The following is a copy and paste from another thread. YMMV. I am not a fan of the inflator/octo combo. I took Rescue class with a buddy that had this and while he was air sharing, it was totally awkward to hold and vent the inflator while it was in his mouth. That was my first experience with the Air2. More below. If anything happened with the inflator or LP hose, that's your Octo as well. NBD if you're on a local dive, but totally sucks if you're on a liveaboard and there are no extra octos around.
@stuartv said the following:
No way I would spend money on an Air2. I know a lot of people have them and like them. But, I suspect most of them have not ever had them when they got into a situation where they had to share air or otherwise really use it. Plus, if you go with a regular octo, you always have the option of still using your reg set with a rental BCD. E.g. if you're traveling, you could take your regs and leave your own BCD at home if you needed to, to save room and/or weight in your luggage.
I quoted him and responded with this:
I touched upon this subject with
@tbone1004 last week. I totally agree with you as well,
@stuartv. After coming back to your thread and reading your comments as well, I have something to share that happened on Sunday when I was out diving with a group. A friend of mine who has the Air II connected all of her gear, turned on her air, and there was a hissing noise. Yup, an air leak somewhere. Further inspection and our ears told us that it was coming from the low pressure inflator hose attachment. She didn't want to call the dive and didn't have another BC she could use because there was none and because she didn't have a traditional octo even if we did have a spare BC. She decided to dive anyway without the LP hose attached. She made sure to tell everyone to not go to her if an issue comes up because she won't have spare air/reg to share in an emergency. In short, my thoughts were, in an emergency, I'll try to remember that. Thankfully, she's not my buddy. She inflated her bc orally under water and at the surface the entire dive. Kudos to her.
So there is a real world example. One might say that she should carefully checked her gear and called the dive, but with so many possible issues, I think it's just easier to have a traditional octo for peace of mind. Also, should I need to replace or fix something, a traditional corrugated inflator hose is probably much easier to swap out or as
@stuartv mentioned, I could just connect to another BC easily if my BC became an issue.
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Also quoting
@tbone1004 from another thread:
Now, real world issues on a theoretical level
People talk about the following points
Makes their gear more streamlined because it is one less hose. Yes it removes a hose, however it comes at the cost of having to use a longer corrugated hose and not being able to retain it close to the body easily. This actually makes it less streamlined than a primary donate regulator setup.
Makes their gear less complicated because it's one less hose. BS, you go from industry standard fittings on the QD's to requiring a custom hose for that product. If that hose fails, you now have to find the hose specific to that inflator *they aren't a standardized fitting across brands*. If you can't find one locally, then you not only lose power inflation which is a luxury to have though certainly not a dive ending issue, you lose your secondary regulator for air. That's a big problem. I think DGX is now important some regulator hose adapters for them which makes the compatibility less of a problem since it still uses a standard reg hose, but it's extra steps, and an extra o-ring to fail.
It also ties your regulator to your BC. If your BC fails for whatever reason, your regulator set is now not compatible with any other BCD unless it has an Air2 with the same connection as yours. If it doesn't have one, you lose your power inflate ability because the QD isn't compatible, but you also don't have a secondary second stage which is a safety issue since buddy breathing is no longer taught.
It ties your BC to your regulator. Same issue as above though more of a nuisance than anything but a potential safety issue. If your reg set has an issue and you have to use a rental set, you lose the ability to power inflate. This isn't a safety issue until your muscle memory goes to grab your Air2 in an OOA scenario and it isn't connected to anything.
So, those are the problems with it on paper. The compatibility issue for me is the biggest deal breaker and a SUPER annoying one.
In real world use. Deflating the BCD while breathing on it is something that makes me laugh every time someone tries to use them. It is never graceful, and someone almost always has a real problem with it. Lots of documented stories about them on here, many fairly recently.
My students are not allowed to use them in their open water training, no ifs ands or buts. If their rental or personal gear has them, they are required to have a normal second stage on a suicide strap around their neck for OOA scenarios, no exceptions.
