On my past few dives, my power inflator was getting a little sticky. I couldn't really coax it slightly open to put minute amounts of air into the BC, it had to be short but big bursts. I took it to an LDS, and he disassembled it, showed me a little salt inside with some slight corrosion on the metal parts. He cleaned it up and lubed it with some silicone gel stuff. It seemed to work perfectly after that.
That along with some gear changed prompted me to do a couple practice dives in my pool. On practice dive #2 the power inflator got stuck open. I was at the surface at the time, and it took me a good 30 seconds to figure out what was going on. I'm going to replace the power inflator before my next dive, but the problem made me think I needed to prepare for this type of failure at depth.
Unfortunately, I can't come up with a good way to deal with it. With the tank valve on, I can't remove the power inflator at depth. I've tried several times; and I'm sure that at pretty much any depth I'd have an uncontrolled ascent before I could turn off the tank valve, depressurize the hoses and remove the connection and turn the tank back on.
Is there a reasonable way to deal with a stuck "Open" power inflator at depth? The only thing I can think of is to use a dive knife to puncture the BC. Having practiced recently treading water with a completely deflated BC, I could surface and stay there for 5-10 minutes before I'd have to ditch the whole rig. It's an option but not a good one for obvious reasons.
How would you deal with a power inflator stuck "OPEN" at depth?
That along with some gear changed prompted me to do a couple practice dives in my pool. On practice dive #2 the power inflator got stuck open. I was at the surface at the time, and it took me a good 30 seconds to figure out what was going on. I'm going to replace the power inflator before my next dive, but the problem made me think I needed to prepare for this type of failure at depth.
Unfortunately, I can't come up with a good way to deal with it. With the tank valve on, I can't remove the power inflator at depth. I've tried several times; and I'm sure that at pretty much any depth I'd have an uncontrolled ascent before I could turn off the tank valve, depressurize the hoses and remove the connection and turn the tank back on.
Is there a reasonable way to deal with a stuck "Open" power inflator at depth? The only thing I can think of is to use a dive knife to puncture the BC. Having practiced recently treading water with a completely deflated BC, I could surface and stay there for 5-10 minutes before I'd have to ditch the whole rig. It's an option but not a good one for obvious reasons.
How would you deal with a power inflator stuck "OPEN" at depth?