Punctured wings

[Josh Levinson]

Hi everyone,

With respect to the whole issue of single vs. double bladder wings, how often do wing punctures occur? How many of you guys have had them or heard of them happening? I know the bladders in the new Halcyon wings are made of ballistic nylon and are super tough and all that, but what about punctures in the inflator hose? How many of you have had that happen or heard of it happening? Thanks a lot.


Josh

 

[Charlie99]

Josh Levinson once bubbled...
Hi everyone,

With respect to the whole issue of single vs. double bladder wings, how often do wing punctures occur? How many of you guys have had them or heard of them happening? I know the bladders in the new Halcyon wings are made of ballistic nylon and are super tough and all that, but what about punctures in the inflator hose? How many of you have had that happen or heard of it happening? Thanks a lot.


Josh

Is the problem punctures or seam leaks? IIRC, Halcyon has had seam sealing problems and a super tough outer cover doesn't solve that problem. In real life, I believe seam leaks are much more common than punctures. Diving a nasty wreck might change that ratio, though.

If it is puncture you are worried about, consider that anything that what pokes through one bladder will probably go through the second one also (the dual bladders I'm familiar with just have two bladders in the same outer cover).

Yet another consideration is that, if you connect inflators to both bladders, you have doubled your risk of inadvertant inflation and runaway ascent.

 

[Scubaroo]

Charlie99 once bubbled...
Yet another consideration is that, if you connect inflators to both bladders, you have doubled your risk of inadvertant inflation and runaway ascent.

I believe most dual-bladder divers leave the backup disconnected for this very reason.

 

[The Chairman]

bungeed wing. Never needed to hook up the second (even with bungees). I only hook up one inflator hose at a time so I never have the run away issue refered to. For that fact, I didn't have the run away deflation that everyone is so worried about either.

 

[padiscubapro]

Josh Levinson once bubbled...
Hi everyone,

With respect to the whole issue of single vs. double bladder wings, how often do wing punctures occur? How many of you guys have had them or heard of them happening? I know the bladders in the new Halcyon wings are made of ballistic nylon and are super tough and all that, but what about punctures in the inflator hose? How many of you have had that happen or heard of it happening? Thanks a lot.


Josh

a more likely scenario is the inflator becomming disconnected from the bladder.. I HAVE seen this happen.. the person went to dump some gas and all the gas dumped (the seal internally was broken at the connecton point) all gas he tried to put in the bladder came right out.. it was a "h" product that many swear by..

I also had a bladder fail several years back with a pull dump, I pulled and it came right off... I could have swam my rig up it was only an al80, but I was already in the habit of backup bladders (back to back) and just moved the inflator hose and finished the dive...

 

[BigJetDriver]

Charlie99 once bubbled...
If it is puncture you are worried about, consider that anything that what pokes through one bladder will probably go through the second one also (the dual bladders I'm familiar with just have two bladders in the same outer cover).

Yet another consideration is that, if you connect inflators to both bladders, you have doubled your risk of inadvertant inflation and runaway ascent.

I would have to agree with the first part. Anything sharp enough to puncture the ballistic nylon cover will probably keep right on going. Hopefully you can then dump some of your weights, or use your drysuit as an emergency back-up.

I have never seen an inflator just take off all by itself, with no activation at all. If anyone knows of an actual case of this happening, I would like to know! Even if connected, if you don't use it, it is still just a back-up.

 

[Scubaroo]

BigJetDriver69 once bubbled...
I have never seen an inflator just take off all by itself, with no activation at all. If anyone knows of an actual case of this happening, I would like to know! Even if connected, if you don't use it, it is still just a back-up.

I've seen a former buddy's Air2 leak air into the wing throughout a dive. Certainly wasn't in danger of "runaway inflation" though - just an annoyance that he had to keep dumping.

 

[metaldector]

A few weeks ago we let a guy from out of state join us for a dive. He said that three days previously he had been diving. When we got into the water he couldn't submerge because his wing was full of air. He dumped it and started down only to pop back to the surface with a full wing. After two more trys we aborted the dive and inspected his Octoplus and could hear the air inflating the wing. He disassembled and reassembled the unit four times but it wouldn't stop. After leaving him on shore, we continued our dive. I don't know what caused this problem, I never saw the guy again, but a runaway inflator does happen.

 

[globaldiver]

I have never had a punctured BC bladder, but once had a failing dump valve on a DiveRite Rec wing.

Luckily I was diving in my dry suit, which at that time worked fine as a redundand boyancy device, and enabled me to safely abort the dive.

That is one of the reasons I like to dive dry.

Anders

 

[Genesis]

had a leaking BC bladder on his dive a couple of days ago...

He didn't realize it was leaking, but I could see the bubble trail clearly.... told him about it on the boat and he said "hmmmm... now that you mention it I did need to add air a couple of times down there." :wacko:

It does happen.....