Gas distribution blocks(think that is what they are called)

Aaen

Aaen

Member
Curious if anyone has an experience on the use of a gas block with their rebreather. Reason I am asking is that if i go down sub 200' i tend to blow through a pile of dil, i use my wing for buoyancy, not my suit, nope i won't be changing to the suit, never thought using the suit for buoyancy was a good idea. So i am looking at plumbing in a 13cuft tank to use for my wing and drysuit, or plumb it with a shallow bailout(50% or 32%).

Anyways would welcome some opinions/thoughts on doing this. I'm a bit up in the air on this.

Thanks


Steve

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Hi Steve,

Why not just plumb an off board bottle just for your wing with a separate low pressure inflator? Like a suit inflate.

Alternatively if wanting to combine wing inflate with bail out just run a low pressure hose off your bail out, although do you really want to waste your bail out gases this way?

Good luck

Karl
 
We do that. Cave diving can mean you get through a lot of gas so have ability to plug anything in.

Al did a good diagram on here if you have a look.
 
The reason i am suggesting using my bail out (50% or 32%) is because typically i have way more then i am ever going to need. That and i do not want to tap into my bottom bail out. I'm leaning more towards using the 50% so i am not freezing my arse off with the 100%, and not wasting precious bottom gas.

But i am very interested in just having one line go up on a qc6 or inflator hose connector i plug in, and it gets distributed to my wing and drysuit, and possibly bov(although, i think i will keep that separated out and always on my bottom mix)

Now my next question, any idea where i can purchase a distribution block? One with an inlet, and say 2-3 outlet ports? I'd like to be able to mount this on the top of the bp

Thanks

Steve

Karlos said:
Hi Steve,

Why not just plumb an off board bottle just for your wing with a separate low pressure inflator? Like a suit inflate.

Alternatively if wanting to combine wing inflate with bail out just run a low pressure hose off your bail out, although do you really want to waste your bail out gases this way

Good luck

Karl
Click to expand...





Steve

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Why not just weight yourself correctly and use neither the suit nor the wings? Why not just keep the suit volume compensated with a suit bottle and never add air to the wings? :confused:

It's not as if you are changing buouyancy a lot during a dive as compared to dumping 10 KG of open circuit gas overboard on a deep OC dive. If you are adding wing-gas as a routine, you likely have too much lead on. Get rid of it, and forget that you even own the wings.

Dove all season, multiple deep dives, never added wing gas once. I have not more than a puff of air in the suit and all is well. I can do two back to back 70 meter dives from one 1 litre suit bottle...


I would never run both suit and wings from the same gas source. I do have a QD on every one of my bailout bottles that can plug into either though.


Dave

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I'm about 2lbs heavy so i can have some air in my suit to keep warm, although i can test this again to make sure i can just get under the water with empty lungs and a empty bail out, which is how i like to be weighted, so i can just hold a 20 ft stop with one bail out. If i add bo's on, and i need to use them, they get jettisoned up the smb line as they are used, so i am not fighting the buoyancy swing from those tanks. All that being said, i may weight myself and give it a shot with being weighted for no tanks attached at a 20' stop.

As others have stated, i am also not sure if i want to do this, which is why i asked. Not sure if having it all in one supply is a good/bad thing, but all my bailouts have qc connections on them, so they can be plugged if needed. Still in the research phase and am not looking to do this anytime soon.


Thanks

Steve

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A 6cuft suit bottle is already being used, can get two dives off this bottle with my drysuit, perhaps three. i think Dave is probably right and i may be diving to heavy when i think about it. if i am 2-3 lbs heavy that is a fair amount of dil i have to use in my wing or suit to compensate at depth. I'll shed a couple of lbs and see how much difference it makes at depth with the amt of gas i have to add.

Oh anf thank for all those links, still not quit what i a looking for though. Looking more for a tube or cylinder, with a port on the very end, inlet and a few spread out along the axis of the tube. Perhaps i m dreaming something up?



