Back up inflator.

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by nickb

Just checked: apparently the 60lb is semi-closed but the others can only be filled with an LP hose.

They all look shit though; none of them have a gaffing loop.

Is that the thing the recovery vessel would use to pick it out of the water?
Mal

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by lostdiver

just for some reason seems to make sense and that sounds stupid cos have no reason why

The penny drops I think ..... It's why constructive debate is so good IMO. How often have we read stuff on here and thought "Mmmm that's a good idea" without thinking it through? ....
Mal

[Howard Payne]

Mine has a gaffing loop and is OC with a baffle. Only cost £473.65 as well - bargain

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Clare Gledhill

If I planned to send up a serious lift bag I'd take a seperate stage bottle with means of inflating (as we did on the sailing ship project last year) If it was unplanned I'd use my deco gas reg. That way if it freeflowed it could be shut off.

Be carefull m8, sending up lift bags with deco regs is dangerous, ask any one who's done it a lot.

The neck of the bag can grab the reg and your hand and take you up with it its also very easy to get the reg tangled in the webbing straps or the lifting rope. Its also not as easy as it sounds to get all the gass in till the bags up a bit. As a result you tend to stuff the hand and the reg right in the neck and then your in trouble.

Personally I prefer dog dick inflater's as they can be used just over the lip of the bag with virtualy no loss of lifting gas. Also they have hardly any entanglement points.

Lift bags are dangerous. I know more people who have had rapid ascents from max depth attached to a lift bag than for any other reason.

For this reason I use a detachable dog dick type inflater and I have a spair inflater hose on my shallow deco / bailout mix.

If I should lose my shallow deco bailout gas its not a big problem as there is a drop tank on the boat. If i lose my deep bailout I am in trouble.

First line of attack is my suit inflation bottle of air. I use a 1.5ltr bottle to allow me to lift small stuff (up to 25kg) with suit inflation gas rather than use up deco or bailout gas.

If i were planning on lifting something big id take a task specific tank. Generaly i dont lift big stuff.

Id empty that first then go for the deco /bailout mix. I really don't need suit inflation gas once on the bottom but if i do, I plumb in my 80% and try not to fart.

ATB

Mark

[Scuttler]

Originally Posted by lostdiver

I thought the worry of putting 80% through my drysuit fitting, not that major!

This was the subject of much debate a few months ago.

Your drysuit and LPI valves are never 02 serviced. Most people have a view as to the potential risks associated with using high pressure O2 and non O2 compatible or non O2 serviced equipment. Many take the view that the pressure drop through the 1st stage means that the LPI or drysuit inflator is never exposed to the pressures required for adiabatic compression and subsequent ignition to occur.

Having seen an oil soak rag set fire to using a high pressure air line (standard air) I tend to err on the side of caution. Better safe than sorry.

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Mal Bridgeman

As a matter of interest, how many times have you had to use it in anger due to a backgas reg or suit inflation bottle failure?
Mal

A couple of times.

Once when I found out my suit inflator bottle had an incompatable fitting on the end (new suit nipple had a plain hole in the end and no T bar and it wouldent operate the valve on the APD hose.) and once or twice when I ran out of suit inflation on multi dive gigs.

ATB

Mark

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by DIVE BUDDHA

in truth mal never .....

its like many redundant systems in diving mal ! their will be things u carry with you that u may never use but you still carry it !

I don't think that follows .... I do agree that's it's about risk assessment of likelihood versus ease of use versus inconvenience of not having it.

That's why I don't have a redundant *everything*.

I have redundancy in my gas supply gas cos if that failed it would spoil the dive ... a lot !!!..... but it's not very likely to fail, I carry a back up mask, again not cos it's likely to happen but because if it did fail I'd be happier to put another on.

Losing suit inflation gas or wing inflation gas is in the same category of likeliness I think, but can be easily managed without any extra kit, IMO, so no point carrying a redundant system over and above my current options for that I think.

Mal

[Scuttler]

Originally Posted by lostdiver

Smit Tak??????

I believe they're referring to one of the largest marine salvage companies. I could be wrong though. It wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last.

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

A couple of times.

Once when I found out my suit inflator bottle had an incompatable fitting on the end (new suit nipple had a plain hole in the end and no T bar and it wouldent operate the valve on the APD hose.) and once or twice when I ran out of suit inflation on multi dive gigs.

ATB

Mark

so the first instance is just as likely with the off board inflator .... That would be a really bad day I think, where you get this failure so go for your never-needed-before-extra-whip, and find it does not fit

On the second point.... you have waxed lyrical in the RB thread about predive checks .... has suit inflation gas been added to that list?

Mal

[IanDennis]

Originally Posted by Scuttler

I believe they're referring to one of the largest marine salvage companies. I could be wrong though. It wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last.

SMIT'S WORLD

Very professional outfit - changed their name a while ago but involved in a number of heavy marine salvage projects. When I worked at Lloyds we dealt with them all the time.