AL Titan LX - Bad LP Port???

[crlavoie]

I have an Aqua Lung Titan LX and recently, I blew out my DS inflator hose. The hose actually came right out of the fitting its self. I brought the hose into the shop to try and understand why it failed and one of the folks mentioned that it's posible that the intermediate pressure on the LP port could have inadvertenly been increased (dramatically) during my last service.

My question is this. DS inflator hoses are tested to 350-400 PSI. Can a Titan LX LP port even achieve that kind of pressure? I'm obviously going to have it checked but that would seem strange to me.

Anybody know if it's possible?

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Most LP hoses are rated to about 240-250 psi with a 150% safety margin, meaning they will tolerate a bit over 350 psi before they fail.

Aqualung regulators are designed to operate with an intermediate pressure of 120-145 psi. I have never tried to screw the Titan's spring pad adjusting screw in far enough to get a 350 psi IP, but I really doubt it would do it. In any event you could not adjust the second stage to work at that pressure anyway as the spring in the second stage is not strong enough. The LX second stage is a balanced poppet design but it has a downstream bias to vent pressure in the case of a high pressure seat failure and excessively high IP. Anything over 170 psi will generally do it. This ensures the reg will freeflow (casuing a small loss of gas) long before the hose will rupture (which would cause a very large loss of gas).

Also, all the LP ports in the Titan (and all other regs I am aware of) draw air from the same gallery in the first stage body so the pressure is the same on all of the LP ports. So you would never have a situation where one of them is operating at a higher pressure than the others.

Usually if a hose fails due to excessive pressure, it is the hose that fails, not the connection to the barbed fitting. I suspect the fitting was not properly crimped at the factory and is a manufacturing defect.

 

[crlavoie]

Thanks a lot for the info. Makes me feel a little better about the reg.