oxycheq mach V questions

[redacted]

I have an Oxycheq wing with a Dive Rite Backplate. I am disappointed with the wing because the inflator hose it came with was very small and came apart in my last dive while I was hovering during a safety stop! The bubbles leaving the BC caused me to loose buoyancy and had to drop the weight belt. I would go for DSS wing instead of Oxycheq. I have seen them and they appear to be better put together than my Oxycheq.

Why did you have so much air in your wing while at a safety stop? I don't understand what you mean by "small" inflator hose. I assume you mean corrugated hose. My Oxycheq uses a 1" diameter corrugated hose like many BCs. I don't believe any use a larger one. Are you saying your hose was too short? I'm guessing not because I don't believe anyone uses a shorter corrugated hose than DSS. When I order my Oxycheq wing over a year ago, I had the store install a shorter (12") corrugated hose as most are supplied with too long of a hose (16"+) which are unnecessary unless you use and octo/inflator. How did the hose "come apart"? Did a zip-tie fail?

 

[skimphish]

i would like to know the same thing. getting ready to buy my setup this week, so id like to know if i have to so i can go ahead and order everything.

and excuse the newbness, but no slots for the cam band means i have to get a STA correct? sorry, new to BP/W setups.

i answered my own question. lol. called caveadventurers. the new ones DO come with cam band slots.

 

[Splitlip]

I have an Oxycheq wing with a Dive Rite Backplate. I am disappointed with the wing because the inflator hose it came with was very small and came apart in my last dive while I was hovering during a safety stop! The bubbles leaving the BC caused me to loose buoyancy and had to drop the weight belt. I would go for DSS wing instead of Oxycheq. I have seen them and they appear to be better put together than my Oxycheq.

Sorry to hear, Bro.
I have 2 Mach V's I use with DR plates. Great combo. IMO, the Oxy's are a equal to or sturdier than the DSS (LCD).
Not sure what you mean by the inflator hose was small and came apart. The inflator hoses (LP) are not made by OXY. Could you mean the corrugated hose? One of mine came with a 16" corrugated hose which I changed out for a 13". 13" incidentaly is what I believe comes standard with DSS wings;and since DSS wings have the elbo in the center, the hose would be shorter! Please expand on this.

As for your safety stop and dumping weight? Did you make an early accent with full tank? Safety stop with near empty cylinder you should be about neutral. Meaning an easy swim and float to the surface.

 

[eelnoraa]

I have an Oxycheq wing with a Dive Rite Backplate. I am disappointed with the wing because the inflator hose it came with was very small and came apart in my last dive while I was hovering during a safety stop! The bubbles leaving the BC caused me to loose buoyancy and had to drop the weight belt. I would go for DSS wing instead of Oxycheq. I have seen them and they appear to be better put together than my Oxycheq.

I too have Oxy wing with Dive Rite plate. The wing is 30# Mach V signature series (cannot afford the extreme). My friend bought the DSS setup. I too has have "disappointment" about my setup, but it was NOT because any part of the wing is not tough enough. In fact, compare to my friend's DSS wing, Oxy signature appears to be tougher, noticeably. The outter shell material seems thicker and harder, it feels like it can take more abuse than DSS wing. However, DSS wing has some advantages too. let me list some:

What I like about DSS setup:
1. without STA, DSS wing can come off easily, for cleaning, storage, packing purpose. With Oxy with NO STA, I have tho weave cam bands to take off wings. I like the DSS convinient, so I have to use STA on my setup. BUT, because of STA, upper cam band sits higher, so tank also sits higher, 1st stage is hitting my head. Most STA in the market today has this issue. Without STA, Oxy wing slots is a little offset to the DR plate slot, no big deal, but with that much of money, I expect things to be perfect.

2. DSS wing is shorter and wider. Oxy is longer and narrower(good), but it is a bit too long for my liking

3. not sure if inflator are the same, but my Oxy inflator inflate very slowly compare to DSS inflator and other BC I have used. I only notice this when I come back to surface and need power inflate to stay up. I found I need to hold down the button longer than others.

One thing I found about about 10 dives is that if you weight properly, you don't need much air in the wing for most of the time. I screeze my wing often during dive just to see how full the wing is, most of the time feel empty. Even on surface, I think I am only using about 2/3 of the wing capacity.

