Ditch the Corrugated Hose Feed?

[Kate R]

<font color='#000080'>after perusing a few of the recent issues of Dive and Diver, i've been thinking about this reasonably new idea of losing the corrugated hose and just having a direct feed to your BCD like a drysuit (started, i believe, by the HUB - yes devils spawn i know)

i'm trying to work out whether this is a good idea or not. i've often thought that having a corrugated hose is a bit of a waste of space, as it's not as good as dumping air as a pull-cord dump valve, and in general it seems like a left over from the days of ABLJs

the only bit of it i use is the inflate button, so why not just have a button directly on the BCD? the reasons against it that i can think of are that you need to have a tube to orally inflate the BCD in an emergency - but that can just tuck away in the shoulder strap somewhere. also there would be a problem with lifting someone as you couldn't do all the controls with one hand - and it would be a real problem when lifting from the back (as discussed recently).

what does everyone think? in fact i'll make it into a poll - are the newfangled thingummies GOOD or BAD?

not sure how you could apply it to wing-style set ups, but someone i know had modified their buddy trident so the hose came under their arm and was tied on to their left side... same sort of idea surely?

by the way, this is purely an academic discussion on my part - i'm not thinking of buying one!

[Mark]

<font color='#000080'>A fine example of a pointless dive industry gimmick (which causes more problems than it resolves) to part you from your cash. Don't do it.

Regards,

Mark.

[Darren27]

I voted yes, but its a reserved yes.  The system fitted to the new Scubapro bc is a drysuit inflator, nice and simple to inflate, and you then use a standard pull dump to, er... dump air.  Stops the hose floating in your face and generally just getting in the way.

Now the No bit.  The pneumatic systems fitted to the Mares and Dacor stuff,  never catch me with one of them.  You run out of air underwater and start an ascent, how do you use your dump if it needs air to operate the dump?.  Too many newly trained divers I see dont know what the &quot;thing with string&quot; is anyway and in an emergency is not a good time to find out, just dont trust the idea of them, probably a reaction to the whole HUB issue.

[Kate R]

<font color='#000080'>

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Mark @ Jan. 05 2004,12:21)]A fine example of a pointless dive industry gimmick (which causes more problems than it resolves) to part you from your cash. Don't do it.

wasn't going to! (see my disclaimer)

why a gimmick? why should we use a different system on BCDs as we do on drysuits? why do we need a corrugated hose when they were invented for a style of diving (orally inflating your BCD) which no one uses any more?

discuss  

darren - i was meaning the scubapro-style inflate valve (same as a drysuit). i don't think anyone thinks much of pneumatic systems! and do you think a lot of places teach solely the use of the corrugated hose for dumping air? i can't think of many BCDs offhand, even entry level, that don't have a right shoulder dump

[MATTBIN]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ] i can't think of many BCDs offhand, even entry level, that don't have a right shoulder dump

Wings? Sorry just thought I'd be pedantic.

I find my corrugated hose forces me to raise my left shoulder which causes my auto dump (on the ds) to work properly, so I'd not want to get rid of it on that basis alone. I suspect the idea would work i.e. no corrugated hose, well enough if you were wet suited as air dumping is usually done via a shoulder dump valve. Maybe its there to act as redundant fill when equipment was less reliable than nowdays.

Matt

[Finless]

Had to vote &quot;bad idea&quot; - if all else fails you can inflate your BCD/wing orally with the corrugated hose option.

Although, I have never needed to, in 20 years of diving (apart from after washing and putting out to dry).

[Kate R]

<font color='#000080'>

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Finless @ Jan. 05 2004,12:50)]Had to vote &quot;bad idea&quot; - if all else fails you can inflate your BCD/wing orally with the corrugated hose option.

the BCDs which i've seen advertised have had a tube you can stow away in your left shoulder strap for orally inflating

p.s. this is the sort of thing i was looking at

http://www.scubapro.co.uk/pdfs/Page24-26.pdf

though having said that i can't see the tube for oral inflation.... maybe that was a different company

[Dominic]

Bad:

Take a look at that nice, smooth plastic shape on a Mares jacket, and imagine doing a CBL on somebody with one of THOSE on a jacket.

It adds major complications - a single corrugated hose does inflate, deflate, oral inflate, and emergency breathing (push both buttons at once) all at once, with a very simple, reliable piece of equipment.

The new ones have a complex pneumatic dumping system (failure points galore), a separate oral inflate unit (two systems = more failure points), and no emergency breathing function - you loose functionality.

Can't port it to wings, therefore there can never be &quot;universal&quot; training if they're adopted as a system.

Good:

Well... they stay reliably in one place, I suppose.

The corrugated hose should and will stay. I suppose you could put a drysuit inflate onto your jacket if you wanted a push-button control, but what benefits does it really bring..?

[Dominic]

Oh - and they put it on the HUB. What more do you want?

[Kate R]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Dominic @ Jan. 05 2004,14:12)]I suppose you could put a drysuit inflate onto your jacket if you wanted a push-button control,

<font color='#000080'>they have - see my link!

and i'm not talking about the HUB pneumatic effort - again, see above posts