Airsource difficult to keep in mouth

[MichaelMc]

<Humor>
I never liked the idea of a combo inflator+regulator. In an emergency I'd have to fumble between breathing and venting gas for the ascent. Or it would at least be different. Why should I compromise in the emergency when it was the other diver that messed up.
So instead, my air share system just puts the octo on a 6" hose that I leave behind me, I just send the out of air diver behind me to breath off it. I get to keep using my normal regulator and can vent gas with the inflator hose.
It's simpler than the inflator+regulator version.
<\Humor>

(Actually I give them my primary and have my backup on a necklace and 22" hose. Leaving my inflator use in the emergency identical to normal.)
Streamlined OW | Dive Gear Express®

 

[JackD342]

I never liked the idea of a combo inflator+regulator. In an emergency I'd have to fumble between breathing and venting gas for the ascent. Why should I compromise in the emergency when it was the other diver that messed up.

Fully agree. Which is why I actively steer folks away from the “add-on” brands. Aqualung and Oceanic are the only two brands I know of that allow you to vent the left shoulder while using the regulator. These are NOT all the same...

 

[MichaelMc]

Fully agree. Which is why I actively steer folks away from the “add-on” brands. Aqualung and Oceanic are the only two brands I know of that allow you to vent the left shoulder while using the regulator. These are NOT all the same...

I'd 'quibble' about:
- Normally pulling on the corrugated hose to vent being a good plan given you are yanking on the connection to the bladder.
- That people will normally jank part way up the hose and not at the inflator+regulator end.
- That doing that with the hose now bent to your mouth vs hanging free will feel the same and go smoothly without the practice people will not do.
- That manipulating the inflator to add air with it now in your mouth will have it in the same orientation as before, if you need to stabilize buoyancy at the start of the OOA evolution. Again, without frequent practice that few will do.

It's good that Aqualung and Oceanic make venting possible. That may still be far from smooth or a good approach to begin with.

 

[JackD342]

I'd 'quibble' about:
- Normally pulling on the corrugated hose to vent being a good plan given you are yanking on the connection to the bladder.
- That people will normally jank part way up the hose and not at the inflator+regulator end.
- That doing that with the hose now bent to your mouth vs hanging free will feel the same and go smoothly without the practice people will not do.
- That manipulating the inflator to add air with it now in your mouth will have it in the same orientation as before, if you need to stabilize buoyancy at the start of the OOA evolution. Again, without frequent practice, few will do.

It's good that Aqualung and Oceanic make venting possible. That may still be far from smooth or a good approach to begin with.

It’s all a trade-off and personal preference. If/when I sell one, we spend time talking through what the game plan is if it is ever needed. Yes, it is NOT the same as a standard octo and inflator, and I make sure my customer thinks it through.
Regarding yanking on the connection, that is not what happens. A standard inflator has a cable inside the hose that opens a dump valve when tugging on the inflator. Pulling the hose itself does nothing. On the AL Airsource the cable is tied off midway on both sides of the connector, so that pulling the connector opens the shoulder valve. On Oceanic it is a hard plastic ball at the mid-point.

 

[MichaelMc]

Yes, pull on the anchor points not the rubber itself.
(You need to pull on something connected to the cable, connected to the valve at the shoulder. So the end piece or a piece in the middle. Yes, pulling on the rubber part of the hose does not do any good. Well unless you pull below that middle piece and the hose stretches, then pulls on the middle piece, pulling on the cable, and opening the valve.)

You are using your big-ish arm muscles to use a cable to pull on the metal bits of a valve attached to the plastic bits that seal the big hole in the top of your bladder. Maybe not understanding that pulling it harder does not make it dump faster or better. And pulling on it often, if this is to be your ingrained method that you will still follow in the stress of the emergency. Sort of..., and only if you normally use the middle piece and not the end.

I'm sure going over the tradeoffs of all that is an interesting conversation.

 

[RayfromTX]

It is a poor compromise in use. When air sharing on ascent it puts you using a poor second stage with bad ergonomics while simultaneously using that second stage to vent gas from your BC while monitoring your depth and the position of your buddy. It's doable but a poor second choice method. It also uses an odd sized inflator hose fitting because it needs to flow more gas than a typical inflator hose needs to.

