Input sought on 5' primary hose routing with Zeagle Flathead VI

[Blue Sparkle]

Thanks, RJP, that's a really nice offer. I'll PM you. "The hoop" is one of the details I'm ironing out in getting my own gear set up (after renting... whew, what a relief!)

I don't see myself having a can-type light in the near future, but I have read that you can just tuck the extra loop into the waist strap on the BC.

I guess my one other concern with the longer hose is that (for now at least) due to a lingering case of quadriceps tendinitis, I'm doffing my gear in the water and handing it up to the DM on the boat. I clip my primary second stage onto a D-ring before I send it up, and although the 5' hose is a bit long and dangly it has not caused any problems. But a 7' foot....seems like there might be extra dangly loopage, which would be one thing if I needed 7' of hose in an overhead type situation, but since I don't, I hate to cause any more inconvenience to the DM.

Well, can't hurt to try it, especially since you offered to loan me one, and then I can see how it works compared to the 5-footer I don't mind buying something once I know what I want, but didn't feel like running out and spending $50 on an adapter, $30 on a hose, and/or $300+ on a new reg when I am not even sure which of these might work.

Blue Sparkle

PS: Not meaning to "close" the thread to anyone else's thoughts though

 

[paddler3d]

When you coil hoses, extension cords, climbing ropes, so on so forth, you can throw a loop into the hose. For instance if you are holding onto your 2nd stage and routing the hose, you could inadvertently be throwing a loop into your hose that is causing it to want to climb over your head.

I've done, I've seen it done.

 

[redacted]

If I understand the problem correctly, I doubt if a Mk25 would be any better. I dive Mk5s & Mk10 which are the same design as a Mk25 for hose routing. I found a 5 ft hose to be a tad short so I used 5'4" to 5'6" long hoses. The end port on a balanced piston allows for pretty direct routing of the long hose from the 1st down and under your arm. After it has passed under your arm, the first stage connection is pretty much a none player in terms of routing the hose up across your chest, behind your neck, and into your mouth. That is mostly controlled by the length and flexibility of the hose. I also dive a Mk7 which does not afford that direct routing from the 1st to under your arm; but I just use a slightly longer hose to compensate for the less direct path. The loop behind my neck does ride up rarely, usually on some entries and occasionally if I go upside down but is fairly easy to manage.

One other consideration is I get these odd length hoses by connecting 2 hoses together with an appropriate adapter. (Anybody who wants to comment on the added failure point of 2 additional o-rings, take your shot, but include a count of the number of failure point o-rings in your 2nd stages. Mine have 4 in the primary and 2 in the alternate.) This connection provides another swivel point which tends to counter some hose memory.

Before you buy a Mk25 unnecessarily, I suggest you try reorienting your 1st stage to get a routing of your primary more like you would have with a BP 1st. Your other hose may be a bit screwed up but this is just to see if changing that routing on your long hose would help.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

paddler3d,

That's a good thought, and I know what you mean from coiling lines on boats. I don't think I'm doing that, because when I put my hand on the hose right by the second stage and thrust it forward (as if I were donating it), the hose comes off nice and "straight." But I will think about it next time I'm diving.

If I understand the problem correctly, I doubt if a Mk25 would be any better. ...
Before you buy a Mk25 unnecessarily, I suggest you try reorienting your 1st stage to get a routing of your primary more like you would have with a BP 1st. Your other hose may be a bit screwed up but this is just to see if changing that routing on your long hose would help.

Ah, good idea! I should have thought of that, especially since I love a good experiment. I'll have to see if I can temporarily route the primary hose downward, and still somehow get the other hoses to work (enough for one dive). Thanks

I knew I would get some good ideas if I posted here.

Blue Sparkle

 

[paddler3d]

paddler3d,

That's a good thought, and I know what you mean from coiling lines on boats. I don't think I'm doing that, because when I put my hand on the hose right by the second stage and thrust it forward (as if I were donating it), the hose comes off nice and "straight." But I will think about it next time I'm diving.

I had this problem and I fixed it, but for the life of me, I can't remember how. Maybe throw a loop in the opposite direction so it lays flat?

 

[RTee]

The 5' hose is too long to be short, and too short to be long.

Go with a 7' hose and route it "down and up" (under a can light, knife sheath, held with a hose clip, etc) which will keep it in place and prevent it from floating up over your head.

+2 or 3, I guess. I have a couple of reg set-ups, one of them being a pair of Flathead VI that I am presently using with my doubles. However, I did combined them on a single first stage last year for my Ice diving course. In my case, I replaced the standard length hose one of the reg came with ...with a 7 ft one.

Ditto for either a SPG hoe clip on the belt RH D-Ring, if you do not have anything else to loop it around. Personally, my regular set-up includes diving with a SMB and a finger spool clipped to that very specific D-ring and I just loop the hose around it before bringing it across my chest and around my neck.

The extra two feet should also not be no problem if you need to don off your tank and pass it on to a crew member...as you could loop it a couple of times before you clip it to a D-ring.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

paddler3d: I'll experiment with that next time I dive (not soon enough, unfortunately). Maybe instead of "neutral," like I have it coiled now, I could give it a bit of encouragement to twist downward.

Rtee: I think I'll be giving the 7' hose a try at least. On the coiling before handing up to the DM.... I'm not sure how an extra coil would work? I mean, I don't really see anything to coil around that will hold (in the water/waves/next to the boat - not up on the boat where I can loop it around the first stage/yoke), but maybe I'm missing something obvious?

Right now I clip the second stage end of the hose it to one of my chest D-rings. This is after I've doffed it (but I do everything else first, including pulling the secondary reg off over my head, so I'm not taking the reg out of my mouth until the very last second when I'm handing the rig up to the DM). So basically it's the whole 5' hose hanging free, with the regulator end clipped to a chest D-ring. This is not a problem as that's only about a 2' loop of hose hanging down (since it also comes back up again). But with 7' it seems like there would be a huge loop that might be a bit of a pain (since I don't really need the 7' for OW for any reason).

I had tried things like looping the 5' hose around the first stage before clipping it, but since the rig is then lying flat in the water, and or even bouncing around a little bit (various angles) there is nothing to keep it there.

All that said, I clearly have some experimenting to do. And that's not a bad thing!

Blue Sparkle

 

[RTee]

Ditto for either a SPG hoe clip on the belt RH D-Ring,

Sorry for the typo...hose clip is what I meant

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Whew, I was about to go out and get a garden hoe

Joking aside, I probably will try somehow clipping my 5' hose to the right-side of the waist strap to see how that works. Probably not with a "real" clip (bolt snap), but maybe with one of those half-round type clips that snaps over the hose? Sounds like a simple thing to try that might work well, without any extra clutter to speak of.

 

[redacted]

OK, I thought about this a bit more (seldom a good thing). I do understand how a 5' hose can be a bit short for larger divers. When I tried a 5' hose, I could not get it to stop pulling to my right even with no exposure protection. My solution was to add a few more inches, but I can see how a 7' hose would also solve THAT problem. But I don't see how a 7' is the solution to the problem described other than maybe a different long hose would have some different memory characteristics and might behave. Sure, a little more length might reduce the problem a bit but I suspect this is another case of ... well, let's not go there.

What am I missing?