Mares Dragon MRS Plus weight releases

[tenger15]

Hi Phil,

I read on a forum that you are the Mares rep, and so I wanted to ask you a question about my situation. I have a Dragon MRS with integrated weight pockets and I dove for three days in Hawaii with it. The dive shop filled my BCD with weights and cleaned it for me every night.

When I got the BCD back from them, one of the pockets would not come out. I never had this problem before, and I gave it a hard tug, but it wouldn't come out. Eventually after tugging it, the handle came undone from the slot. I thought it was nothing, so I put it back in, and tried to pull it out again, and it kept coming out. So I realized that the handle was connected to something and now that it was not connected anymore, the pocket would not come out.

Is there anything I can do to get the pocket out now or is the pocket permanently stuck in the BCD?

Thanks for your help.

 

[zoranb]

@tenger15
This happened to a friend of mine. We were diving on a beach with tiny pebbles or larger sand. One of the little pebbles got stuck in the space where one of the little hinges should move when pulled. As the pebble was stuck there, the little hinge couldn't move, and we could not pull the pocket out. We could not pry the pebble out as the space is limited and the pocket has a firm side that can't be bent. It took a strength of 2 grown men (35 minutes) and an intelect of 1 woman with small hands and tweezers (5 minutes) to get the pocket out. Ironically, at that moment, we couldn't pull the damn thing out if our life depended on it...

My pockets have fallen out so many times, I reverted to the belt. The main problem is when you have blocks in the pocket, they move inside. When you tip forward (dive down), the back piece slams the front piece producing enough force to kick the pocket out of the holder. That is why most people lose their pocket when attempting to retrieve the other, already dropped pocket.

Try this solution. It helped me:
Mares MRS Plus Weight Pouch Dropping Root Cause