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WFO said:
Would it not be better to keep the two somewhat separate? Maybe a suit bottle and run the wing off a bailout?[/QUOTE

Thanks


Steve

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Click to expand...
 
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Dave Sutton said:
Why not just weight yourself correctly and use neither the suit nor the wings? Why not just keep the suit volume compensated with a suit bottle and never add air to the wings? :confused:

It's not as if you are changing buouyancy a lot during a dive as compared to dumping 10 KG of open circuit gas overboard on a deep OC dive. If you are adding wing-gas as a routine, you likely have too much lead on. Get rid of it, and forget that you even own the wings.

Dove all season, multiple deep dives, never added wing gas once. I have not more than a puff of air in the suit and all is well. I can do two back to back 70 meter dives from one 1 litre suit bottle...


I would never run both suit and wings from the same gas source. I do have a QD on every one of my bailout bottles that can plug into either though.


Dave

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Click to expand...

Not always that easy Dave. If you are perfectly neutrally buoyant at the beginning of the dive and have to bail, what are your plans after you are stuck to the ceiling in a cave or get an embolism from shooting to the surface. I have to have gas in my wing and drysuit, since I am negatively buoyant right off the bat and at the end of my dive even if I bail. I had to flood my Boris once because I was practicing a bailout and got too buoyant on the way out of the cave. I could've spiderman-ed it on the way out, but that would've taken too much time.
 
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I use my on board left tank for inflation only. It does wing and dry suit. If I need to I turn a ball valve and the LP side of the inflation tank is then connected to the LP side of my off board DIL. This allows use of inflation gas as DIL or DIL/Bailout as inflation.

If you have a drill press then making your own gas manifold blocks is very easy. I used Delrin for mine.
 
Packhorse said:
I use my on board left tank for inflation only. It does wing and dry suit. If I need to I turn a ball valve and the LP side of the inflation tank is then connected to the LP side of my off board DIL. This allows use of inflation gas as DIL or DIL/Bailout as inflation.

If you have a drill press then making your own gas manifold blocks is very easy. I used Delrin for mine.
Click to expand...

I hope it´s a missunderstanding, are you using trimix in your suit?
 
Nope. His onboard is air for inflation only. Trimix dil comes from the bailout I think AIUI..
My buddy runs a similar system.
 
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Dave Sutton said:
I would never run both suit and wings from the same gas source.

Dave.
Click to expand...

why not? Loss of inflation gas to a single point failure doesn't equal loss of independent buoyancy, it just means it's less convenient adding more buoyancy to what you already have. A single point failure of feed gas merely means you have to orally inflate the wing or swim up or add more lung volume to get up a bit to get the gas to expand. I spent plenty of time in my youth orally inflating an ABLJ during dives before I got one with a direct feed. I admit it's a bit more tricky on CC than OC but not that much harder.

I also concede it would be a bit of a bugger trying to inflate your suit by blowing it up through the pee valve.
 
All good points. I well remember using (stolen) airline vests as a BC. No OPV either....

And... I actually have an oral inflation tube on the left wrist of my drysuit. It's an artifact from the suit being US Army issue (DUI military TLS)

Just easier to split them.

The vision of asking your buddy to inflate your suit thru your pee valve... Priceless. :eek:


Dave

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Bingo, not sure how i missed those on the website, must have been beer induced.

Thanks


QUOTE=Dave1w;133006]Adapters forRebreathers
Look at A0040 and A00XX, sounds like what you describe

Dave[/QUOTE]





Steve

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erikradstrom said:
I hope it´s a missunderstanding, are you using trimix in your suit?
Click to expand...

No, My on board tank is only used for inflation so only has air in it. BUT I can access it as DIL if required... say a 10 meter diver where I dont want to carry offboard gas.

I can of course also use my offboard ( air or trimix) for inflation if I cant access my onboard for any reason.

I find it a very versatile set up and I never waste trimix by using it as an inflation gas and can easily change my DIL/Bailout depending on the dive.
 
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