OP
Real-life Equipment Failures
- Thread starter Shcubasteve
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Tigerman
Contributor
Its bloody hot down there and many forget to shut their tanks off after attaching the regs and checking the pressures, or they just shut the air off and dont let the pressure out. Then you WILL have a blown o-ring given its pretty much never below 86F and frequently 100F++
Worst one Ive seen though was my buddy having a blown o-ring at depth.
Other notable failures Ive seen was;
a blown HP-hose (Nothing compared to the 1st stage o-ring obvliously)
stuck inflator button - which almost ended with my buddy shooting to the surface from 100ft..
a guide somehow forgetting to change his tank over between dives, compounded by his pressure gauge needle being BROKEN - Yes, he got picked on a lot for quite some time. Come to think of it this was over a year ago and we still do..
CuNanoTube
Contributor
Ice diving my inflator froze closed after I put in some air at about 5m. Then my buddy could not come down due to a line tending problem, then when I tugged to have slack let in nothing happened. So I sat there waiting to come in when they finally started pulling in. Just under the hole the line somehow (my guess was bad rope) came off my harness. Fun times.
kylgod253
Registered
I've had two Zeagle inflators fail on me now (inflator stuck open and almost corked me, thank god i reacted quick enough to remove the inflator hose while simultaneously holding the deflator button! i had to manually inflate the rest of the dive, but I usually do anyways just to conserve as much air as possible) .. i dont neglect my equipment, i don't over-clean or use solvents i shouldn't on them.. i absolutely love Zeagle (it's all I will ever dive) but their inflators SUCK. I've since changed to a Scubapro Air2 and have had no problems since.
scubafanatic
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probably not the case. In my experience it's been sloppy fill whip technique that tears up those O-rings....or third world dive ops cutting corners on maintainance and not refreshing worn O-rings periodically....I've seen plenty of rental fleet tanks with incredibly worn out O-rings, so I typically inspect/replace O-rings on any tanks I use. What's funny is that on my most recent trip (July 2011 Sun Dancer--LP 95) I actually had my very 1st tank O-ring blow out at the beginning of a night dive, and this was one time I hadn't swapped out the O-ring at the start of my trip.....lesson relearned!
I've had a problem mentioned above where my drysuit inflator leaks a small but steady stream of air into the suit. Didn't even realize it until the end of a 2nd dive where I seemed to be dumping air all the time -then realized I'd never added air.
Going under the ice I've had both BCD/wing and suit inflators freeze lots of times. But it's always been much warmer underwater than up in the air, so I just wait a minute underwater and the inflators will thaw and start to work.
Going under the ice I've had both BCD/wing and suit inflators freeze lots of times. But it's always been much warmer underwater than up in the air, so I just wait a minute underwater and the inflators will thaw and start to work.
I dive a lot of cold water and I see a few drysuit related malfunctions every year.
Last week, an instructor conducting a course closeby at 6 meters depth bumped into me while looking like a black-neoprene-clad stay-puff-the-marshmallow man. His eyes were huge! he did a full circle around me and my class, rather like a deflating balloon, and then shot up to the surface, all in 3 seconds.
His drysuit inflator got stuck, he lost balance, tryed to fin himself down only to get flipped over to his back and then went up.
Guess he was not ready to rip his neck seal and flood his suit. Luckily he was breathing out more than in and avoided any injury.
He was lucky enough to have an instructor on the surface that closed his tank. they then deflated his suit,disconnected the hose and he went down to get his class.
Yes, after about 5 seconds he was so inflated he could not move. You have a short window of opportunity. Easily avoided if you only mantain your gear and remember to buy a new suit every five years if you are too lasy to mantian your hoses and dump valves.
Equipment maintenance is cheaper than ignorance by choice is all I can say.
Last week, an instructor conducting a course closeby at 6 meters depth bumped into me while looking like a black-neoprene-clad stay-puff-the-marshmallow man. His eyes were huge! he did a full circle around me and my class, rather like a deflating balloon, and then shot up to the surface, all in 3 seconds.
His drysuit inflator got stuck, he lost balance, tryed to fin himself down only to get flipped over to his back and then went up.
Guess he was not ready to rip his neck seal and flood his suit. Luckily he was breathing out more than in and avoided any injury.
He was lucky enough to have an instructor on the surface that closed his tank. they then deflated his suit,disconnected the hose and he went down to get his class.
Yes, after about 5 seconds he was so inflated he could not move. You have a short window of opportunity. Easily avoided if you only mantain your gear and remember to buy a new suit every five years if you are too lasy to mantian your hoses and dump valves.
Equipment maintenance is cheaper than ignorance by choice is all I can say.
A new suit every five years? Is that personal recommendation?
To have the required skill or not to have the required skill. That is the question.
To have the required skill or not to have the required skill. That is the question.
OP
I wonder why he wouldnt have just disconnected the inflator hose like we are all taught at the o/w level? Seems like a much more effective way to deal with a run away inflator...
OP
More failures:
Blew a hose in the pool the other day. It was a stock aqualung hose that came with my legend 3 years ago.
Had four AL80s come in for inspection ALL with damaged valves. Here is a picture of one that came out whole.
Saw a few AirSources (octo-inflators) with salt crystals stick in the deflate button, holding it open.
Blew a hose in the pool the other day. It was a stock aqualung hose that came with my legend 3 years ago.
Had four AL80s come in for inspection ALL with damaged valves. Here is a picture of one that came out whole.
Saw a few AirSources (octo-inflators) with salt crystals stick in the deflate button, holding it open.
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