 

[cmburch]

I have a 40# Mach V Extreme, DR SS BP with STA. The inflator hose worked well on mine, but I switched it out for a DR pull dump inflator hose because that is what I am use to.

Contact Oxycheq about the hose failure to see what can be done about it.

I also noticed that Hollis has a similar wing.

 

[SeaHound]

Sorry to hear, Bro.
I have 2 Mach V's I use with DR plates. Great combo. IMO, the Oxy's are a equal to or sturdier than the DSS (LCD).
Not sure what you mean by the inflator hose was small and came apart. The inflator hoses (LP) are not made by OXY. Could you mean the corrugated hose? One of mine came with a 16" corrugated hose which I changed out for a 13". 13" incidentaly is what I believe comes standard with DSS wings;and since DSS wings have the elbo in the center, the hose would be shorter! Please expand on this.

As for your safety stop and dumping weight? Did you make an early accent with full tank? Safety stop with near empty cylinder you should be about neutral. Meaning an easy swim and float to the surface.

Yes I think we are talking about the same hose. Mine came with a 13 inch hose. It was very small for me and kept dangling behind my back. Every time I had to inflate or deflate the BCD I had to reach behind my back and grab the hose. It was too short to hang in front of my shoulder. I also have wider than average shoulder which makes it more difficult to reach the 13 inch inflator behind me. It feels like you are trying to scratch your own back and cant reach the itch spot (know what I mean?)

As for me dumping the weight, I don't remember if the tank was full but yes that could be a possiblity. I remember after busting my BCD having to struggle just a bit to stay neutral at 16 feet. Every time I exhaled I would start to sink. Then, I remember debating whether to drop the weight. Once safety stop was done, I dropped the weight and just regular breathing caused me to ascend gradually. Once at the surface I did not have problems swimming to the boat. I think your analysis is correct that the tank had enough air in it to cause the negative buoyancy effect. Not too much but I do remember sinking slowly from the safety stop every time I exhaled. I wish my memory served me better though.

 

[spectrum]

i answered my own question. lol. called caveadventurers. the new ones DO come with cam band slots.

So the photo on the Oxycheq site must be outdated. I'm considering the Mach5 Signature 30 for a Freedom plate and when available information is confounding me.

Pete

 

[Nemrod]

The hoses are short by intention, it is only supposed to reach to the LH D ring where it should be held by a bungee. If you need a longer hose I am sure they would swap you out, short is good for wing.

N

 

[spectrum]

I just confirmed with Scubatoys. The current Mach V Signature 30 does have cam band slots despite all of the photos.

Pete

 

[redacted]

Yes I think we are talking about the same hose. Mine came with a 13 inch hose. It was very small for me and kept dangling behind my back. Every time I had to inflate or deflate the BCD I had to reach behind my back and grab the hose. It was too short to hang in front of my shoulder. I also have wider than average shoulder which makes it more difficult to reach the 13 inch inflator behind me. It feels like you are trying to scratch your own back and cant reach the itch spot (know what I mean?)

As for me dumping the weight, I don't remember if the tank was full but yes that could be a possiblity. I remember after busting my BCD having to struggle just a bit to stay neutral at 16 feet. Every time I exhaled I would start to sink. Then, I remember debating whether to drop the weight. Once safety stop was done, I dropped the weight and just regular breathing caused me to ascend gradually. Once at the surface I did not have problems swimming to the boat. I think your analysis is correct that the tank had enough air in it to cause the negative buoyancy effect. Not too much but I do remember sinking slowly from the safety stop every time I exhaled. I wish my memory served me better though.

You were probably over weighted to begin with. I have dove in warm water without a functioning BCD and had not problem dealing with the 4 to 5 lb weight loss as my Al80 was used during the dive. But my weight was dialed in. I doubt if I could have gotten away with even a pound less and still been able to breath comfortably at the end of the dive.

A longer corrugated hose is more subject to roam on you unless you do something to hold it in place. I put a bungee loop on my left chest D-ring and run the inflator hose through it. The keeps the inflator where I want it and still allows me to raise the inflator and corrugated hose to dump air when I want to.