BC with a co2 cart. in a pawn shop

[DougK]

One of my buddies who frequents pawn shops stopped into his local favorite place this week and saw a BC for sale. He knows I dive and told me about it.

I am just now starting to think about buying gear beyond the mask, fins, etc.

Since the shop was near the office I stopped in to see what it was.

The item was a Sherwood Scuba Pro and it looked to be in good shape. The BC had a CO2 cart. on it and I have not dived with one of these. I checked Sherwood's web site but did not find this model. What is the CO2 used for?

Turned out the BC was to small for me, so no danger in my buying it.

Would anybody ever consider buying one from a pawn shop?

Since this would be my first, I think I would be better getting a new one or one used from a shop.

This seemed risky?

 

[boomx5]

One of my buddies who frequents pawn shops stopped into his local favorite place this week and saw a BC for sale. He knows I dive and told me about it.

I am just now starting to think about buying gear beyond the mask, fins, etc.

Since the shop was near the office I stopped in to see what it was.

The item was a Sherwood Scuba Pro and it looked to be in good shape. The BC had a CO2 cart. on it and I have not dived with one of these. I checked Sherwood's web site but did not find this model. What is the CO2 used for?

Turned out the BC was to small for me, so no danger in my buying it.

Would anybody ever consider buying one from a pawn shop?

Since this would be my first, I think I would be better getting a new one or one used from a shop.

This seemed risky?

They had them in the 80's but did away with them because they were dangerous. I actually learned to dive in one in 87' when I got certified. I would get a newer model bc and stay away from the older stuff unless you know what you're looking for.

 

[PugetDiver]

One of my buddies who frequents pawn shops stopped into his local favorite place this week and saw a BC for sale. He knows I dive and told me about it.

I am just now starting to think about buying gear beyond the mask, fins, etc.

Since the shop was near the office I stopped in to see what it was.

The item was a Sherwood Scuba Pro and it looked to be in good shape. The BC had a CO2 cart. on it and I have not dived with one of these. I checked Sherwood's web site but did not find this model. What is the CO2 used for?

Turned out the BC was to small for me, so no danger in my buying it.

Would anybody ever consider buying one from a pawn shop?

Since this would be my first, I think I would be better getting a new one or one used from a shop.

This seemed risky?

I would stay away from Swap Meet Louie. Anything you purchased would need to be checked out and serviced before use, costing extra cash. If you are under a budget why not call Scuba.com or Scubatoys.com. both of these companies are authorized dealers of all their equipment and they will make you a great deal. I personally have used Scuba.com with excellent success and I know people here have had the same success with Subatoys.

Good Luck and stay away from Swap Meet Louie!

 

[pt40fathoms]

It was probably a nice orange color too, I have one.

Don't waste your time or money. It may be a perfectly good functioning peice of kit, but consider the source and add to that the fact that it is part of your life support system.

I would stick to buying used CD's and musical instruments from pawn shops. If you want to buy used scuba gear because you are on a tight budget, and are new to scuba. Shop the dive shops that you can walk into if at all possible at first. Almost every dive shop that teaches will have used equipment that they will sell.

 

[ScubaSarus]

Do it right spend a little. You dont have to pay shop prices but buy a good BC and do yourself a favor. My buddy used a rental and the button stuck and he shot to the surface in 15 ft of water. Thank gawd he didnt embolize.

 

[mle_osu]

so i am curious... what is the co2 cart. for??

 

[DougK]

I am not really intersted in buying this I was more curious what the CO2 was used for??????

 

[MSilvia]

It's an auto inflator, so you can get bouyant quickly (at the surface) if you have a first stage failure or OOA situation. The problem is they sometimes accidentally got pierced at depth and sent the wearers for a rocket ride.

Inflatable life jackets still use them.

 

[Marek K]

My first BC back in 1986 (a stab-jacket Sherwood (?), but it was dark blue) had a CO2 cartridge too... lower right.

Scary thing is, I don't remember ever reading -- or even being trained -- on how to use the cartridge. Can anyone remember what doctrine was? I think a lot of people back then assumed that the cartridge could be used in an emergency to establish positive buoyancy underwater. Actually, it sure would do that! :11:

But putting things into context, there was much less emphasis then than there is now, on slow ascents. And actuating the cartridge may not be that much worse than dropping a heavy weight belt underwater (no, I don't ever intend on doing that!!). Doing both, that would be another story.

Fortunately, toward the late '80's, it was becoming more and more common to leave the cartridge off.

--Marek

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I agree, the effect of activating the CO2 cartridge was no worse than dropping a weight belt and at deoth the effect was far less. Cartridges were (and still are) available in several sizes from 6 grams to 38 grams and the cartridge size was selected to fill the BC at the surface. If the cartridge were properly sized to just fill a BC with (for example) 40 lbs of lift at the surface, it would only provide 20 lbs at 33 ft, 13 lbs 66 feet, 10 lbs at 99 ft, and 8 lbs at 132 ft. Not much thrust to launch your rocket if inadvertantly activated at depth, and far less lift than dropping many weightbelts used ith cold water wet suits and dry suits. And unlike a weight belt, the CO2 bouyancy effect was reversible, as the CO2 could be vented from the jacket to reduce bouyancy as you go up, so if you had 8 lbs at 132' it was a simple matter to maintain it all the way to the surface.

Flaring into a spread eagle position adds an insane amount of drag under water (twice the velocity imposes four times the drag) and if you flare underwater even with a 1/2 full BC with 20 lbs of lift at 33', the ascent rate is pretty reasonable. And again it is adjustable as you can dump CO2 on the way up. The problem, if any, was with divers who did not have the brains to flare and instead assumed a streamlined vertical position. When you act like an ICBM nose cone, you should not be surprised when you ascend like one.

But all that aside, the primary intent of the CO2 cartridge was to asssist the diver in quickly establishing bouyancy at the surface. This started with older oral inflate BC's and still had merit for power inflate BC's in the event the diver surfaced OOA. The big advantage was that it saved the diver from having to drop the weight belt and did not ruin the potential for additional dives that day. They were actually a pretty good idea.

Back in the day when a diver had an OOA or something similarly challenging they dealt with it, chalked it up as a learning experience, decided it was a good idea not to repeat that particular experience and then went diving. Today it seems to be much more common for divers to run home, jump on the computer and relate their "near death experience" on a forum somewhere. I am not sure when the change in what constituted the average diver exactly occurred, but when it did things like CO2 cartridges dissapeared as the average diver was far less likely to acknowledge they screwed up and was instead far more likely to sue after a self defined "near death experience".