Consider this scenario. If your inflator valve sticks open, the solution is to disconnect your inflator hose and inflate the bc orally. If you disconnect your inflator hose what will you now use for a safe second? You won't. You will end the dive and find a repair for your oddball inflator/octo in whatever out of the way dive destination you are at before you dive again.

I ditched mine in favor of long hose primary donate and a secondary on a bungeed necklace. Never looked back and I won't recommend the airsource to someone else. I will consider selling it to you to keep in your kit for parts in case you need it to save a dive trip. Upside is that now(never thought my wife would demand this) we are doing tec training and our setup is exactly what is required for our continued training. We've been using it since we had 20 dives. Best of luck on your decisions. Your airsource will work but there are consequences and compromises in its use.

 

[rongoodman]

The airsource pushes quite a bit while I'm breathing on it. I really need to keep my head looking to the right to feel comfortable and secure in my mouth. I know I've seen other threads talk about this but can't find them or any solution. Is this just how it is or is there a way to relax the hose so it doesn't push?

Ditch it and replace it with a regular inflator and second stage. If you ever end up needing to donate gas to another diver you'll have enough going on without the added aggravation.

 

[Jcp2]

My Scubapro knighthawk Air2 has a small lever on the left shoulder that can dump, as well as a conventional right shoulder dump.

 

[Socal326]

I can only think of two possible aids in making it more comfortable:

1. Remove it from the BCD retaining strap on the shoulder. (Velcro, snap, whatever)
2. Rotate the shoulder fitting where the corrugated hose attaches to the BCD. Loosen it, turn the fitting, tighten it again. The angle is not continuously variable - it is indexed to 8 or more positions. Open it all the way first so you can see the parts and get the feel for reattaching it correctly rather than forcing it.

Thanks Jack.
Rotating the fitting helped--and it didn't take much. It's centered now and gives a better range of motion so it doesn't feel like its being pulled out of my mouth when my head is in a neutral position. I still have to bite down pretty good but it feels secure now and I can work with it like this.

I always have the retaining strap open as I've only ever been able to dump air using the button with the tube and head pointed to up. Pulling the hose sort of works but I just can't get it to dump much without a lot of effort. I'm not really sure why but I should explore this a bit. Part of the issue could be that my back inflate wing doesn't have any bungees wrapped around it like others I've seen. There's just nothing to squeeze the bladder and keep it under pressure so I have to rotate to insure the air's near the dump valve. I dunno, maybe that's every BC though.

EDIT: I just read the rest of the posts and it sounds like I'm probably failing to grab the proper part of the hose when pulling. I'll be trying this on my next dive.

I usually dump from the valve near my right hip by inverting myself slightly before pulling the cord. I've also got a right shoulder dump but I always have a hard time finding the cord so I don't use it. When wearing 7mm gloves that little knob doesn't stand out enough. Somehow the same size knob is easy to find on the hip dump. I guess because Its the only thing there so it stands out when I go to grab it. Maybe I should see if they have a larger knob for the shoulder dump or spend time practicing on land to see if I can figure it out.

Edit: So I tried dumping with the shoulder valve on land wearing my 7mm gloves and it seemed fine. I'm not sure what my issue under water is. When I first went to grab it, it wasn't there because it was hidden under my shoulder strap. Maybe this is what's been happening. Ill have to make sure its accessible before i get in the water from now on.

I feel a bit silly that I've got almost 100 dives on this BC and I didn't learn about these features/issues sooner. Regretfully, I've just been using the features that worked and ignoring the ones that didn't. I probably wouldn't have figured it out without the groups help though. I wounder how people really know their BC's like they should.

 

[Socal326]

aqualung is stiff complete rubbish hose only for looks, of course it pushes
here feel free put another hose nice and soft and flexible long enough or not

The aqualung hose has a disconnect so you can remove the safe second from the tube so I'm not sure I'd be able to swap it out but I'd consider that.