Close call after being clever

J

JohanP

New Member
Having always dived my own rebuilt rigs (IDA-72 IDA71 MCCR Modified) I converted to the dark side, and purchased an Inspo Classic.
Did the course with the most awesome Instructor who probably has the record for deepest in an Inspo.
Tinkerer at heart, I modified the lungs to make them quick disconnect.
Simple, I thought, plastic femal buckles up top, and plastic males on the CL's
Clip-on Clip-off... easy

Not quite

Being part of a Expedition to Sodwana Bay, searching for Coelecanths, Our team was in "rest"
This meant we did 65m dives for fun, searching for possible Coelecanth sites. Dive plan was simple, Bottom time until we reach a max of 25min deco at 6m. This meant a run of approximately 80min run times
The third dive I do, we have the most awesome dive, and decide to push bottom time with a few minutes, result.. 35min at 6m deco... No problem, we are on rebreathers...

On reaching the bottom, I felt a difficulty to exhale. May have been my imagination I thought, and soldiered through the "problem". On the accent I found that I am really struggling to exhale, to a bad degree. I listen for bubbles and all telltale events of a scrubber flood of some kind, but there was none. I also start examining my hoses by feel, and find a KINK in the exhale hose. If I squeezed it open, I could breathe freely, If I leave it, it is like exhaling through a straw..
No panick.... I can manage this, I thought.
During our deco, I really had to work the exhale hose, and decided to bail to my deco gas.
On turning the cylinder on, the DIN O-ring blew.... Bubbles everywhere...
My buddy looked at me with a grin and said into his mouthpiece.. "It is not your day.. you are F&^ked"
With a smile he offered me his bailout deco gas.

I started laughing to myself, and squeezed the exhale hose open again...
It was gpoing to be a long 30 minutes...

After completing an "uneventfull" deco, I examined the hoses...
The problem was in the cheap quick connect buckles I installed..
The exhale side came loose, and caused the hose to drife back, resulting in a kink...

so...My lesson learned is..
1) Don't use cheap Sh*&t to modify components.
2) Don't ever believe because DIN is a captured O-ring, it is impervious to failure
3) Always dive with capable buddies

PS... My wife does not know about this......
 
^good point. Does your pre-dive include charging the cylinders?

If you have more than one bailout cylinder do you charge all of them or only the one that you will go to next.

I have not been diving rebreathers long but every time I have a stage/deco tank I would at least charge as pre dive and turn off. My rebreather instructor said to keep your bailout on. So now that I'm diving a rebreather I dive with my bailouts always on.

Thanks
Garth
 
One more thing... who else does a negative pressure check on a bailout regulator before turning it on?

It's easy.. with the valve turned off, and the regulator attached, pull a negative with your lungs and block off the mouthpiece inlet with your toungue. It should stay negative indefinately if all of the O-Rings are good. Any leak means that there *will* be at least champagne bubbles from the thing someplace.

If it fails, fix it.

If it passes... turn the valve on and leave it on.


Dave


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Dave Sutton said:
One more thing... who else does a negative pressure check on a bailout regulator before turning it on?

It's easy.. with the valve turned off, and the regulator attached, pull a negative with your lungs and block off the mouthpiece inlet with your toungue. It should stay negative indefinately if all of the O-Rings are good. Any leak means that there *will* be at least champagne bubbles from the thing someplace.

If it fails, fix it.

If it passes... turn the valve on and leave it on.


Dave


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Click to expand...

The only time that I do not do a negative test on my second stages is if I am cave diving. Then I will just wet breathe each regulator to verify operation before i clip them on.

I have only found a problem one time and it was from having the exhaust valve full of algae from the previous dive. It pays to check these things EVERY time.
 
I negative test every reg on setup.
I charge every bailout before the dive, turn them off and monitor all the spgs frequently and crack the valve again if needed to maintain pressure.
I've seen plenty of divers go to switch to a cylinder that to their suprise has 100 bar less than they anticipated because of a reg getting bumped on things.
Only off board cylinder I leave on is the one attached to my suit.

Side note: I use 7L onboards so I have time up time up my sleeve to do a correct gas ID and switch it on before I switch gas. When shits going bad, last thing I want is to do a rushed gas switch
 
Johan,
Glad to hear that despite the visit from Murphy it all worked out ok.
Having been visited by Murphy before I take the view that if the bottle isn't switched on, it's not bailout.
For doing stuff like that I tend not to use the plastic buckles I use lifejacket buckles, I'll see if I can find you a link.
Simon A

------edit------
here you are, these buckles ITW Superstrong & Superstrong Plus 40mm Side Release
 
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Yes, deffinately something I learnt about charging the bailout and turing it off,
a habbit picked up from OC days.

