How to deal with a power inflator that is stuck open at depth?

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kelemvor

Big Fleshy Monster
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On my past few dives, my power inflator was getting a little sticky. I couldn't really coax it slightly open to put minute amounts of air into the BC, it had to be short but big bursts. I took it to an LDS, and he disassembled it, showed me a little salt inside with some slight corrosion on the metal parts. He cleaned it up and lubed it with some silicone gel stuff. It seemed to work perfectly after that.

That along with some gear changed prompted me to do a couple practice dives in my pool. On practice dive #2 the power inflator got stuck open. I was at the surface at the time, and it took me a good 30 seconds to figure out what was going on. I'm going to replace the power inflator before my next dive, but the problem made me think I needed to prepare for this type of failure at depth.

Unfortunately, I can't come up with a good way to deal with it. With the tank valve on, I can't remove the power inflator at depth. I've tried several times; and I'm sure that at pretty much any depth I'd have an uncontrolled ascent before I could turn off the tank valve, depressurize the hoses and remove the connection and turn the tank back on.

Is there a reasonable way to deal with a stuck "Open" power inflator at depth? The only thing I can think of is to use a dive knife to puncture the BC. Having practiced recently treading water with a completely deflated BC, I could surface and stay there for 5-10 minutes before I'd have to ditch the whole rig. It's an option but not a good one for obvious reasons.


How would you deal with a power inflator stuck "OPEN" at depth?
 
As in constantly inflating? Disconnect it..

You better be quick about it though, it may cause a very nice runaway ascent if youre not..
 
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As in constantly inflating? Disconnect it..

Yep, that's the scenario. But I tried disconnecting and couldn't do it at depth with the hoses pressurized. Maybe there is a brand of hose with an easier connector? I'm using an XS miflex hose.
 
we practiced disconnecting the hose from it

hmm, wonder why yours is so hard to disconnect while pressurized
 
I would check your hose, pulling the QD should make it pop off quite easily.
 
Yep, that's the scenario. But I tried disconnecting and couldn't do it at depth with the hoses pressurized. Maybe there is a brand of hose with an easier connector? I'm using an XS miflex hose.
Its actually easier to disconnect when pressureized imo. Pull on the ring and it pops off by itself. Connecting it however I find harder when pressurized.
You do get "hatted" connectors though thats even easier to pull..
 
Sounds like my power inflator quick disconnect may be having problems too if you guys say they should be easy to disconnect. It's only got about 10 dives on it, and I *thought* I had been diligent in caring for my gear :/

I've got several spare power inflator hoses in my saveadive kit. I'll try the others and see if that is the problem
 
You need to be able to one-hand that connection on the first try, every time (I'm a little paranoid about this issue because I love my Halcyon SS inflators). If you can't, get a top-hat for it that makes it easier.
 
To explain what I mean by "hatted".. a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
20130725_001727.jpg
 

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