DIN vs YOKE (USA)?

[boulderjohn]

Everything I own is DIN, but the friends with who I have been going on annual dive trips and I have learned to be careful.

• Starting this Sunday, we will be on a 5 day Caribbean dive trip, and by calling ahead we learned that we would absolutely need to bring our adaptors. They only have yoke, with no ability to get DIN.
• A couple years ago we emailed ahead to a remote dive area in the Pacific, and we were assured there would be no problem getting DIN nitrox tanks for our dives. When we got there, we discovered there would indeed be a problem. The director of diving operations left and came back a couple hours later with DIN nitrox tanks. I have no idea where he got them, but the week we were there, they were the only ones they had.
• The exact same thing happened in another Pacific site. We emailed ahead and got full assurance we would be OK. When we got there, they asked if we had brought our adaptors. We hadn't. Again, I don't know where they got them, but they got us some DIN tanks just before our first scheduled dives.
• On a trip to Palau, we were assured that they had DIN tanks. On the day we arrived, they had us fill out detailed forms, that included whether we needed DIN or yoke. When the boat arrived the next day, they only had yoke tanks on board. They said they had seen we were Americans and assumed we had yoke without checking what we had requested. Luckily, we had brought our adaptors.

 

[bradlw]

I've dove quite a lot with Yoke. Later, after switching to DIN, I dove with it quite a bit. I've also used my yoke adapter to my DIN regs several times. Never a problem really, but I do feel like I have a bit more trouble getting it seated, and overall it just makes the first stage a bigger and more clunky package compared to when it's set up as a yoke reg.

Also, thinking back through the lens of my fuzzy memory I can recall quite a lot of stress on cattle boats where folks, myself sometimes included in that, would be struggling to deal with a bad o-ring
But I don't recall anyone ever having a problem with DIN

except I don't think any of those DIN set-ups would have been with damaged rental tanks

Personally, I like the idea of bringing a wrench and just reconfiguring the regulator. It's an easy swap for sure. Except I'd hate to be fussing around with that at the last minute if I don't have to! Usually, though, there's a boat ride involved so that could be plenty of time to get it done.

 

[The Chairman]

I've seen tanks fall over with both yoke and DIN. Neither first stage survived unscathed. However, the knob on the yoke is a definite entanglement hazard. I was co-teaching a class in the Keys, and my co-instructor used yoke. We were on the Speigle and a single line snagged that knob. He was doing a nice gentle frog kick, which soon morphed into a rather aggressive one. That soon gave way to an intense flutter, which was about to morph into I don't know what, but I had finally gotten over to him and cut the snag with my z-knife. ZOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

On the deck, he complained about the transient current he had run into and wondered if anyone else had felt it. Bwahahahahaha! At first, he didn't believe me, but eventually he understood why I dive only DIN.

 

[rjack321]

Please do not, we would miss you .

Way to read the room @Nemrod

 

[Searcaigh]

One comment about carrying a hex wrench so to take out the insert. I would ask the dive shop to remove the insert. I have often found the insert stuck such that the hex wrench stripped the insert. i would rather the dive shop do that just so I do not get blamed for it.

I have seen two different sizes of inserts for the Allen key.

On my recent trip to Oman we were sharing one set of Allen keys brought on board by one of the other divers (mine were in my car).

Some of the inserts were so tightly fixed we could not remove them, and there was a lot of changing of tanks with other divers who had taken tanks with easily removable inserts. To me this is just a sign of poor maintenance of the dive operator.

 

[Sascha314]

I am curious. While I did my OWD with a yoke, I never used one since. Ok as back in Europe there is basically no Yoke.

What would be an advantage of using yoke instead of din. Just got two things out of this thread
- availability of rental tanks, however with more and more going to DIN
- I can use it even with a heavy used and damaged tank valve.

What else?

By the way you can have bubbles with a din as well. There is usually a small hole in the tank valve. If the o ring seal is not perfect you will notice a stream of bubbles.

 

[Edward3c]

By the way you can have bubbles with a din as well. There is usually a small hole in the tank valve. If the o ring seal is not perfect you will notice a stream of bubbles.

That’s just poor maintenance.

Not all bubble stream are leaks; I have a stream of bubbles from an air port on my first stage - as is designed - been told I’ve get a leak numerous times.

 

[Sascha314]

That’s just poor maintenance.

Not all bubble stream are leaks; I have a stream of bubbles from an air port on my first stage - as is designed - been told I’ve get a leak numerous times.

It was a reaction, because someone wrote its and advantwge of yoke. Then you just have this...with either as you said poor maintenance or just something like an overlooked hair on the o-ring you can have that as well.

And well yeah there are very few 1st stages which have this bubble stream as some kind of functional element.

 

[boulderjohn]

Everything I own is DIN, but the friends with who I have been going on annual dive trips and I have learned to be careful.

• Starting this Sunday, we will be on a 5 day Caribbean dive trip, and by calling ahead we learned that we would absolutely need to bring our adaptors. They only have yoke, with no ability to get DIN.
• A couple years ago we emailed ahead to a remote dive area in the Pacific, and we were assured there would be no problem getting DIN nitrox tanks for our dives. When we got there, we discovered there would indeed be a problem. The director of diving operations left and came back a couple hours later with DIN nitrox tanks. I have no idea where he got them, but the week we were there, they were the only ones they had.
• The exact same thing happened in another Pacific site. We emailed ahead and got full assurance we would be OK. When we got there, they asked if we had brought our adaptors. We hadn't. Again, I don't know where they got them, but they got us some DIN tanks just before our first scheduled dives.
• On a trip to Palau, we were assured that they had DIN tanks. On the day we arrived, they had us fill out detailed forms, that included whether we needed DIN or yoke. When the boat arrived the next day, they only had yoke tanks on board. They said they had seen we were Americans and assumed we had yoke without checking what we had requested. Luckily, we had brought our adaptors.

In the post above, I wrote,

• Starting this Sunday, we will be on a 5 day Caribbean dive trip, and by calling ahead we learned that we would absolutely need to bring our adaptors. They only have yoke, with no ability to get DIN.

I am on that trip now, and my friends and I are using the DIN tanks on board--no need for our adaptors. It seems that the ability to get DIN on a trip is something of a crapshoot, and there is no way of knowing for sure ahead of time.

 

[LFMarm]

I am on that trip now, and my friends and I are using the DIN tanks on board--no need for our adaptors. It seems that the ability to get DIN on a trip is something of a crapshoot, and there is no way of knowing for sure ahead of time.

I had the same experience – this is why I always travel with 2 adapters. Never used them but it's not much weight in the grand scheme of things.