At what point do you turn the dive??

[AB8CD]

I am curious as well about any followup...

I don't mind wrapping up a dive early... or skipping one altogether. It's just a dive.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[wingman]

I always do a taste and smell predive check. In the cave, i would never ignore and always thumb the dive. Also i would switch gas sources. If solo, to the buddy bottle, if teamed, then to a stage bottle, and if nothing else is available i would indicate ooa to my buddy. It is this last part i had not really thought about...guess i missed that and not sure about hand signals maybe the narcosis dizzy signal? Bad gas can influence decision making skills rapidly.

So would everyone also bail out of suspected bad gas even to your buddy? I would imagine this is in the training standards somewhere and i just need some recurrent training. So here is my proposed buddy and no other gas source emergency procedure: flash, hand signal problem, hand signal dizzy, thumb, observe returned thumb, signal ooa, once stable, ok, look for returned ok, exit. Maybe just flashing and doing the ooa immediately would be better? Of course if teamed up with sufficient and credible stage gas, switch to stage, flash, thumb. If solo switch gas and exit.

[Wizard]

An oily taste that starts at 40-60 feet and gets worse as depth increases is ALWAYS bad air. Deploy thumb and go back to the parking lot. Had it happen twice, the first time I blew it off and felt sick as a dog for two days. The second time I turned around. Emptied the tanks and refilled and went on with the diving. I should have removed the valves and checked the tanks, but hind sight is always 20-20.

[benjamin]

@ben - What were they contaminated with?

@adam - Have you followed up with your tanks?

I would assume dumping, visual, and cleaning would be minimum. Does anyone have any other analysis done, esp. if the source of gas is suspected?

Neither tank smelled or tasted odd at the surface. Inside of left tank was contaminated. (Problem was at fill station and fixed on their end. Fill station wasn't in Florida, I'll see if I can get a copy of their report and post it if I can). I tumbled and 02 cleaned both tanks and have repeated same process twice for my own peace of mind since the incident. Haven't had any problems since.

[RN]

Turn immediately upon getting the funny taste.

[Mark Vlahos]

A few months ago I picked up one of those Analox CO testers. So far every tank I have checked has been 100% OK with not the slightest trace of CO, but if I get a bad tank and it is the type of thing that this little gem will discover I wouldn't even get near the water with it. Contaminated gas is just a game of roulette I don't want to play.

[skip]

we already have a hand signal for this....out of gas. doesn't matter if it's bad tasting or none at all, the sign means "give me your regulator now." no need to explain why.

skip

[gschaut]

A few months ago I picked up one of those Analox CO testers. So far every tank I have checked has been 100% OK with not the slightest trace of CO, but if I get a bad tank and it is the type of thing that this little gem will discover I wouldn't even get near the water with it. Contaminated gas is just a game of roulette I don't want to play.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) is odorless, colorless and tasteless. Bad taste or odor probably is coming from hydrocarbon (read compressor oil) vapor in the gas.

IF... a tank contaminated with hydrocarbon is stored for a time, there "should" be some CO generated within the tank. But a FRESH tank, just filled today could have hydrocarbon contamination without CO being present.

[Mark Vlahos]

Carbon Monoxide (CO) is odorless, colorless and tasteless. Bad taste or odor probably is coming from hydrocarbon (read compressor oil) vapor in the gas.

IF... a tank contaminated with hydrocarbon is stored for a time, there "should" be some CO generated within the tank. But a FRESH tank, just filled today could have hydrocarbon contamination without CO being present.

Sure, anything is possible. The CO tester is not a panacea, but if it spots a bad fill I will be better off for it.

[divindoc]

I always do a taste and smell predive check. In the cave, i would never ignore and always thumb the dive. Also i would switch gas sources. If solo, to the buddy bottle, if teamed, then to a stage bottle, and if nothing else is available i would indicate ooa to my buddy. It is this last part i had not really thought about...guess i missed that and not sure about hand signals maybe the narcosis dizzy signal? Bad gas can influence decision making skills rapidly.

So would everyone also bail out of suspected bad gas even to your buddy? I would imagine this is in the training standards somewhere and i just need some recurrent training. So here is my proposed buddy and no other gas source emergency procedure: flash, hand signal problem, hand signal dizzy, thumb, observe returned thumb, signal ooa, once stable, ok, look for returned ok, exit. Maybe just flashing and doing the ooa immediately would be better? Of course if teamed up with sufficient and credible stage gas, switch to stage, flash, thumb. If solo switch gas and exit.

+1 on predive taste and smell of very tank - and don't forget your 02 bottle. The only time I've ever had an issue underwater occured when I switched to 02 @ 19 ft and was hit full force with the overwhelming smell of chlorine in the gas. Turns out the plastic seat in the Thermo valve had been vaporized by a too-rapid fill. I (and everybody around) was damn lucky it didn't go KA-BOOM during the fill. Lesson learned - ALWAYS taste and smell EVERY gas predive. Ps - when we took the valve apart, the only thing left of the seat was a smudge of carbon. Amazing it didn't blow up.