gordonscuba
Contributor
The process for filling the tank is the same as for any scuba tank. For example, you can fill two hydrotanks at the shop, go on a boat and do a two-tanker, switching tanks between the dives.
Avelo system review
- Thread starter RecklessAmateur
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The process for filling the tank is the same as for any scuba tank. For example, you can fill two hydrotanks at the shop, go on a boat and do a two-tanker, switching tanks between the dives.
ekremer
Contributor
Curious what was your starting pressure in your tanks. Before loading ballast.
Also point of contention you do have a bcd as part of avelo. It's built into your tank and uses the entirety of your breathing gas but it is a buoyancy control device.
Also point of contention you do have a bcd as part of avelo. It's built into your tank and uses the entirety of your breathing gas but it is a buoyancy control device.
Black_Cloud
New
Not sure if this is the correct placement for this post, let me know if I need to change it's location.
Made a trip to Key Largo to certify on the new Avelo system.
Everything thing went well until on the last day of diving ran into an issue of the ballast / pump hose coming loose at the end of the dive in 30 feet of water.
The connection of the hose was verified by my dive partner on our pre-checks before starting dive.
Was looked over by the dive instructor before giant stride in, everything things seemed correct to all of us.
Towards the end of the dive my rear end start lifting me up to the surface rather quickly. I checked to see if any of my lead weight had fell out of the tank cage / rubber band. But they were in place. (Another diver on our dive had his fall out and I picked it up from the floor and was able to get it back into the cage of his system.) I quickly scanned the sea floor for a lost weight but there wasn't any. By this time I am upside down finning as hard as I could to stay down, but was only slowing progress not overcoming it. At which point I looked at my dive computer, realized I was at 18 feet and chose to ride it out to the surface. On the surface the dive instructor explained to me how I had neglected to connect the hose which I knew wasn't true as the two pumps I used up to that point showed pressure rising in the tank and my buoyancy was spot on. In later discussions back on land it was shared with me that the strain reliefs on the hoses can get up and around the collar that locks the hose to the assembly and when rocking around in the cup holders on the boat will push hard enough to work the strain relief up to the collar and push up on it. This was demonstrated to me with a tank in the cup holder on the boat. I think this is a serious design issue as it is the same as dropping a weight pocket or belt and you are suddenly way to buoyant. My calculations showed I was 7 pounds light when the tank bladder pushed all the water out of the tank in a split second. Had I had been at greater depth I believe I would have had to abandon the rig entirely and finish on the breath I had or hope someone is close enough to assist with air. There doesn't seem to be a problem to position the connection for the hose higher up on the back plate to eliminate the strain presented on the hose when the tank is sitting in the cup holder on the boat.
On the smaller tanks like my wife was using you cannot connect the hose because the connection sits low in the cup and you cannot connect the hose until you stand up with the system to do your dive.
So at the least if I dive on the current setup at depth, I will be using a spare air system in the case of having to shed the unit to avoid an ascent to fast for my liking. If anyone has any suggestions or concerns let me know. Thanks
Made a trip to Key Largo to certify on the new Avelo system.
Everything thing went well until on the last day of diving ran into an issue of the ballast / pump hose coming loose at the end of the dive in 30 feet of water.
The connection of the hose was verified by my dive partner on our pre-checks before starting dive.
Was looked over by the dive instructor before giant stride in, everything things seemed correct to all of us.
Towards the end of the dive my rear end start lifting me up to the surface rather quickly. I checked to see if any of my lead weight had fell out of the tank cage / rubber band. But they were in place. (Another diver on our dive had his fall out and I picked it up from the floor and was able to get it back into the cage of his system.) I quickly scanned the sea floor for a lost weight but there wasn't any. By this time I am upside down finning as hard as I could to stay down, but was only slowing progress not overcoming it. At which point I looked at my dive computer, realized I was at 18 feet and chose to ride it out to the surface. On the surface the dive instructor explained to me how I had neglected to connect the hose which I knew wasn't true as the two pumps I used up to that point showed pressure rising in the tank and my buoyancy was spot on. In later discussions back on land it was shared with me that the strain reliefs on the hoses can get up and around the collar that locks the hose to the assembly and when rocking around in the cup holders on the boat will push hard enough to work the strain relief up to the collar and push up on it. This was demonstrated to me with a tank in the cup holder on the boat. I think this is a serious design issue as it is the same as dropping a weight pocket or belt and you are suddenly way to buoyant. My calculations showed I was 7 pounds light when the tank bladder pushed all the water out of the tank in a split second. Had I had been at greater depth I believe I would have had to abandon the rig entirely and finish on the breath I had or hope someone is close enough to assist with air. There doesn't seem to be a problem to position the connection for the hose higher up on the back plate to eliminate the strain presented on the hose when the tank is sitting in the cup holder on the boat.
On the smaller tanks like my wife was using you cannot connect the hose because the connection sits low in the cup and you cannot connect the hose until you stand up with the system to do your dive.
So at the least if I dive on the current setup at depth, I will be using a spare air system in the case of having to shed the unit to avoid an ascent to fast for my liking. If anyone has any suggestions or concerns let me know. Thanks
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EDIT: What I posted here is incorrect. @Black_Cloud is correct. If the hydraulic hose became disconnected after pumping ballast water, you would lose all the ballast.
Hi @Black_Cloud
You would not lose all of your ballast water unless the pump valve was open.
If the hose was not connected to the pump at the beginning of the dive, you would not be able to pump at all. If the hose came off during the dive, you would not be able to pump again, but the ballast in the tank would not be discharged unless the pump valve was open.
On one shore dive in Bonaire, I was not able to do the initial pump and could feel the water coming out of the pump while it ran. Apparently, I had not securely attached the hose on set up. As I was solo, I had to return to shore to attach the hose and then restart the dive. I have not done that again and check the connection carefully.
Hi @Black_Cloud
You would not lose all of your ballast water unless the pump valve was open.
If the hose was not connected to the pump at the beginning of the dive, you would not be able to pump at all. If the hose came off during the dive, you would not be able to pump again, but the ballast in the tank would not be discharged unless the pump valve was open.
On one shore dive in Bonaire, I was not able to do the initial pump and could feel the water coming out of the pump while it ran. Apparently, I had not securely attached the hose on set up. As I was solo, I had to return to shore to attach the hose and then restart the dive. I have not done that again and check the connection carefully.
Black_Cloud
New
Thanks you for the reply.
If you think about it, the valve does prevent the ballast from releasing when closed. But the hose connection is before the valve itself, so in it releasing the hose connection is the same as if you opened the valve, only the ballast comes out a whole lot faster if the line comes off. The valve itself has baffles to keep the ballast from coming out in a straight line. They did this because water shooting out the valve when open with no baffle or restrictions would peel the skin of you hand with 2100 psi behind it. So when the line did come off at shallow depth the ballast purged as fast as the ballast pressure could push it. So way faster than that just opening the valve itself due to valves built in baffle system. I included a quick sketch on how the system would be behave with a hose coming off during a dive. You can see that losing the connection will in affect be the same as the valve being opened with the 2100 psi. pushing the ballast out of the hose. Hope this helps. As at first the instructor tried to tell me the same thing about the valve being closed would not have allowed this. I had to explain it a couple of ways to get them to understand how this could happen. The instructor was then going to run this past her supervisor etc. to explain this to them properly. Haven't heard back from anyone on this as of yet. Lol.
- Messages
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- 2500 - 4999
See my edit to post #14
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