Each day something new to learn
 
[QUOTE If it passes... turn the valve on and leave it on Dave .[/QUOTE]

Then all your gas can be gone after diving in strong current ? a free flow regulator ..
i close the valve and leave the pressure on.


Remco
 
^^^ Cylinders that are not turned on are not bailout bottles. They are bottles you are happening to be carring with you. If you really bailout out, you will not have time to turn them on. You will die before you succeed... You can believe me, or you can find out the hard way one day. I hope that you do not, but do not confuse being lucky with being good.

I dive in strong currents, I scooter, I dive shallow, deep, fresh water and salt, wreck, tropical, and in caves. My regulators do not freeflow. You might be different.... and you can do as you wish.

You can "charge and turn off" bailiout bottles that are not "online" for your depth if you insist... but I will not.

If you turn off the bottle that is "online" for your depth, it may mean your death.


Dave

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JohanP said:
Yes, deffinately something I learnt about charging the bailout and turing it off,
a habbit picked up from OC days.

Each day something new to learn
Click to expand...

yep i was in the same boat .. 1993

but having a need to use my 50% deco cylinder on a deepish dive, then finding i could,nt turn it on , afier id charged and then closed the valve just be4 i jumped of the boat ,, i must have had 3 Weetabix that morning ..

so iv alway dived with my first deep gas/bailout just open , and others i charge and close with just finger and thumb , i dont grab it with my big spanner hand and lock it off ,,
 
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Dave Sutton said:
^^^ Cylinders that are not turned on are not bailout bottles. They are bottles you are happening to be carring with you. If you really bailout out, you will not have time to turn them on. You will die before you succeed... You can believe me, or you can find out the hard way one day. I hope that you do not, but do not confuse being lucky with being good.

I dive in strong currents, I scooter, I dive shallow, deep, fresh water and salt, wreck, tropical, and in caves. My regulators do not freeflow. You might be different.... and you can do as you wish.

You can "charge and turn off" bailiout bottles that are not "online" for your depth if you insist... but I will not.

If you turn off the bottle that is "online" for your depth, it may mean your death.


Dave

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Click to expand...

Im with you on that one Dave. I have had a CO2 hit and there is no time to turn on bottles, even less time to verify which gas you take.

That´s why you cant use OC routines when diving CCR.

You have to think one step ahead. If you have more then one bottle you have to change your routines and always have one breathable gas furthest out on your side. If this means you must move your bottles around during the dive, you need to do it and to be on the safe side, verify with your buddy that the gas it breathable at the depth you are at.

Thanks for sharing and good to hear you are okey.
 
so the best bailout policy is keep the breathable gas in close reach and whit opened valve so it will only be a switch from CC to OC regulator and noting more.

sounds like a good advise and true in OC diving the backup reg. on twins is always opened and did never free flow under my chin..

lesson learned :bondage:
 
tecdiverdude said:
I negative test every reg on setup.
I charge every bailout before the dive, turn them off and monitor all the spgs frequently and crack the valve again if needed to maintain pressure.
I've seen plenty of divers go to switch to a cylinder that to their suprise has 100 bar less than they anticipated because of a reg getting bumped on things.
Only off board cylinder I leave on is the one attached to my suit.

Side note: I use 7L onboards so I have time up time up my sleeve to do a correct gas ID and switch it on before I switch gas. When shits going bad, last thing I want is to do a rushed gas switch
Click to expand...

I do something similar Rob and Matty P teaches all MOD1 divers to neg test their second stages.

I run the twin 7's too as you know but bailouts are on because my shallow bail is also my suit inflation and my deep bail doubles as offboard DIL. It will be an interesting discussion point on my MOD3 course starting in about 9 hours :wave:

Jase
 
For me, deep bailout always on as its useless to me otherwise when I need it. Deco gas is charged but isolated and I keep an eye on it and recharge as required, especially when heading downwards obviously
 
JohanP said:
I also start examining my hoses by feel, and find a KINK in the exhale hose. If I squeezed it open, I could breathe freely, If I leave it, it is like exhaling through a straw..
Click to expand...

Hi Johan
I experienced this 10ish years ago on a classic inspo as well. The unit was stock - I managed to kink the inhale hose.
There was something about how I assembled the unit and was opening the mouthpiece that caused me to twist the hoses somewhat. Was quite offputting at the time, I think I bailed to OC.

(I was very inexperienced at the time - it was just after my course, so didn't work out what the cause was until I managed to repeat it on a subsequent dive)

Mike
 
Basics

Would not a simple buddy check have identified the problem. Shows simple topsides predive checks that us advanced divers should not overlook. Also underwater comms of a slate and writing " difficuly breathing check my loop" for your buddy.
 
My Bailout is always on, deco gas is pressurized and turned off.

You have little time on a CO2 hit to fumble with grabbing a reg, turning on the gas, etc.

I also wet breath each in the water for a test.

I dont do a negative test though,need to think about that one.
 
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