Benjamin Conversion vs Isolation Manifold

[Gary]

I am unaware of any other incident reporting mechanism for the various dive agencies.

Unless there is a death (or rescue) performed by the IUCRR I know of little other then the IRAP or the various forums. I guess a person could write an article for one of the various cave journals.

At least with premix nitrox there is less threat of breathing pure O2 off one tank if the isolator gets closed. Hearing about CaptainSpeleo's experience and the tanks running out... thank goodness he had an independent air supply also.

I've always hated that the isolation valve is a failure point common to both tanks. Especially the isolator valve itself (valve stem and knob leaks) that are posibilities introduced by the addition of a knob there. That is why I have always refused to use manifolded doubles (even though there have been few recorded problems with the setup).

I think a bar with no isolator is far worse - meaning any problem effecting one tank/valve/manifold will also effect the other. Not being able to isolate such problems common to both tanks is far worse then having a few points of common failure.

The mix/fill issues to me are an attention issue. Easily covered by checking pressure and mix on each tank or just checking the isolator open. I have had a valve that failed shut once - even with the knob open the valve seat stayed closed - even removed from the tank and against full pressure of a fill whip. Operating the valve might not be sufficient to detect such a failure in the isolator valve and would be sure to only add confusion to the various issues that might come from a closed isolator valve.

(Merry Christmas!)

[curtschu]

If you look at the form at the link in my post that works it is pretty self explainitory. One of the "Result" catagories is "No Consequence (no one hurt, problem solved but worth reporting)"

[Gary]

Is there a location to see the reports?

[curtschu]

As far a I can tell it is the report you get from the NSS once a year with your membership.

[Jim Wyatt]

Personally, I believe having an isolator valve is safer than not having one. Just make sure it's open when getting your tanks filled and before making a dive.

Excellent advice. More than once have I found isolators closed while starting to fill at Cave East. I wonder why anyone would close the isolator after a dive?

[Gary]

They should be locked open with a breakaway indicator tag - so that if the tag is broke you can visiably see that you should check the valve position and put a new tag on.

[curtschu]

Gary, I got a reply from Bill Putnam on the availability of the reports.
Right now it is only the yearly report. NSS has not given perrmission to post them on the web. You can purchase current and back issue as available through the NSS.

[Gary]

Thank you for checking. It is nice that they are collecting the information even if most will never see it.

I wonder if the reports are checked for veracity or whether people are just submitting bogus reports in support of their favorite theories - and how the info will be used. Many of the IRAP reports were clearly questionable in different ways depending on the author.

But you can't have everything I guess.