Are scuba regulators life-support equipment?

[Scared Silly]

Several others have said it but I think it is worth repeating. A scuba system (not just the regulator) is a life support system in that it is required to explore an environment that one could not otherwise do except for brief periods. However, though a life support system it does not mean that it requires a singular person to service and maintain it. Thus when the term "life support" is used for marketing service it is becomes bastardized.

To whit, short of their brain, to a soldier their weapon does more to sustain their life than any other piece of equipment. They are excepted to be able to service it under most all conditions. So like a weapon it pays to to keep your equipment in good working condition as your life may depend on it. Just like anything else from a vehicle to your wife .

 

[redacted]

Several others have said it but I think it is worth repeating. A scuba system (not just the regulator) is a life support system in that it is required to explore an environment that one could not otherwise do except for brief periods. However, though a life support system it does not mean that it requires a singular person to service and maintain it. Thus when the term "life support" is used for marketing service it is becomes bastardized.

To whit, short of their brain, to a soldier their weapon does more to sustain their life than any other piece of equipment. They are excepted to be able to service it under most all conditions. So like a weapon it pays to to keep your equipment in good working condition as your life may depend on it. Just like anything else from a vehicle to your wife .

And, if you know what you are doing, you will have a backup.

 

[divad]

And, if you know what you are doing, you will have a backup.

Or two....

 

[dfx]

Sounds like some people think that "life support equipment" means that if it fails, you die immediately and/or with absolute certainty. That's not what it means, not even in the medical sense. All it means is that if it fails and neither you nor anyone else does anything about it, you will die from that failure in the foreseeable future. Which is true for a regulator in pretty much every situation. If you don't find an alternate source for air (which can be the surface or whatever else), you will die. Not immediately, but pretty soon.

 

[Scared Silly]

And, if you know what you are doing, you will have a backup.

No, no, no, the wife may have back up but not I. Having a backup will most certainly lead to me needing life support and paying wife support. But I digress.

 

[agilis]

Are airplanes life support systems?

 

[diveprof]

When justifying the cost of a new reg to the wife - I definitely refer to it as life support equipment!

 

[divad]

Are airplanes life support systems?

And submarines, not to mention boats and rafts.

 

[kelemvor]

BTW, during one of the shows a mermaid supposedly takes one of these hoses down to 100 ft. At least that's what the announcer says.

The announcer lied. I've dove to that site a few times, bottom is at about 40'. There is a cave, but my understanding is that even with DPV flow is only low enough to get in about once a decade. The mermaids certainly aren't going in.

Edit: Now that I think about it, they enter the water from a "backstage" location and swim through a tube. It gives the appearance that the mermaids come from the depths. I bet he was saying they swim 100' to get to the main show area.

 

[Lorenzoid]

As most of the other posters have said, it all depends on how YOU define "life support." By the dictionary definition, of course they are life support equipment, since humans can't breathe underwater without them. By a definition like the FDA's for medical life support equipment--no, of course not.

Is there a more specific question here, or is this just an open-ended question that inherently has no one correct answer? Is the question something like "should regulators be subject to some sort of federal approval for life support equipment the way medical life support equipment is?" If so, I would answer no, since regulators are so reliable.