Basic SCUBA (Air Supply) Equipment Faliure: How frequent does it happen?

[MaxBottomtime]

In nearly 2000 dives I've had two hoses burst. One was at the surface and one was in six feet. Both were old hoses without hose protectors that I should have replaced sooner. Some of my buddies have been diving for nearly sixty years without any equipment failures.

 

[TMHeimer]

I've only had my LPI hose detatch (my fault I guess)- continued the dive orally inflating. Had my LPI inflator continually inflating--detatched it quickly & of course ended the dive, bought a new one (hey, an OW skill in action...). Lost a ten pound wt. pocket twice. I have old used equipment (8 years) and maintain it regularly. On a boat last year I got the prize for oldest stuff.

 

[dfx]

I've had the mouthpiece separate from the second stage of a rental reg halfway through the dive. That was on my dive #40. I had a short panic moment, but then after I realized what was going on, I switched to my octo and all was good. In the meantime my buddy/wife had her octo ready and in her hand as well. It left me a bit shaken up for a minute, but otherwise no problem.

On closer inspection of the other rental regs in their fleet, a lot of them had the mouthpiece insecurely attached to the second stage. Some of them didn't have anything holding the mouthpiece in place.

 

[pisoiu]

I've had a VR3 pressure sensor failed in a pool training session. Computer was second hand from ebay.

 

[dshorwich]

Back in 1996 I had the second stage of a poorly-maintained rental reg literally fall apart on me at about 65 fsw. Of course I should have checked the reg on the boat beforehand, and if I had I probably would've detected the problem, but I was a newbie (on my 22nd dive) and didn't yet have a solid pre-dive gear-check routine in place.

I bought myself a reg when I got back from that trip.

 

[T-Wrecks]

No Open Water equipment is "life support", since by definition, a safe ascent to the surface is always possible on an Open Water dive.

flots.

While your list of causes of incident is accurate, I couldn't disagree more with your claim about dive gear. Water is a hostile environment to humans, and in this environment SCUBA gear is the very definition of life support. The notion of "don't worry, you can always safely surface" fosters poor diving practices and de-emphasizes safety and situational awareness. The underwater world we love so much is dangerous, and telling OW divers otherwise is negligent on our part.

That said, the only equipment failure I have experienced at depth was an extruded o-ring at ~40ft during a decent. The tank violently free flowed from the valve and I was able to ascend, change cylinders, and execute the dive. Proper training and presence of mind while diving make most equipment failures simply manageable inconveniences.

 

[PeterNBiddle]

the most common failure I have witnessed would be integrated weight pockets falling out.

I keep seeing this come up as an equipment failure. I'm not familiar with every integrated weight pocket design, but near as I can tell this has got to be at least partially, if not entirely, due to diver failure. The diver failed to actually secure the weight pockets resulting in a loss.

I vigorously tug on our weight pockets as part of every pre-dive check. They aren't just randomly failing out after that. But I can easily see how someone could push their pockets into their spots and assume they are secured only to discover they aren't secured when they lose them later.

That's like forgetting to secure your cam band(s) - it's not an equipment failure, it's diver failure.

 

[Kronek]

Peter, Weight pockets on a rental fleet see far more release and replaces than a personal set of gear, they are usually just tossed in a crate as well. A weight pocket that is in good shape is very unlikely to fall out when installed correctly. However a pocket with a series of 2lb weights can cause it all to slide forward, and cause it to flip out of the slot. This will put stress on the buckle and it will fail causing it to fall out.

Most lost pockets that I have seen are exactly that. I always have either 2 5lb, or a 10lb brick in my pockets. Very rarely will I have anything else in them.

 

[halocline]

While your list of causes of incident is accurate, I couldn't disagree more with your claim about dive gear. Water is a hostile environment to humans, and in this environment SCUBA gear is the very definition of life support.

The reason many of us object to the term "life support" is because it implies that if your gear fails, you die. Do you think that's true, or are you trained to simply deal with it, maybe share air, and safely ascend.

Technical diving, where you do not have immediate access to the surface, is an entirely different world. In that case, you always have redundant gear, including redundant gas.

 

[flots am]

While your list of causes of incident is accurate, I couldn't disagree more with your claim about dive gear. Water is a hostile environment to humans, and in this environment SCUBA gear is the very definition of life support. The notion of "don't worry, you can always safely surface" fosters poor diving practices and de-emphasizes safety and situational awareness. The underwater world we love so much is dangerous, and telling OW divers otherwise is negligent on our part.

The very definition of Recreational Open Water SCUBA is that surfacing at any time, for any reason is safe. And it is. If it isn't then the diver has exceeded the parameters of their training. If the diver runs out of air and has no buddy nearby (which is extremely common with infrequent divers), surfacing is always an option.

While it's nice to avoid problems and handle them underwater when they occur, this is beyond the capabilities of the vast majority of Open Water divers and can not be reasonably expected.

SCUBA gear is only "life support" if you're someplace where surfacing is dangerous or impossible. However these places and dives are not allowed in recreational SCUBA.

flots.