Crack bottles and such....wtf?

[Graeme Fraser]

Crack bottle DSMB's are popular amongst UK tech divers for good reason. My personal rig of choice is a 2.5m with crack bottle attached to a 100m Kent Tooling reel.

Skippers usually mandate that a team deploy a bag when leaving a wreck / site, so that the boat can track their progress in current. You can travel a long way during a 45 minute ascent and with choppy seas you want a big old bag to stay visible. Frankly a dainty little 3 footer ain't gonna cut it.

With a crack bottle to fully inflate a high volume bag and hefty reel / handle to hang from, I know my bag will stand proud and the boat will be waiting for me when I surface a mile away from the drop off.

To the OP, Kent Tooling also sell replacement crack bottles. Not sure if they're open due to current restrictions but worth a try.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

You'd need a VERY BIG CO2 cartridge to inflate a DSMB past 30FSW. That's why they don't use them anymore.

If the intent is to provide a surface marker, rather than lift at depth, then the depth of deployment is not a consideration.

In other words, if there is enough gas in the cartridge to provide complete inflation at the surface, it shouldn't matter that it does not fully inflate at 130 ft because the carbon dioxide will expand within the DSMB as it rises to the surface.

The concern for CO2 capacity of a cartridge would be a consideration if the diver wanted to provide emergency inflation (and lift) in the BC at depth. So use in a BC versus an SMB involves different parameters, I think?

 

[boat sju]

Aren't the CO2 cartridges still used in pellet guns? Seems like that's what was in my BC in the 80's.

They might have filled slowly at depth put if you pulled the chord on the surface it was "right now"

boat

 

[PfcAJ]

Crack bottle DSMB's are popular amongst UK tech divers for good reason. My personal rig of choice is a 2.5m with crack bottle attached to a 100m Kent Tooling reel.

Skippers usually mandate that a team deploy a bag when leaving a wreck / site, so that the boat can track their progress in current. You can travel a long way during a 45 minute ascent and with choppy seas you want a big old bag to stay visible. Frankly a dainty little 3 footer ain't gonna cut it.

With a crack bottle to fully inflate a high volume bag and hefty reel / handle to hang from, I know my bag will stand proud and the boat will be waiting for me when I surface a mile away from the drop off.

To the OP, Kent Tooling also sell replacement crack bottles. Not sure if they're open due to current restrictions but worth a try.

A crack bottle is not required to inflate a big SMB.

 

[NothingClever]

....rather than those who manually inflate from 15' and get a pathetic limp DSMB at the surface that can't be seen.

Exactly. Stand proud or re-train until you get it right. I’m lazy so I like to shoot at 21m to guarantee full inflation.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

A crack bottle is not required to inflate a big SMB.

Indeed, but then lots of things aren't necessarily required. That doesn't mean they aren't useful.

Not saying it's the only way, but it doesn't come under the old 'solution looking for a problem' cliché either. A quick half valve turn and she's away; no oral, exhaust, LPI, or AAS inflation.

 

[PfcAJ]

Indeed, but then lots of things aren't necessarily required. That doesn't mean they aren't useful.

Not saying it's the only way, but it doesn't come under the old 'solution looking for a problem' cliché either. A quick half valve turn and she's away; no oral, exhaust, LPI, or AAS inflation.

It also has the potential for up up and away when you aren’t prepared for it, unlike every other method.

 

[CT-Rich]

It also has the potential for up up and away when you aren’t prepared for it, unlike every other method.

Keep in mind, 1) these triggers are used on all sorts life vests and safety gear FOR DECADES. 2). They were standard issue on dive gear for decades before LP inflators were invented. You are no more likely to accidentally activate them and send your self on a rocket ride to the surface than pretty much any other dumb ass thing you can do to ruin a dive.

You need to intentionally pull them pretty hard to puncture the end of the cylinder. Even then, it will not instantly fill the DSMB to to maximum capacity. They are much slower than a LP inflator.

I can see why the Brits like them. If I were doing certain types of open ocean dives, I would go fo one myself. I like tech that idiot proofs me from my own mistakes.

 

[KenGordon]

Keep in mind, 1) these triggers are used on all sorts life vests and safety gear FOR DECADES. 2). They were standard issue on dive gear for decades before LP inflators were invented. You are no more likely to accidentally activate them and send your self on a rocket ride to the surface than pretty much any other dumb ass thing you can do to ruin a dive.

You need to intentionally pull them pretty hard to puncture the end of the cylinder. Even then, it will not instantly fill the DSMB to to maximum capacity. They are much slower than a LP inflator.

I can see why the Brits like them. If I were doing certain types of open ocean dives, I would go fo one myself. I like tech that idiot proofs me from my own mistakes.

He was talking about the small refillable air cylinders, not the one time co2 ones.

If fact it if quite hard to impossible to set one off by accident. I find it takes two hands to open the valve, one to hold the cylinder and one to turn the knob. I also like to,close the valve before letting go or the cylinder can end up with water inside. This leads to them rotting which is probably the main real risk. Forgetting to refill them is also a possibility.

 

[Diving Dubai]

It also has the potential for up up and away when you aren’t prepared for it, unlike every other method.

Not really, the DSMB is wrapped around the bottle, so the valve is protected. Even in my most inept moments I've not managed to set it off unintentionally

I find it takes two hands to open the valve, one to hold the cylinder and one to turn the knob.

I hold the DSMB by the valve (with spool/reel in the other hand) and a fast twist is enough, yes I let mine go and yes it does get water inside but it gets washed after each trip anyhow

I've refilled it off a used tank once which meant it was a pathetic inflation

My biggest error (might have happened more than once) is to not tighten the crack bottle correctly, so when opening I'm surrounded by a mass of bubbles with the DSMB going nowhere

Then having the ignominy of filling the dsmb via my reg while my buddies are howling with laughter