2nd Stage Swivel Failures for Sidemount/Independent Cylinders

[rddvet]

I adopted swivels because I took sm with Edd. In recent years ai’ve gotten rid of them because I’m tired of them failing at the worst time. Luckily all failures have been predive, but they’re annoying. I’m moving from swivels to elbows. Though at this point I rarely dive sm

 

[attack33]

After a swivel blew the o-ring out in a cave on me, I asked around and the general consensus was “yeah, those are terrible”. They seem to have a high failure rate amongst people I know. Obviously, an easy fix and easy to remediate underwater, but ultimately...no more swivels on my regs.

 

[jtsfour]

After a swivel blew the o-ring out in a cave on me, I asked around and the general consensus was “yeah, those are terrible”. They seem to have a high failure rate amongst people I know. Obviously, an easy fix and easy to remediate underwater, but ultimately...no more swivels on my regs. View attachment 655779

How do you consider them easy to remediate underwater? What steps are there to take underwater if it fails? Remove the swivel underwater?

It seems to be a pretty significant leak of gas if it fails.


The failure mine had looked just like the picture you posted.

 

[attack33]

How do you consider them easy to remediate underwater? What steps are there to take underwater if it fails? Remove the swivel underwater?

It seems to be a pretty significant leak of gas if it fails.


The failure mine had looked just like the picture you posted.

I meant just switching regs and shutting the valve off as an easy remediation of the issue. Feather the valve if you absolutely had no other options and needed the gas. Sorry, I was referring to the way I dive without any context. I wouldn’t try to fix it underwater. An LP hose failure will drain an AL80 at working pressure (3000 PSI) to 0 PSI in ~82 seconds, according to tests. If not quickly attended to, it could be catastrophic. However, it generally would be a dive ending situation, but not life ending if dives are planned appropriately. I generally dive sidemount and I am conservative with gas management. So for me, it’s an easy remediation of the problem, but cut the dive. At the end of the day, it is risk vs. reward. Having my regs swivel around doesn’t provide me enough value to assume the risk of a more failure prone piece of equipment.

 

[kensuf]

The best solution to this particular swivel's inherent design limitation is to take it off your regulator and toss it in the garbage. If you need some sort of angle, go with a fixed angle adapter, I personally run a 110° adapter on my BOV.