Over 4000 logged dives and well over 4000 hours.
No life threateneing equipment failures. Plenty of leaky o-rings (SPG and reg swivel mostly) and second stages that were annoying rather that life threatening. Also a few stuck drysuit or bc inflators that required regular dumping and/or disconnecting to complete dives. Also had a sticking O2 add valve on a rebreather that required a hose to be disconnected to continue the dive.
I replace hoses when they start to get soft or look worn around the end fittings and like to think that that reduces the risk of catastrophic LP hose failures. I also service my own regs so I can identify problems before they become significant.
Most memorable failures - none life threatening - were:
1. an almost new HP hose that looked to be in great condition bursting on the boat just after I cracked the cylinder valve about 4 years ago - maybe a faulty hose - luckily there was a spare guage/hose I could use so didn't miss a dive.
2. SPG sticking and showing air when cylinder was about empty - this has happened to me twice - once with buddy with octo and once when solo diving - both no deco dives and failure near surface so not really a problem. This happend even though I have always checked pressure guage needle movement regularly to make sure they are showing zero and not sticking.
3. a school of tiny fish swm around and into the regulator exhaust tee and jammed the mushroom valve open causing a leak - reg breatheed a bit wet until I could blow and purge the reg and clear the poor little fish.
Not gas related but have had computer failures on dives - all battery failures despite the battery indicator showing OK before dives.
These days I normally dive with at least 2 computers and have redundent gas on deeper/deco type dives.
No life threateneing equipment failures. Plenty of leaky o-rings (SPG and reg swivel mostly) and second stages that were annoying rather that life threatening. Also a few stuck drysuit or bc inflators that required regular dumping and/or disconnecting to complete dives. Also had a sticking O2 add valve on a rebreather that required a hose to be disconnected to continue the dive.
I replace hoses when they start to get soft or look worn around the end fittings and like to think that that reduces the risk of catastrophic LP hose failures. I also service my own regs so I can identify problems before they become significant.
Most memorable failures - none life threatening - were:
1. an almost new HP hose that looked to be in great condition bursting on the boat just after I cracked the cylinder valve about 4 years ago - maybe a faulty hose - luckily there was a spare guage/hose I could use so didn't miss a dive.
2. SPG sticking and showing air when cylinder was about empty - this has happened to me twice - once with buddy with octo and once when solo diving - both no deco dives and failure near surface so not really a problem. This happend even though I have always checked pressure guage needle movement regularly to make sure they are showing zero and not sticking.
3. a school of tiny fish swm around and into the regulator exhaust tee and jammed the mushroom valve open causing a leak - reg breatheed a bit wet until I could blow and purge the reg and clear the poor little fish.
Not gas related but have had computer failures on dives - all battery failures despite the battery indicator showing OK before dives.
These days I normally dive with at least 2 computers and have redundent gas on deeper/deco type dives.