BOV with MAV and/or ADV - thoughts?

[rjack321]

Can anyone post a photo of a QC6 inflator cheater that I've heard about. I'll be inflating from one onboard tank and was told about the QC6 cheater in case that reg fails or bottle goes dry(though it shouldn't). I've heard some people just add an inflation hose to bailout bottles, but why have extra hoses that will rarely get used. I assume the cheater is just a female QC6 on one end of an inflator hose. Should be small enough to keep in a drysuit pocket I suspect.

Just an example...

In a cave, my left SM bottle drives:
QC6 #1 = BOV
QC6 #2 = Wing and ADV

Right SM bottle
Spare QC6
Spare BC whip for suitgas

I had the SPG fail on my left SM bottle in peacock. I turned off the valve because bubbles are annoying. Now I had to decide what to plug in where. The CCR was fine so I popped off #2 and plugged in the right SM bottle. Even though this hose was stuffed on the right bottle it was harder to do in a no flow cave than you'd expect. At least now I had a wing and ADV again. And a mostly full but shut down left bottle plumbed to a BOV. We finished the circuit we were doing and exited.

 

[tbone1004]

@rjack321 why not bov/wing/adv one line?

 

[rjack321]

@rjack321 why not bov/wing/adv one line?

Too many eggs in one basket for me. If one of those LP hoses or the manifold itself fails I am SOL.

I can add dil via the ADV or the BOV
The wing I could in theory run off the suit whip on the right bottle if I had to
I could go OC on the BOV for a moment and orally inflate the wing before going back to CCR.

Many more options by having 2 QC6s feeding the BOV and wing/adv manifold separately. I color code mine, BOV hoses are yellow, wing/adv are black. Helps if my buddy needs to check or investigate something too.

ps as mentioned earlier, in a cave my "dil" bottle runs my suit

 

[rddvet]

Maybe I should have been more specific. I'm not actually diving a rb yet, will be as of December when my wife and I have class. Been lurking and watching all of the rb posts I can find. I'll be buying a fathom. Obviously during instruction all of the options for setup will be discussed. The fathom is all offboard dil, with the onboard dil being replaced to be inflation. I haven't so far seen anybody with a fathom thus far adding an additional hose to their bailout bottles for back up inflation. I've heard of a couple people using cheaters in case for some reason they need to inflate from bailout. I didn't want to hijack this thread, but since the topic of inflation came up, I thought I'd see if anybody had a photo of one of the "cheaters" . I would assume it's a female qc6 that can plug into a bailout tank's male with a bc inflator on the other end.

 

[tbone1004]

@rddvet the picture that I posted of that cheater is what you would use with a fathom since your bottles will be QC6's

 

[lv2dive]

Yep I’m one who just about always runs 10/70ish in my 3L dil bottle, and I plumb my BOV into my left BO tank (bottom gas). And my BO is almost always going to be hypoxic on dives deeper than ~100’ bc I have dedicated SM bailout bottles and one set has 21/35 and the other has a very low o2 / very high He mix to support dives to 300’.

I know I’m not using the BOV until I hit 20’ on the descent (or after on the ascent) - if I need to bail out on a hypoxic mix, I’ve typically got a minimum of a couple of non-hypoxic bottles (O2 and 50%) to go to if I can’t just hit the surface.

I ALWAYS check my BOV is working, although with a hypoxic mix that is tested just by purging it.

I'm wondering how you would do a deeper dive if you can't allow the BOV plugged into a hypoxic mix. Switch block? Seems annoying and risky.

Or do you change how this works with on a hypoxic dive and then you have to remember “oh I'm on a hypoxic BOV I need to make sure that I don't use it above 20'”

Seems like you could consolidate to “don't use the BOV above 20'” as a general rule.

 

[rddvet]

@rddvet the picture that I posted of that cheater is what you would use with a fathom since your bottles will be QC6's

I don't actually see a photo. I assume you don't mean the link to piranha? I see a little spot that says [image] but no photo

 

[Superlyte27]

I ALWAYS check my BOV is working, although with a hypoxic mix that is tested just by purging it.

Kate I'd take at least one breath underwater with it. If the diaphragm has a split or has a hole in it, the purge will work, but the BOV will not. I caught this issue upon borrowing a piece of gear from Pete Sotis one day.

 

[tbone1004]

I don't actually see a photo. I assume you don't mean the link to piranha? I see a little spot that says [image] but no photo

bits from left to right
BC Inflator to Reg hose
Reg hose to 3/8-24m first stage
3/8-24f to 1/4" mnpt
1/4" fnpt QC6

without a machinist you can't really save any steps on that guy unfortunately. Only thing you can do is change the reg hose to first stage adapter to an actual reg hose

 

[PfcAJ]

Kate I'd take at least one breath underwater with it. If the diaphragm has a split or has a hole in it, the purge will work, but the BOV will not. I caught this issue upon borrowing a piece of gear from Pete Sotis one day.

Agree

It’s not like 10% makes you pass out after a single breath or anything.