Struggling to Find Kidney Dump Valve

[Ryan Neely]

We moved away from our jacket-style BCDs this year and took up a back plate and wing configuration. After about 15 dives, I'm still struggling to find the pull strung on my dump valve. I can find the dump valve itself easily enough but moving from there to find the pull string seems impossible. It takes as much as fifteen seconds to find it and dump some air.

Anyone have tips for helping with this (beyond the obvious, "Just keep practicing,")?

For what it's worth, I'm wearing 5mm neoprene gloves and will eventually migrate to dry gloves.

 

[rick00001967]

if you can find the valve, the rest is easy. haha just shorten the string as much as you can. that way when you find the valve you cannot help but feel the toggle on the string. if the string is too long, yu may find the valve but will not be able to feel the toggle cuz it is too far away. just takes practice.

 

[Ryan Neely]

I never thought about shortening the string. That makes better sense. Duh!

 

[Hartattack]

If in dry gloves or thick wet gloves, you can find the valve and then trace your finger around the valve in a circular motion. This action will "wrap" the string/line around your finger so you can now slight pull to dump. Cheers.

Edit: If no gloves, this should be easier.

 

[tbone1004]

We moved away from our jacket-style BCDs this year and took up a back plate and wing configuration. After about 15 dives, I'm still struggling to find the pull strung on my dump valve. I can find the dump valve itself easily enough but moving from there to find the pull string seems impossible. It takes as much as fifteen seconds to find it and dump some air.

Anyone have tips for helping with this (beyond the obvious, "Just keep practicing,")?

For what it's worth, I'm wearing 5mm neoprene gloves and will eventually migrate to dry gloves.

I really need to make a video on how to do this.

Important points
Rule! do NOT pull on the line, don't grab the knob thing if it has one *doesn't need one, even in dry gloves*
Steps
1-Find the dump valve on the wing. Big plastic thing, pretty easy to find. Find it with your index finger and thumb, not your pinky. This should be pretty obvious/natural, but it's important for the next steps
2-Find the line on the dump valve. It's in the middle, and it's a string. Find it with a pinching motion, and aim to get the string between the pads of your index finger and thumb. You need to pinch it as close to the dump valve as possible. It is also the easiest way to find it, but important for next steps *see the trend?*
3-This is the important part. With a pinching motion, pull the string towards the palm of your hand, while simultaneously using your second knuckle on index finger and only knuckle on your thumb to push against the dump valve.

Step 3 is the part that most people don't think about. When you pull on the dump valve on a jacket bc, the valve is in an essentially fixed position on the jacket or it has a remote routing of the line for the shoulder dumps. When you pull on the line on a wing, it pulls the wing with it. When you follow the steps above, you are fixing the dump valve relative to your hand. This gives you positive control over how far you are opening the valve, but also minimizes risk of damage to the wing by creating stress between the bladder and the dump valve.
This is also the best way to get water out of the wings when you are rinsing them out or just draining them after diving. By maintaining positive control over the valve opening, you can allow the air pressure to push the water out without the air itself coming out too rapidly.

At some point I'll make a video showing how to do it, but I've been saying that for 5 years so there is that...

 

[Ryan Neely]

@tbone1004, Ironically, Step 3 is the intuitive part for me and what I end up doing when I finally find the string. It's finding the string that I struggle with.

Finding the dump valve itself is easy. Reaching toward the center of the dump valve, though, I just can't feel that string or the point where they join together.

I'll keep practicing.

 

[tbone1004]

@tbone1004, Ironically, Step 3 is the intuitive part for me and what I end up doing when I finally find the string. It's finding the string that I struggle with.

Finding the dump valve itself is easy. Reaching toward the center of the dump valve, though, I just can't feel that string or the point where they join together.

I'll keep practicing.

alternate to step 2. I usually set the line length about the width of my hand. If you circle the dump valve with your index finger and thumb, you can close your middle thru pinky fingers around the line to give it some tension so you can feel it with your index finger and thumb.

 

[Hethen57]

Don't feel bad, I seem to be having the same problem with my relatively new BPW set up as well. With my jacket, I am used to reaching back with my right hand for that waist dump on the right but my wing only has the left dump. I will try tbone1004's tips and see how that works because finding the left kidney dump is the only thing I don't like about my BPW set-up so far.

 

[scrane]

Funny, I always use the exhaust valve on the inflator. The valve seems more precise and I can hear exactly how much air is coming out.

 

[tbone1004]

Funny, I always use the exhaust valve on the inflator. The valve seems more precise and I can hear exactly how much air is coming out.

You have to get pretty far out of trim to use it though and that's problematic for a lot of diving. I couldn't use it while teaching or cave diving. It's also not ideal for arresting runaway ascents where you want to get head down to be able to kick down which is why we teach all students to only use the hip dump. They only use the inflator to dump gas twice during a dive. To initiate a descent from the surface, and in the final 5-10ft of the ascent after they go vertical.