Equipment Failure

[Driftwood]

HP hose detonate in Greece a year back

New Mares Abyss freeflowing in Oban

Apeks ATX200 still under investigation

[Scoff]

Confession time, I guess. I have had some gear failures that I can remember. Bear in mind I dive independent side-mounts and solo...

Early 1984, a Poseidon Cyklon 300 went into free flow around 40m (horizontally) into a sump – later found to be a dodgy first stage valve seat – less than three months from new…..

Sometime early 1985, in very cold weather, had one of my Cyklons go into free flow – thought to be iced up, so swapped onto my second reg, and turned off the offender’s tap to let it ‘warm up/ thaw’ in the water. Then my second reg went into free flow. Turned the tap off, then switched back to the first reg and turned the tap on. Still free flowing, so had to manually turn the tap on and off every time I wanted a breath. Fortunately I was only about 60m (at –15m) into the sump, so made it back out without cramp in my wrists :o)

Sometime around 1990 ? I had the ‘O-Ring’ on the barrel of the DIN Fit (the bit between the barrel & the screw-in collar) on a Cyklon first stage. I suspect I dislodged it a flake in a low bit about 120m into a sump. Big gas leak, but I quickly turned off the tap, and swapped regs.

In each of these cases, I turned round immediately and headed back to base, pronto!

I’ve also had a few occasions when I’ve got debris in through the mouthpiece of my second reg when not in use, which has then got under the second stage exhaust diaphragm – usually in flat out squeezes over gravel. Next time you swap, you get an air/ water mix. I always try to hold the reg clear of the floor, but ‘poo’ happens. I also now have the exhaust cover more easily removable, so I can strip down & remove crap underwater if need be.

Light failures – odd times, not a problem if you have spare lights…

Scooter failure? Yep, the home-made scooter switch failed once, but in the ‘ON’ mode rather than failing ‘OFF’. This was 450m into a sump at –44m. Fortunately, it has an external plug system by-passing the switches (cunning, eh?) so you can unplug the power to the motor. Then you can plug it in again & even plug/ unplug, one-handed with care, and head home.

Also, on the same trip (just to stop me getting bored) a separate (professionally-made) float (to allow extra battery carrying – and thus range) gradually squashed, leaving a rather sad list & lack of buoyancy, which eventually resulted in the other float (which still worked) breaking free of its attachment, and buggering off…. The scooter was now like a grand piano, but I was so near the deco stops/ base I just wrestled it back home.  

No wonder I’m grey….

By the way, see separate post re: self-sufficiency topic.

[nigel]

dave
I had an o ring blow at 38mt in the med this year it was on the pressure gauge I normally use a pony but being abroad I did not take it so I used my buddys oct.Last month had complete a brand new set of regs fail at stony at 20 mts I used my pony for a safe accent due to p*SS poor vis at the time it makes my bum twitch to think about locating my buddys oct in the poor vis ect It pays to have a back up in fact it pays to have a back up back up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ericdv]

What about holiday diving which is almost always done with singles.   Often your only back-up is a buddy who you may well have never dived with before.   I have had many good buddies abroad but a few who gave a whole new meaning to the term 'Adventure Sport'

[Davey Willo]

LOL!! good point Eric, it's something I worry about... it seems when people go diving in clear blue tropical waters, that crazy depths are dived without any form of redundancy and without any sort of rigid buddy system... theres usually a guide hovering or leading a pack of divers who then all split and mull about in different directions once on site.... very scary in some respects...

'Adventure Sport'... s'funny... :biggrin:

[Tim Ingmire]

Hey Dave, how did you get on with this.

Did you ram all of the stories up this guys nose?

[Davey Willo]

I've not seen the arse'ole since, but I will and when I do...... ;)