I had a 90 degree elbow on my second stage blow in Peacock a couple of weeks ago on a dive to the crypt. Good thing we train for this crap. If not it might have seemed like a big deal.
I shut it down and exited on the other tank. Got my buddy close and had him ready to donate if necessary.
It was still a great dive
Was it a solid elbow without any moving parts besides the lock ring? Did the entire elbow just explode and start blowing gas? Any idea what part failed? How long a swim to the surface? Good thing you remained calm and just had a fun swim out. Thanks for sharing.Originally Posted by cmint
I had a 90 degree elbow on my second stage blow in Peacock a couple of weeks ago on a dive to the crypt. Good thing we train for this crap. If not it might have seemed like a big deal.
I shut it down and exited on the other tank. Got my buddy close and had him ready to donate if necessary.
It was still a great dive
The most powerful minds are the ones that can be changed.
Was it the one you were breathing off of at the time? If so, what did you experience when it happened?
[QUOTE= and moving to 4" HP hoses,
Has anyone else found a functional method of using 4" HP hoses?[/QUOTE]
Where did you get 4" HP hoses?
http://www.diveoutpost.com/contact-us.html
While I was paying my tab, I was checking out stuff in the display case and saw them. I believe I've since found them at 1 other location in North Florida. You can likely order them through Cathy.
Last edited by Michael F; 08-23-2017 at 03:56 AM.
The most powerful minds are the ones that can be changed.
Wow, two posts in a week with hp hose failures. I must say, bending back 6" hoses for viewing or tying them into a pretzel against the first stage on a stage bottle has always bugged me as a stress point.
The op's incident also makes be feel better about my "bad" habit of checking my SPGs a fairly often. I have heard comments more than once that go something like: "I don't need to check very often because I know my breathing rate, and know where my gas levels are at." ...and "just a glance now and then then to confirm what I know".
A rupture like the op describes on a set of BM doubles could be a big problem. Especially if you were the following diver and your buddy didn't notice until maxp at turn.
I suspect there are more that haven't been reported. I have had at least 6 HP hose failures over the years, and I have loaned hoses to buddies that have had failures. Of course those failed pre-dive. Mine all were inside the cave.
I use 6" for sidemount, lying flat against the tank. I have only lost 2 like that, but still scary. I haven't had mine pointed forward for fear they would catch the line, but that would be greatly reduced with 4" hoses. I may get some and try gauges pointing forward.
It was a 90 degree swivel on the second stage on the right hand tank. I was in the middle of a reg switch and the exact millisecond that I twisted the swivel to get the reg into the position to put it in my mouth the O ring extruded and air started freeflowing out of the swivel. This was the O ring inside of the swivel, not where the hose connects.
After the dive I disassembled it and put a new o ring in there and it has worked fine since.
Those O rings should probably be replaced yearly considering they are dynamic and get a lot of motion. (prior to this incident I didn't even realize they existed) The ones I had disassembled fairly easily using just a hex key. There's a hex fitting inside the elbow accessible from where the hose screws in. Once you unscrew that the whole thing comes apart.
I wish I'd tried feathering the valve just to see if it would work. I'm not really sure any air was getting past the elbow into the second stage itself. I think it was all coming out the elbow. It was a pretty violent freeflow.
I've always cringed at the bent back stage regs, those those are really only bent back once. I think repeatedly bending an spg to look at it like you sometimes have to do in sm is really the problem. I try my hardest to not bend them and I know my sac rate enough to always be very accurate in my assumed pressure. The problem is when I'm getting close to my turn pressure, I want a very accurate look at my gauges so I sometimes bend them up a little closer to see them.
That's why I posted. I'm sure it's happened to many people, but other than the Miflex failures I haven't seen many reports.
4" seem interesting but I just don't like forward facing spgs. Maybe 4" would be better. I tried 9" facing back and I actually preferred it from an spg viewing perspective. I was able to bend them up to look at them without feeling I was stressing the crimp nearly as much as with a 6". The negative to the 9" is they kind of have a mind of their own. Even with thin spg's they don't necessarily stay down the body of the tank. I find sometimes they would lay to the side and therefore stick out some. Just like 6" lollipopped it could predispose to grabbing a line, but I think less so than the lollipopped ones.
This is something Curt Bowen wrote up years ago - http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com...ngseconds.html
1. High-pressure hose failure. Simulated by putting a pre-cut high-pressure hose on a first stage regulator. The cylinder valve was fully opened at the predetermined depths, and the time it took to drain an 80 cubic foot cylinder was recorded.
2. Low-pressure hose failure. Simulated by putting a pre-cut low-pressure hose on a first stage regulator. The cylinder valve was fully opened at the predetermined depths, and the time it took to drain an 80 cubic foot cylinder was recorded.
3. Burst disk failure. Simulated by removing a burst disk from the cylinder valve at depth. The time it took to drain an 80 cubic foot cylinder was recorded.
4. Free-flow second stage regulator. Simulated by manually purging a high performance second stage at the predetermined depths until the cylinder was emptied. The time was recorded.
Worth taking a look at the different times it takes to drain a tank (LP vs. HP)
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