I am back into the sport after a 25 year abscence and have a question regarding the divers safety sausage. What type of inflation model seems to work best? Manual fill tube could be difficult in a stressful situation. Power inflate would require me to disconnect my LP hose on my BC? No thanks. I am thinking the regulator type fill (inflate with second air source) would be best but I have not found one on the dive web sites. Any receomendations and advice? Thanks
Divers Sausage
- Thread starter rustyrun
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Hatul
Contributor
Just purge air from your reg into it.
Adam
Adam
The ones with the LPI nipple on them can usually be orally inflated, if you would rather. Others have a duck valve at the bottom that allows them to be filled from a purged 2nd stage.
Different techniques are required when filling at depth or at the surface. Practice makes better.
Different techniques are required when filling at depth or at the surface. Practice makes better.
The one I use has an adaptor on it you just push the tip into a low pressure hose and it fills it with air for you. I found this to be the best as it allows a substantial amount of air into the sausage before it actually begins to take off on you.
And I agree practice makes perfect
And I agree practice makes perfect
Ok thanks all. I will go to a local shop and compare. I like the idea of using the lp hose but I have an air2 and that would make me disconnect my second stage to fill. I have not seen the "duck fill" type yet on any online dive shop.
This can be a confusing subject, mainly due to sloppy vocabulary.
There are two primary purposes. One is for surface signaling only and is often called a safety sausage. They are usually inflated orally and do not have an over-pressure/relief valve (like a BC). These can be quite small and less than $20.
The other category has a relief valve and can be inflated at depth (as well as on the surface) and is most often called an SMB (Submersible Market buoy). When inflated at depth, they are send up on a line (usually on a reel), and used for marking location and/or decompression. The SMB benefits more from an inflator connection, but may also inflate from the open bottom through an “anti-spill” restriction and orally. This allows using your second stage like on a lift bag or wrapping it around your face like sneezing into a handkerchief. For limited applications, they can also be used as a small lift bag. Unfortunately SMBs can also be called a sausages so look for the relief valve. SMBs are typically larger due to the relief, often have more volume, and tend to be ~$50+.
There is serious trade-off between sizes. Too big and they are difficult to carry due to bulk and inflate due to air volume. Too small (short) and they are difficult to see on the surface, like in sloppy seas or from a distance due to swift currents.
If you are after an SMB, then there is the “how full” consideration. Deploying an SMB on a thumb reel, in a current, in kelp, and/or in bad visibility can be tricky. Add an LP inflator to the mix and you have the potential to take a way-too-quick ride to the surface due to entanglement… not a good thing if you were deploying for decompression.
For many, an ideal option is to inflate the bag orally and release it on the reel before you take a big lung-full of air, thus remaining near neutral on the bottom or mid-water. Gas expansion will hopefully inflate the bag enough to serve your purpose. A partially filled bag will float to the surface and allow you to lightly hang on the line for decompression, but may not stand tall so it can be easily spotted from the boat. An example where this would be problematic is doing a drift dive that requires decompression. Granted, you can fully inflate it on the surface so it stands tall, but meantime you may have drifted a long way.
Let’s say you can exhale 4 liters of air. Inflated at 33', it will provide 18.1 Lbs of buoyancy (in sea water) at the surface. A typical 6' SMB has about 40 Lbs of lift so it will be less than half full. Inflated at 66' you get 27.2 Lbs surface displacement out of the deal. If that is enough for your purposes, it isn’t worth the trouble to use power inflation (BC hose or second stage). With a little care, you can blow 1½ to 2 breaths into the SMB without great risk to playing Trident Missile. Power inflation is great, but know in advance that you can blow 40 Lbs of buoyancy in that tube PDQ on the bottom. Check YouTube, there are tons of videos.
My one recommendation is don’t be fooled into buying one that is so large and awkward to carry that it gets left on shore. If all you want is to be spotted after reaching the surface, then get an oral inflation style sausage. Once you get air in your BC you will have plenty of time to blow air in it.
There are two primary purposes. One is for surface signaling only and is often called a safety sausage. They are usually inflated orally and do not have an over-pressure/relief valve (like a BC). These can be quite small and less than $20.
The other category has a relief valve and can be inflated at depth (as well as on the surface) and is most often called an SMB (Submersible Market buoy). When inflated at depth, they are send up on a line (usually on a reel), and used for marking location and/or decompression. The SMB benefits more from an inflator connection, but may also inflate from the open bottom through an “anti-spill” restriction and orally. This allows using your second stage like on a lift bag or wrapping it around your face like sneezing into a handkerchief. For limited applications, they can also be used as a small lift bag. Unfortunately SMBs can also be called a sausages so look for the relief valve. SMBs are typically larger due to the relief, often have more volume, and tend to be ~$50+.
There is serious trade-off between sizes. Too big and they are difficult to carry due to bulk and inflate due to air volume. Too small (short) and they are difficult to see on the surface, like in sloppy seas or from a distance due to swift currents.
If you are after an SMB, then there is the “how full” consideration. Deploying an SMB on a thumb reel, in a current, in kelp, and/or in bad visibility can be tricky. Add an LP inflator to the mix and you have the potential to take a way-too-quick ride to the surface due to entanglement… not a good thing if you were deploying for decompression.
For many, an ideal option is to inflate the bag orally and release it on the reel before you take a big lung-full of air, thus remaining near neutral on the bottom or mid-water. Gas expansion will hopefully inflate the bag enough to serve your purpose. A partially filled bag will float to the surface and allow you to lightly hang on the line for decompression, but may not stand tall so it can be easily spotted from the boat. An example where this would be problematic is doing a drift dive that requires decompression. Granted, you can fully inflate it on the surface so it stands tall, but meantime you may have drifted a long way.
Let’s say you can exhale 4 liters of air. Inflated at 33', it will provide 18.1 Lbs of buoyancy (in sea water) at the surface. A typical 6' SMB has about 40 Lbs of lift so it will be less than half full. Inflated at 66' you get 27.2 Lbs surface displacement out of the deal. If that is enough for your purposes, it isn’t worth the trouble to use power inflation (BC hose or second stage). With a little care, you can blow 1½ to 2 breaths into the SMB without great risk to playing Trident Missile. Power inflation is great, but know in advance that you can blow 40 Lbs of buoyancy in that tube PDQ on the bottom. Check YouTube, there are tons of videos.
My one recommendation is don’t be fooled into buying one that is so large and awkward to carry that it gets left on shore. If all you want is to be spotted after reaching the surface, then get an oral inflation style sausage. Once you get air in your BC you will have plenty of time to blow air in it.
Last edited:
Similar threads
