PSA if traveling to a Red Sea liveaboard and you use a yoke fitting

[ChrisM]

Got back two days ago from a Southern Red Sea itinerary on Blue O Two's Blue Adventurer. We had the whole boat, and we all dive yoke regs. Upon boarding, all the tanks were DIN so they inserted DIN to yoke adapters. Some out of an alleged brand new batch, some old. Then the fun started. On the surface, my first stage blew two o rings on charging. A few others did too. Replaced the o rings.... over the first 2 or 3 days, we had no less than 6 first stage o ring failures at depth - from 30 fsw to 75 fsw . Mine was at 53 fsw. Others continued on the surface. It was a very sketchy situation and as can be imagined a minor revolt erupted. There was no easy answer but I resigned to diving no deeper than 30 fsw.

We had to scrounge amongst the save a dive kits to get new o rings to put in the adapters. This ultimately solved the issue, but not without a few very conservative dives for a few dives, and sticking to buddies like glue.

Because they cater mostly to European divers they don't usually use yoke adapters. Several theories but long and short is if traveling to the Red Sea make sure you bring plenty of tank o rings and, maybe better, your own DIN to yoke adapter.

 

[dberry]

I dive DIN and sometimes have the reverse problem. But on our Red Sea trip the tanks were all "convertible" with the inserts for those with yoke regs. I agree, that was unacceptable - your revolt was justified!

 

[Angelo Farina]

A bad batch of O-rings.
Happened to me when I was working at Maldives, in our resort we had a number of O-ring extrusions, until we got a new batch of good O-rings from Italy.
The bad batch were correct size but wrong material-durometry.
Also in that case, luckily, most customers did carry their own spare O-rings, and this was the only way of continuing the activity.
So I endorse entirely the recommendations:
1) Switch to DIN ASAP all your regs, a DIN to Yoke adapter is compact, cheap and safe for the rare places where the tanks are not convertible to DIN.
2) Where you are forced to use yoke, carry always with you at least a dozen of good O-rings.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Thanks for the reminder why I hate yoke 1st stages. I’ve never used one since OW training dives.

 

[BoltSnap]

Got back two days ago from a Southern Red Sea itinerary on Blue O Two's Blue Adventurer. We had the whole boat, and we all dive yoke regs. Upon boarding, all the tanks were DIN so they inserted DIN to yoke adapters. Some out of an alleged brand new batch, some old. Then the fun started. On the surface, my first stage blew two o rings on charging. A few others did too. Replaced the o rings.... over the first 2 or 3 days, we had no less than 6 first stage o ring failures at depth - from 30 fsw to 75 fsw . Mine was at 53 fsw. Others continued on the surface. It was a very sketchy situation and as can be imagined a minor revolt erupted. There was no easy answer but I resigned to diving no deeper than 30 fsw.

We had to scrounge amongst the save a dive kits to get new o rings to put in the adapters. This ultimately solved the issue, but not without a few very conservative dives for a few dives, and sticking to buddies like glue.

Because they cater mostly to European divers they don't usually use yoke adapters. Several theories but long and short is if traveling to the Red Sea make sure you bring plenty of tank o rings and, maybe better, your own DIN to yoke adapter.

You are partially to blame here, you and your group. You should have checked with the dive operation before leaving your homes. Also, you should have had several spare o'rings on you before you set a foot outside your homes door. One of the first advices one learns in diving is to always carry a big stock of o'rings as spares. You went to a third world country and to a very remote location and you didn't bother to take spares with you, o'rings that weigh nothing and with size that is very small. Heck, I take spare o'rings even when using my own equipment and tanks.

 

[BoltSnap]

Thanks for the reminder why I hate yoke 1st stages. I’ve never used one since OW training dives.

Yep, I stopped using Yoke anything since the mid 80's when I bought my first set of DIN steel tanks (Sherwood valves).

 

[ChrisM]

"You are partially to blame here, you and your group. You should have checked with the dive operation before leaving your homes. Also, you should have had several spare o'rings on you before you set a foot outside your homes door. One of the first advices one learns in diving is to always carry a big stock of o'rings as spares. You went to a third world country and to a very remote location and you didn't bother to take spares with you, o'rings that weigh nothing and with size that is very small. Heck, I take spare o'rings even when using my own equipment and tanks."

Guess you missed the part where we gathered the correct o rings from everyone's kit and were able to continue the trip.

 

[BoltSnap]

We had to scrounge amongst the save a dive kits to get new o rings to put in the adapters. This ultimately solved the issue, but not without a few very conservative dives for a few dives, and sticking to buddies like glue.

This means that you didn't have enough or not all of you had spares. Some folks on the boat had the common sense to bring some to save others who didn't bother bringing any.

where we gathered the correct o rings from everyone's kit and were able to continue the trip.

This wasn't what you said, check above ^^^^^

 

[ChrisM]

This means that you didn't have enough or not all of you had spares. Some folks on the boat had the common sense to bring some to save others who didn't bother bringing any.

We did have enough. We replaced all o rings on every tank, even those that hadn't failed.

And, BTW, isn't this post about what you are preaching? That everyone should remember to bring o rings? You should acknowledge that not everyone is prepared as you are
And oh FFS this is why boards suck. Someone always needs to clock a win. At least in their mind. Later Gator

 

[dflaher]

On the surface, my first stage blew two o rings on charging. A few others did too.

Are these tank O-rings you are referring to?

Several theories but long and short is if traveling to the Red Sea make sure you bring plenty of tank o rings and, maybe better, your own DIN to yoke adapter.

Sounds like a pretty good idea. I have a yoke 1st stage also.