Sidemount inflator hose routing

[Dive-aholic]

except I meant flip just the LPI around, so the inflate button is pointed in. sorry if I wasn't clear.

And then the opening is pointing away from his mouth making oral inflation difficult. Oral inflation needs to be easily accomplished in case of a failure with the power inflator or the cylinder on that side.

Sorry, I can't resist:

When I first set up my SM system, I had the inflator hose over my shoulder. I wanted to keep the SM rig as close to my OW rig as possible, so I could use the same muscle memory for both systems. It didn't work.

I'm certainly no SM expert. I'm still doing dives specifically to work out kinks and improve my system, but one thing I can say for sure is that the bottom-mount inflator just works better.

Try to dump air using your standard set-up in SM (with the dump at the bottom). Do this in the water with your tanks on. Think about doing this in a split-second, and how fun it's going to be to find that pull dump in a hurry. Now try the same thing with the pull-dump on your shoulder, and the nob attached to your harness at the shoulder. At least 100-times easier.

I've actually been thinking about swapping the inflator to the bottom on my OW rig.

It may work better for you. It definitely works better for me. I have all but one of my rigs configured like that. But not everyone dives the same and having the inflator coming off the shoulder may work better for someone.

 

[kierentec]

oral inflation is actually still quite easy by grabbing the LPI with your right hand it makes a U across your chest and the mouthpiece is pretty much in your mouth already.

I only dive OW, so have not had a need to try swapping OPV and inflator. seems like it would be quite comfortable, though.


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[madstop]

Surely it also depends on the relative position of the bladder on your back. For those who have it quite low down nearer the waist it's ok to have it come from under your arm. But for those who use, say a triangle shape bladder, with the apex around the shoulder blades it would make sense to have the hose over the shoulder.

 

[nefiii]

What length of hose do you recommend???

 

[DevonDiver]

It may work better for you. It definitely works better for me. I have all but one of my rigs configured like that. But not everyone dives the same and having the inflator coming off the shoulder may work better for someone.

I've just re-configured like this (pull-dump at shoulder/LPI from the hip). Diving it after the weekend.. looking forward to seeing how it works out.

 

[Dive-aholic]

What length of hose do you recommend???

It depends on a few different variables like the rig you're diving and where and how your 1st stage is positioned.