BCD Failure

[Diving Dubai]

Link is broken…

They're having server issues right now. To fix a "broken link" substitute teh WWW of a URL with WEB
and it should work

Thus

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/messed-up-and-ascended-like-a-missile.566953/page-8#post-8403115

Becomes

https://web.scubaboard.com/community/threads/messed-up-and-ascended-like-a-missile.566953/page-8#post-8403115

up and ascended like a missile

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I have heard here that many times BCD attachments for the power inflator or the ORV have failed underwater, because they “unscrewed.” Well, believe it or not, this is a design failure. I seem to remember that some of the old valves had a set screw that was screwed into the valve when it was tight, at the factory. This precluded the fitting from unscrewing until the set screw was removed. Apparently, this has been left off on current designs.

Now, think of a regulator which would unscrew itself while underwater! That would not be allowed, and would be recalled quickly. I remember a Dacor recall for a piece of the purge button that could come apart, and that warranted recalling the regulators and making it right.

Why not the same with the BCDs?

SeaRat

 

[BlueTrin]

.

 

[Catito]

They're having server issues right now. To fix a "broken link" substitute teh WWW of a URL with WEB
and it should work

Thus

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/messed-up-and-ascended-like-a-missile.566953/page-8#post-8403115

Becomes

https://web.scubaboard.com/community/threads/messed-up-and-ascended-like-a-missile.566953/page-8#post-8403115

up and ascended like a missile

Thank you

 

[CT-Rich]

The simplest solution is almost always the best. Dumping lead was his safest option to stay at the surface and get on the boat. A couple of minutes dicking around with a DSMB may have put him out of reach of the the boat, making the situation worse not better.

Situations like this are a judgement call for the diver. He got to pick a solution that put him on the surface and back in the boat. He could have chosen the DSMB route, but didn’t.

Lead is cheap, and dropping it is the fastest way to de-escalate a situation on the surface. If you are comfortable getting out your DSMB and orally inflating it, by all means, but second guessing a diver’s decision when he got out of the water alive isn’t fair. I was just reading about a diver who was lost 30 miles out. It’s not 100% clear whether he made it to the surface or not (his body washed ashore), but it would suck to end up out of reach of the boat because you were trying avoid dropping $50 of lead.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Well, believe it or not, this is a design failure

It really isn’t

It’s a failure to carry out the most basic Pre use checks and then Pre dive checks

I remove my inflator hose and dumps regularly to clean my BCD’s and wings. There’s a fair amount of built in resistance on the threads. I’ve never found one loose Pre dive, and I only tighten them finger tight

obv the shop should have put them together properly but even so, if you’re going to jump into water too deep to stand in, best check your gear before hand

 

[Outbound]

If you buddy had 1,500 left when they surfaced, they made the right choice by dumping their weights. Some have been advocating being neutrally buoyant at 15ft (5m) [I don’t agree with the depth, it is better at 1 or 2m]. However, your buddy would have still been negatively buoyant because of the gas they still had.

Yeah, but only by about 2 lbs. That's hardly enough to sink a properly weighted diver like a stone. I'm not saying that ditching weights was a bad choice - his buddy was able to get back to the surface safely and everything worked out okay in the end, and that's all that matters. But it definitely sounds like he was overweighted to begin with.

 

[CT-Rich]

Yeah, but only by about 2 lbs. That's hardly enough to sink a properly weighted diver like a stone. I'm not saying that ditching weights was a bad choice - his buddy was able to get back to the surface safely and everything worked out okay in the end, and that's all that matters. But it definitely sounds like he was overweighted to begin with.

I am a firm believer in ‘when **** goes sideways on the surface, you never have too many options’. On the surface in rough water can suck and I am normally able to ditch all ballast that is not my cylinder on the surface. You should be able to breath on the surface with little to no effort after a dive. Diving in the NE US, we are never diving without a wetsuit or Drysuit. So having ditchable weight is not an issue. Diving in a skin, I can see having an only a couple of pounds.

 

[inquis]

Dumping lead was his safest option to stay at the surface and get on the boat.

Of course it was -- at that moment -- no argument there from me. However, I believe the direness of that situation was caused by a previous error in weight selection.

The whole DSMB angle is really only relevant if this had occurred at depth when wetsuit compression was a significant factor.

 

[Nemrod]

All this aside, you can go to a hardware store and buy a couple of self threading sheet metal screws. Little bitty ones and very short. Take a drill and put like a number 60 hole or perhaps like a number 50 in the valve body, through the cap and through the inner flange. Then simply thread the little screw in. And now it cannot come loose again.

The diver did the right thing. But it is evident he was grossly overweighted. Otherwise he would not have sunk so quickly to 30 feet as per the OP while finning up. The ABC agencies teach snorkels, not SMBs, they teach lead, not buoyancy control via the lungs, they do all of their skills over weighted kneeling on the bottom of the pool, they teach the BC as a crutch for being a non swimmer and uncomfortable in the water as if it were some sort of PFD or safety device, which it is not, never was and should not be relied upon as such.

I have gotten lazy and tend to just grab some lead out of the bucket but I also have jettisonable weight more than enough to establish positive buoyancy at any point in the dive. To do otherwise is asking for a Darwin Award, JMO.

N