a macho-man who does not see the need for safety equipment like BC's and Seatbelts I guess. Go sign up for a Stress and Rescue class and tell the instructor you don't need a BC inflator.

Let's not encourage bad ideas. If the OP is experienced and confident enough to know when they might not need a BC then they would not be asking for advise on this forum.

So connect your BC to an inflator and wear your seatbelts in your car, maybe go test your Home smoke alarms while you are at it. Safety is Job #1.