Stop steering new divers in North America towards DIN regulators

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If 10 yoke divers and 10 DIN divers get on a rec. boat, don't they all gear up and jump in at the same time?

Maybe. After the musical chairs in which the DIN and yoke divers finally settle into seats where the divemasters placed the appropriate tanks. That is, if the dive operator even managed to get the requests correct, and loaded enough DIN tanks on the boat for those who requested them. You want to sit next to your buddy? There may be not just musical chairs but some swapping of tanks around. All-yoke rental tanks sure would make things smoother.

As stated earlier in this thread, if a diver brings his own tanks, there's no issue with DIN. It's rental tanks where the diver potentially encounters hassles.
 
I have a DIN regulator, I have a yoke converter. I can take advantage of the DIN whenever it is available in a DIN or convertible valve. I can use the converter whenever I have to. Not as easy for someone with a yoke regulator. I find more and more newer tanks in the US have convertible valves. I carry my own Allen wrenches, just in case
 
I have witnessed first hand that some DIN inserts in some valves can be a nuisance when interfacing with yoke regs. This will happen whether yoke or DIN with yoke adapter. I have never seen this with dedicated yoke valves, the insert is there to be removed and if it cant be removed then that is an equipment failure. The shop or charter operator responsible is doing everyone a disservice, you wouldn't accept rental regs that didn't flow so why accept locked in inserts? Why would an operator catering for yoke divers use anything other than yoke dedicated valves if they are just going to let inserts lock in?
 
I have witnessed first hand that some DIN inserts in some valves can be a nuisance when interfacing with yoke regs. This will happen whether yoke or DIN with yoke adapter. I have never seen this with dedicated yoke valves, the insert is there to be removed and if it cant be removed then that is an equipment failure. The shop or charter operator responsible is doing everyone a disservice, you wouldn't accept rental regs that didn't flow so why accept locked in inserts? Why would an operator catering for yoke divers use anything other than yoke dedicated valves if they are just going to let inserts lock in?
Inadequate equipment maintenance
 
Depending on the shop here in the PNW you are just as likely to find a DIN valve as a yoke on a rental tank. Most all private tanks in the hands of serious divers are DIN - and we end up loaning them out to guests quite a bit.
 
If yoke works consistently and well for the mainstream recreational U.S. diver, then there is no problem for DIN, however good, to solve.

At least with metric, for some applications such as scientific chemical formula or unit conversions, the 'based on tens' relation of units can make the work smoother.

If 10 yoke divers and 10 DIN divers get on a rec. boat, don't they all gear up and jump in at the same time?
Sure. Unless the o-ring of one of the yoke rental tanks decides to leak, blow, extrude or otherwise fail. I'm sure you've had that happen. So have I. I've never had that happen with the DIN o-ring in my own reg.

Doesn't using a yoke converter on a DIN reg reintroduce all the disadvantages of yoke, so you gain nothing from DIN when using the converter?
Yeah, it's a last-ditch resort if really no DIN/convertible tanks are available. It's an option I like to avoid. Luckily I can't remember the last time I had to use the yoke adapter. DIN/convertible tanks are more readily available than most people realize, even in north/central American vacation destinations.
 
Sure. Unless the o-ring of one of the yoke rental tanks decides to leak, blow, extrude or otherwise fail. I'm sure you've had that happen. So have I. I've never had that happen with the DIN o-ring in my own reg.

I have had an o-ring 'blow' getting ready for a Bonaire shore dive, but it was where one of my 1st stage port plugs had somehow worked a bit loose (I've replaced a tank o-ring I wasn't happy with, though). Which brings up an interesting point; even if I used DIN, I'd probably still bring a little plastic box of extra o-rings of various sizes.

Bonaire shore diving is known for that faint, hissing sound of old, dry o-rings that don't seal ideally. Of course, it's also known for much greater availability of yoke rental tanks; I assume you're need DIN valve tanks to benefit from using a DIN regulator.

I don't have a link conveniently to hand, but I recall on one of the old 'DIN vs. Yoke' threads, someone opined that when carrying tanks not hooked up to a reg., like a few rental tanks bouncing around in the back of a rental truck driving around Bonaire, the DIN tank valves having threads created the potential for those threads to get dented. At least, with a heavily used rental fleet of tanks.

Wonder how the odds of that happening compare to the odds of a tank valve o-ring failure?

Over the course of a few U.S. & Caribbean dive trips, what is the greater inconvenience; messing with an adaptor (that doesn't leave you with DIN benefits) on rental tanks, or diving yoke all the time (even on your own tanks) & 'extra' o-ring failures from being a yoke user? Put another way, do rec. divers mainly using rental tanks in the U.S. & Caribbean at mainstream travel destinations use DIN tanks often enough to realize substantial benefits on average?

Richard.
 
. . .

I don't have a link conveniently to hand, but I recall on one of the old 'DIN vs. Yoke' threads, someone opined that when carrying tanks not hooked up to a reg., like a few rental tanks bouncing around in the back of a rental truck driving around Bonaire, the DIN tank valves having threads created the potential for those threads to get dented. At least, with a heavily used rental fleet of tanks. . . .

Maybe the story you're thinking of was mine. Before I had the good sense to convert my originally-DIN regs to yoke, I had the experience of renting a tank at an Atlanta dive shop to use at a lake, and finding the threaded opening to have been deformed to the point where I was unable to screw my DIN reg into it without exerting what I felt would be too much force. The threads themselves looked okay, so my guess was that the fitting had gotten banged against something, deforming it ever so slightly. In fact, I believe my wife and I had rented four tanks between the two of us, and another one of the four was apparently also slightly deformed, such that the reg did not screw in smoothly. I was fearful that forcing my reg into a non-circular opening might damage the threads of my reg. I can see why shops might believe DIN is not a good option for their rental tanks. For the record, all of this shop's tanks nowadays have converter plugs, though if you rent a tank for use with DIN, the shop employee removes the plug before you leave the shop and keeps it. I have not tried to remove any, and I don't care whether they are or are not rusted in place, since my regs are now blissfully yoke.
 
The metric analogy is appropriate. Telling new divers in teh US to buy din is like telling a new mechanic in the US to buy metric tools. Metric is superior. Eventually it will take over, makes sense right? When he gets to work on Monday? There may be some cars on which he can use them. For the bulk of his work? He's going to have to figure something else out.

Not quite, the auto industry has globalized, and any mechanic, even if they don't repair imports, have had to buy metric tools to repair American cars with imported nuts and bolts. This has been escalating since the '60's when the conversion was started. Also, with the movement to imported cars, mechanics learned to repair them as well as American models. This has happened to mechanics in industries other than auto as well. This is happening a lot slower in the SCUBA industry.


he o-ring of one of the yoke rental tanks decides to leak, blow, extrude or otherwise fail. I'm sure you've had that happen. So have I. I've never had that happen with the DIN o-ring in my own reg.

This has not happened in my yoke tanks as I check the o-rings as part of my maintainance, I carry o-rings with me because others defer maintainance too long. If you leave your o-ring long enough...

I have both, I use both, I would not steer a new diver to DIN because of the ubiquitous use here in the States and Caribbean of yoke, but it is their choice and ultimately makes no difference to me.


Bob
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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