Shoulder Pull Dump?

[guyharrisonphoto]

Hi Halcyon,

I tried your BP/W at your demo day on Blue Heron Bridge and loved it. I am an experienced diver and always dove jackets. No more! My wife, brand-new certified and with no BP/Wing experience, attained pefect bouyancy control and trim for an hour long dive in 8-20 feet, where bouyancy is the most difficult, staying a foot off the botton and not kicking up a single grain of sand. Needless to say we were impressed. The "cinch" rig was a true cinch to doff and don while in the water--great feature!

There is one thing I would ask about, and that is the shoulder dump on most BCs that is activated by the corrugated hose. That is a feature I always liked. I don't add/dump air a lot, but having control over both pos/neg bouyancy with my hand in a low position on the hose with no awkward lifting etc was always a great convenience.

I know the philosophy about an additional failure point, but I have seen wings by Dive Rite where the hose/dump looks built like a tank and I really can't imagine it failing any more than a rear/butt dump (which I use a lot when horizontal).

Any chance that you will offer such a convenience?

Guy

 

[TSandM]

I don't think Halcyon will offer a pull dump, but if you are horizontal, you can easily dump from the rear dump without having to lift the inflator hose.

Pull dump hoses can not only fail by the wire breaking, but the stress from repeated tugging can fatigue the plastic and cause the entire hose to come off when you pull -- this is one of the only total wing failures you can have, where you cannot add any gas, and the wing won't hold any in any position that is reasonable to dive.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Several years ago I was doing a dive with one of my very good friends. On the surface-kick out to our local site, we chatted about a number of things. We both had Seaquest BCDs at the time, and he mentioned how he liked the pull dump feature attached to the corrugated hose/power inflater assembly. Before we descended at our drop zone, my friend decided to give me a demo of how his worked. He tugged once on the power inflater. The next thing you know his BCD was leaking uncontrollably from the pull dump. After swimming over to assist him, I saw that the pull dump had completely separated from the BCD. Not good. That incident made an impression on me.

 

[redacted]

I'm pretty sure the Dive Rite pull dump is compatible with the Halcyon wing (same threaded connector). But I suggest you try the simple (less prone to failure) elbow and rear pull dump for a while before you change it out. I thought the same thing when I went to a BP and Dive Rite wing but ended up switching out the pull dump for a simple elbow.

 

[DevonDiver]

+1 on what TS&M said.

Horizontal trim + rear dump =

Tugging repeatedly at a joint between two materials =

 

[DMDavid]

Counterpoint: I use my dump valve quite often on deco stops when I'm in a vertical position and have yet to have a failure in 25 years.

While I do have a couple of different BC's, most of which are less than a couple of years old I do have and use a 15 year old Dacor BC that has never had any failures.

My current BC is a DiveRite Transpac II.

Take good care of your equipment and it will take good care of you.

JMTCW

 

[Scott L]

Michael Ange's book Diver Down has a nice chapter on pull-dumps. Unnecessary failure point. Twisting the end of H's power inflator upward is not my idea of an inconvenience...

 

[DiverLaura]

To my knowledge there are no plans for Halcyon to add a pull dump to the corrugated hose/inflator.

whilst in trim, the rear dump is actually a more 'controllable' dump than yanking on a pull dump (you can pull gently, a little, a lot, etc..). When in vertical orientation, as chris mentioned, the power inflator dump is quite effective.

By nature of design, you'll find that the dump valve (and corrugated hose) positioned in the 'sweet spot' for gas egress when used in the trim orientation it was designed for.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

OK, I see the pros and cons. Thanks everyone for their clear explanations.

After the demo, it seems we will have 2 Infinity's in our future if our LDS will treat us right

I did note how easy the lower dump was to use, just touch your cheek and it is right there. Rotate just a hair to get the air to the valve, and no problem. On the vertical, lifting the short hose is no problem.

It is not a deal-breaker by any means, just a question of convenience.

Just curious, why are the dumps like the lower dump less prone to failure than the hose/wire shoulder dump? Has anyone experienced a failure with a heavy duty "tech" version such as Dive Rite's?

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I am not sure how much is the propensity to fail, rather the severity of the failure.

If the lower dump were to fail, you would still have buoyancy (or at least most of it) in the vertical position.

If the shoulder pull dump goes, you loose all your buoyancy and have no way to get new air in the bag. Basically you are screwed unless you can swim up your gear (possible, but difficult in thick neoprene).