Broken Inflator hose connection on a BCD

[bradlw]

that stinks for sure. Never good when equipment fails earlier than it seems like it should....

I'd be tempted if the bladder was still in great shape otherwise...supple, not cracked or dry, etc... to cut out the area as small as possible, glue over a patch, then cut a new hole to fit the new inflator hose.....might as well replace the dump valve and hoses while I'm at it.... would be my thought.

I'm reminded of a charter boat dive I did down in SE FL many years ago. I was still a relatively new diver and heaviliy into the gadgets. The Boy Scout in my had me toting spare parts, redundant almost everything.... I probably looked like a wannabe side mount cave diver going on the 60ft reef dives with stuff dangling in every direction....

So the dive boat captain decides he's going to jump in...I spot him swimming by down on the bottom....he's sporting this old badly faded jacket BC, no lights, no paraphernalia at all...just a simple old BC and a basic rental type regulator...and I notice the BC does NOT even have a power inflator attached....just an open ended corrugated hose. Dawned on me that he's using it as if it were one of those old timey plastic back plates.

Schlepping my stuff back off the boat after the dive, back breaking monster gear bag and all, I think is when I started to appreciate the KISS principle

 

[lmorin]

Follow-up to my original post. Wife has a new BC, obviously. We have been told that failure of the plastic connector to the inflator hose is the most common cause for divers buying a new BC on Bonaire. In fact, we also learned that 2 diving friends in our condo complex suffered the same problem a week earlier.

To the point about plastic failing with time, heat, light, etc. True, but I must point out that the complementary plastic connector on the inflator hose looks and acts as good as new. It is a materials choice problem in the manufacture of the BCD and not a consequence of the "plastic ultimately fails" generality.

 

[Searcaigh]

To the point about plastic failing with time, heat, light, etc. True, but I must point out that the complementary connector on the inflator hose looks and acts as good as new. It is a materials choice problem in the manufacture of the BCD and not a consequence of the "plastic ultimately fails" generality.

Sounds like perhaps someone was lifting the BC with tank attached using the hose?

 

[lmorin]

Sounds like perhaps someone was lifting the BC with tank attached using the hose?

No, doubtful. All the failures about which I have personal knowledge have occurred in BCD used by very responsible divers who never pull on the inflator hose to dump air or handle the BCDs roughly. We do hang them from one or both of the shoulder straps from a strong wooden peg in a public gear room. It is possible that strain of a BCD with integrated weights might be too much directly on the shoulder connector over a long time. Hard to tell about that, however.

Maybe small fracture lines would show up with close inspection or maybe not. Let me repeat that the failures were catastrophic, i.e., nothing was wrong until it was completely wrong. IMHO, the owner of the BCD should do an inspection with a magnifying glass regularly as the BCD gets on in years.

 

[mattroth54]

Contact Zeagle. They just offered to replace bladder on my Stiletto with the exact same problem, for fraction of price of new bladder. I’m sending the entire bcd their way for the swap plus full going over. Couldn’t believe it! Love this bcd!

 

[The2ndBest]

No it’s where the power inflator connects, above the right shoulder. The white plastic threaded part br

Well I just had the same problem with a different BCD and came up with this solution. It worked well for me:

Scuba BCD through-wall fitting | Sweeney Engineering

This through-wall fitting is designed to replace the OEM epoxied bladder connection fittings on Sherwood Silhouette BCDs used for the air filler hose and dump valve connections. The OEM fittings degrade and crack with age and Sherwood does not supply replacements (forcing you to buy a new BCD...

www.sweeneyengineeringllc.com