Scuba Lawyer
Contributor
I rebuilt this Calypso IV about a year ago, dove it a few times and then put it away until last week. I checked the IP - all good. Demand lever not sticking on 2nd stage poppet as it had once before - check. Did a dive last week and about half way through the dive at around 1600 psi I felt a noticeable increase in breathing resistance. Seems like I just had to inhale harder as tank pressure dropped. Since the IV is a balanced first stage, I thought that odd. I did reach back and check to make sure the tank valve was all the way on and it was. Of course, after that dive I promptly forgot all about it until today’s dive.
Again today, I started noticing the work of breathing getting harder as tank pressure dropped. At the end of the dive I was down at 30 feet at 500 psi and had just looked up to start my ascent. All of the sudden my second stage started free flowing voluminously. I took a hard breath and water was coming in from somewhere; and no air was coming out of the mouthpiece. I took the reg out of my mouth, pushed the purge button a few times, banged the front cover against my hand to try and dislodge whatever might be stuck (yes, brute force is a recognized cure-all for dive equipment malfunctions
) but nothing worked. I reached back and turned off the tank valve to at least stop the tank from emptying and getting sea water flowing back into the tank. And yeah, I know that in an emergency the prudent plan is to save yourself with saving your equipment secondary; however, tumbling tanks to remove rust is a royal pain in the butt. I did the old blow and go and swam up to the surface. After switching to my snorkel - aka, my Surface Safety Backup Device (SSBD) since I’m too fricking cool to wear a B.C. - I did one of those giant arm sweep regulator recovery moves and immediately figured out what the problem was. Can you spot the problem in the following photo?
My second stage was completely gone! Damn thing fell off and was lost! Evidently it had simply come unscrewed and as the volcano orifice was fully backed off the second stage seat the free flow started. Anyway, in 57 years of diving this was a first for me. Guess I gotta make sure things are tight from here on out. Good dives to everyone. M
Again today, I started noticing the work of breathing getting harder as tank pressure dropped. At the end of the dive I was down at 30 feet at 500 psi and had just looked up to start my ascent. All of the sudden my second stage started free flowing voluminously. I took a hard breath and water was coming in from somewhere; and no air was coming out of the mouthpiece. I took the reg out of my mouth, pushed the purge button a few times, banged the front cover against my hand to try and dislodge whatever might be stuck (yes, brute force is a recognized cure-all for dive equipment malfunctions
) but nothing worked. I reached back and turned off the tank valve to at least stop the tank from emptying and getting sea water flowing back into the tank. And yeah, I know that in an emergency the prudent plan is to save yourself with saving your equipment secondary; however, tumbling tanks to remove rust is a royal pain in the butt. I did the old blow and go and swam up to the surface. After switching to my snorkel - aka, my Surface Safety Backup Device (SSBD) since I’m too fricking cool to wear a B.C. - I did one of those giant arm sweep regulator recovery moves and immediately figured out what the problem was. Can you spot the problem in the following photo?
My second stage was completely gone! Damn thing fell off and was lost! Evidently it had simply come unscrewed and as the volcano orifice was fully backed off the second stage seat the free flow started. Anyway, in 57 years of diving this was a first for me. Guess I gotta make sure things are tight from here on out. Good dives to everyone. M
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