Doubles?

[JDMerk]

Can you explain why you would lose all your gas with manifolded doubles.. You have more options in an emergency and if you are unable to turn the knobs on the tank and manifold you probably should not be diving them.

Worst case scenario you have a manifold failure or are unable to operate the isolation valve for whatever reason.
With isolated doubles no action is required by the user to preserve half their gas, unlike manifolded doubles.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

I do agree that yes the isolated rig has less failure points. There is NO reasin you should lose more than half your gas, which would equeal the isolated rig.. Thats what its designed for..You would have to seriously mess up to lose all your gas. Thats why we use that rig in caves. I have yet to see backmounted doubles without a manifold in a cave environment, sidemount yes.You have more way of saving gas than losng it.. You cant say one is safer than the other, it personal preferance really, and I like more options to save my butt.I was just curious as to your theory on it..

 

[hobodiver]

You have more options, but you also have a failure mode which is total. i.e. you lose all your gas.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

I could also win the lottery...Both your burst discs could blow and last but not least both your regs could fail.. Like I said opinions vary but you in no way can prove one is safer than the other. In fact with isolators you could very well keep usuing both tanks saving you from ascending too quick. No argument there is more failure points.. Thats one thing I like about sidemount systems. MAybe if you mishandled your gear you might increase your odds severely of catrostrophic failure. But I know a person who fell and bent their manifold pretty bad a few weeks ago. They did not have total air loss there.

 

[liuk3]

Not necessarily ... although in this picture I'm wearing double 119's ... which aren't a heck of a lot lighter.

I just want to know is that snow in the background? It looks cold!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I just want to know is that snow in the background? It looks cold!

Yes, that's snow ... but it wasn't too bad. We dress for it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Web Monkey]

So, 2 130's would weigh 86# plus 21# for air and maybe 10# for the manifold and regs. Total 117#. There's no way in the world I could hump that from the parking lot, across the beach and through the surf! I'll leave this for younger people. If I did a face plant on exit, I would never be able to get up!

Do you guys realize that the OP is a 15 year old high school student with somewhere between 0 and 24 dives and you're arguing about whether he'd be better off with 216 or 260 Cu Ft of gas on his 100+ pound rig?

Terry

 

[IceBergSlim]

Do you guys realize that the OP is a 15 year old high school student with somewhere between 0 and 24 dives and you're arguing about whether he'd be better off with 216 or 260 Cu Ft of gas on his 100+ pound rig?

Terry

Many new divers with a great love of the sport get to the moment when they think they need to "get them some doubles and dive more hard core".

They see others with added gear, greater confidence, longer bottom times, deco/pony/stages and decide these things (and doubles) are the path to instant enlightmenent.

It rarely is so.

As has been advised before the best way is to work your way up creating solutions when you encounter true problems.

What is the problem you are facing?

 

[Blackwood]

Do you guys realize that the OP is a 15 year old high school student with somewhere between 0 and 24 dives and you're arguing about whether he'd be better off with 216 or 260 Cu Ft of gas on his 100+ pound rig?

Terry

Yah but what are you gonna do?

 

[rstofer]

Do you guys realize that the OP is a 15 year old high school student with somewhere between 0 and 24 dives and you're arguing about whether he'd be better off with 216 or 260 Cu Ft of gas on his 100+ pound rig?

Terry

I didn't think I was recommending anything. In fact, I thought I was quite clear about excess weight and such.

Perhaps you chose to quote my message as typical of the entire thread.

As I have never used doubles, I certainly wouldn't be in a position to recommend them. I limit myself to recreational dives (no virtual or physical overhead) with no decompression requirement. At most, I use an HP 100.

As long as we (wife, myself and son-in-law) dive with my grandson (Jr. OW), we won't be going very deep for about 5 years. If then...

No, I am the flag bearer of simple, shallow, dives. Look at the pretty fishes and leave the more advanced dives to younger people.

Richard