All about H-valves and Y-valves

[scubafanatic]

....definitely raise the tank (or lower the BC) to achieve the optimum valve height.......I dive a fairly wide variety of tanks (LP 85--slightly smaller than an AL80, and much bigger LP 120's....and an 'inbetween' PST HP 130) and can easily reach the valves on all.....you just have to experiment to get the height where you want it..

The issue is a big deal to me, most recently as I had a brush with disaster last weekend @ Cozumel.......actually 2 'brushes' where inability to reach tank valves could have cost me big time.

Did 8 boat dives within 48 hrs...which was blast.......but on 2 dives the dive operator forgot to turn on my valve....the 1st time I caught it before jumping in when I breathed off the reg so they turned it on with no further incident........but on a later dive I cut things a lot closer and it could have gotten ugly. On this dive I was rushing to get in the water, looked at my SPG, which indicated a full tank.......and then I shot some air in the BC, heard the air inflate it, and proceeded to jump in.....luckily the BC had enough air to keep me at the surface, 'cause as I sucked on the reg upon hitting the water and got NOTHING !!!

Turns out they'd pressurized my system, then turned it off and forgot to turn it back on........so when I looked at the SPG it indicated 2300-2400 psi, and I didn't watch the SPG when I consumed that little bit of air half-inflating my BC, which would have indicated a drop to 0 psi, and I forgot to breath off the reg until hitting the water....luckily I remained on the surface .....otherwise I'd have to have made a really fast decision to ditch the weightbelt and power my way back up with no air in my lungs!

Since the dive operator always assembled the gear and we were in a hurry to get all the divers in the water simultaneously, there wasn't time to custom adjust the tank height.......and I dove 'short' 24 '" long LP 95's, so they were mounted too low for me to reach by myself.....which wasn't as issue until Murphy's law struck......but I was fortunate that time!

This sort of thing has never happened to me as until last weekend I'd always set up my own gear....the time I let someone else do it for me was the time it went wrong...again underlining the need to always be able to reach one's tank valves unassisted.

Karl

 

[Dryglove]

scubafanatic once bubbled...
[BDid 8 boat dives within 48 hrs...which was blast.......but on 2 dives the dive operator forgot to turn on my valve....the 1st time I caught it before jumping in when I breathed off the reg so they turned it on with no further incident........but on a later dive I cut things a lot closer and it could have gotten ugly. On this dive I was rushing to get in the water, looked at my SPG, which indicated a full tank.......and then I shot some air in the BC, heard the air inflate it, and proceeded to jump in.....luckily the BC had enough air to keep me at the surface, 'cause as I sucked on the reg upon hitting the water and got NOTHING !!!

the time I let someone else do it for me was the time it went wrong...again underlining the need to always be able to reach one's tank valves unassisted.
[/B]

You already know that you should double check everything yourself. By not doing it yourself your air was off twice without you knowing it.Seems you would have learned after the first incident.

 

[pasley]

scubafanatic once bubbled...
[B Did 8 boat dives within 48 hrs...which was blast.......but on 2 dives the dive operator forgot to turn on my valve [/B]

Two points which you already know.

1. IMHO You are responsible for your own equipment, especially since if there is a mistake, it is your life at risk or forfeited.

2. After the first incident, you were on notice that the crew, in the haste to get to everyone and do it all, occasionally made mistakes. The crew setting up everyones gear and getting it ready is truely the lap of luxury, but a situation that is prone to errors with the crewman doing the same thing over and over again, they may confuse this rig with the last rig they did one minute before and think they have already done something.

But you survived and had an awsome time I bet.

 

[scubafanatic]

...well, hindsight is always 20/20.........it was my 1st blue water diving, and I was a bit caught up in all the novelty of the situation.........and maybe a little too trustful, assuming the dive operator, who did this all day, everyday was unlikely to screw up such simple things.

.....I caught it the 1st time as I should have, drawing off the reg and discovering the air off.........for whatever reason I went a little too fast on the other dive, glanced approvingly at my fully pressurized SPG, and routinely shooting some air in my BC, but not drawing on the reg until hitting the water......so I did a half-check, so to speak, and got fooled......just was going a little too fast and had a little too much going on at one time I guess....learned a lession though.

What's wierd is of the 9 divers of the group, I'm the only one reporting air tanks not turned on...and it happened to me twice.

Yeah, to say I had an awesome time would be the understatement of the century !!! Did 2 dives Friday afternoon/4 dives Sat--including a night dive/ 2 dives Sunday morning.......the ocean was a calm as a pond, sunny, vis was forever.......the dive conditions/sites were better than I'd ever hoped......I feel very fortunate things turned out so picture-perfect!

(Yes, I've already scheduled a return trip in late Oct.)

Karl

 

[Rick Murchison]

RichLockyer once bubbled...
I touched on that two messages up.
The left post is extremely difficult to reach and operate.
If you can't reach it and operate it and it gets rolled off, you've got two problems... you have no idea how much gas you have left, and if you have to go to your backup reg, it's going to be dry.

The only advantage I see to the H over the Y is that the H can be reconfigured into a doubles system without changing the valve.

As someone who actually dives "H" valves with some frequency, I must take issue with these points.
The left post isn't hard to reach at all - hell, if you want to, you can roll the valve forward so the valve knob's pointed at your ear - but you don't need to.
Roll-off is just simply not a problem with an "H" valve. Any bumping will be on the outboard (left) side of the valve knob, and that's a roll on situation. (Now, with a right side "H" valve you could have a problem with roll-off - in fact with double roll-off, but I don't dive that configuration) It may be a bit of a problem with a "Y" valve but still less than with the left post on doubles.
The last statement is absolutely correct - the only advantage to an "H" valve over a "Y" is ease of reconfiguration to either a simple "K" by plugging it or to doubles by adding a manifold and another valve.
Rick

 

[Rick Murchison]

scubafanatic once bubbled...
...well, hindsight is always 20/20........

There are two kinds of divers... there are those who have jumped in with the air off... and those who will.
Rick (first group)

 

[scubafanatic]

.......well Rick, guess I've been 'initiated' into the brotherhood of purple-faced divers.......(with a tinge of beet red)...by the way, is there, like a patch, or something.....showing a little diver, purple-faced, sucking on a reg?


Karl

 

[Rick Murchison]

scubafanatic once bubbled...
.......well Rick, guess I've been 'initiated' into the brotherhood of purple-faced divers.......(with a tinge of beet red)...by the way, is there, like a patch, or something.....showing a little diver, purple-faced, sucking on a reg?
Karl

Not that I know of... but it ain't a bad idea, that!
--------
On a more serious note, the business of being able to reach one's valves is of life-or-death importance. If you read the accident reports, hardly a year goes by without someone drowning because they can't reach back and turn on the gas.
Rick

 

[H2OHead]

As just mentioned above. Look to Thermo for a 300 bar DIN H valve.

 

[Robinhood]

Globaldiver,
Which H valve did you purchase? I just picked up my PST e-130 and need to get an H valve and I'm going through the choices just as you did a couple of months back.