Bubble Check Problem

[limeyx]

another reason why i like my DIN

As NW said, DIN's can easily leak -- I've seen countless streams of bubbles coming out of DIN 1st stages (usually a dirty O-ring is all)

 

[spectrum]

You and your buddy have finished a bubble check at the surface. Your buddy tells you that you have a stream of small, discrete bubbles coming out from somewere in the neighborhood of your first stage regulator.

What do you do?

If it's a boat dive to significant depth then it's out of the water to inspect.

This assumes we're not dealing with a Sherwood dry bleed which your profile rules out. We dive Sherwood's and try inform new buddies to expect to see a small alka-seltzer like bubble stream from the black plug on our first stages.

If you're making a shore dive with a decent bottom below I would (have) been just as tempted to drop down (10-15') and do a BC R&R and self inspection while I'm out there. What I did after that would depend on the source of the bubbles, the size of the stream, the dive at hand and since I can now see first hand how good or bad the visibility is that day. Being a shore dive I have the time to deal with it rationally and with a back-up regulator in the vehicle I can have a win-win situation.

Pete

 

[Crazy Fingers]

You guys are some paranoid people. Seriously. You would call a dive for a little o-ring leakage??? Especially if you had paid money to do the dive??? Come on! :11:

It is glaringly obvious if the bubbles are coming from the first stage itself or from a leaky O-ring. Rental tanks' O-rings always leak. It takes a lot more bubbles for it to actually affect your dive time than you think. I've had them sound like sizzling bacon at the surface and noticed no real effect on my calculated air consumption. Probably 2/3rds everyone I have ever seen underwater had leaky o-rings. I have yet to see an O-ring catastrophically fail (that doesn't mean they don't just BLOW, but it's not a common occurence even with leaky rings.) Even if it did, you should still be able to make it to the surface.

Now if the first stage itself is truly leaking and that is not a normal thing for it, then you might have a problem. If the dive were relatively easy I would dive it any ways as long as it appeared to function on the surface and the rate was relatively low. I wouldn't go 120 feet into a zero viz swirling vortex with it though!

 

[nereas]

You guys are some paranoid people. Seriously. You would call a dive for a little o-ring leakage??? ...

Definitely.

 

[spectrum]

Did read the prior posts? I just went back and with very few exceptions almost every diver said that would investigate and make a case by case decision based on what they saw and how that risk bounced against the planned dive.

To suggest a more liberal approach is reckless.

Pete

 

[Crazy Fingers]

Did read the prior posts? I just went back and with very few exceptions almost every diver said that would investigate and make a case by case decision based on what they saw and how that risk bounced against the planned dive.

To suggest a more liberal approach is reckless.

Pete

The majority of the posts on this thread are ridiculous in the amount of attention they pay to this matter. See post #24 (where I truly hope he is kidding but can't tell.) Here's how it should work...

1) Get in water.
2) Notice bubbles coming from 1st stage/valve area.
3) Determine that it is from O-ring (this should literally take less than a second.)
4) If the bubbles coming out aren't golf ball sized or bigger, or sound like a jet aircraft, then do the dive.

The whole process should be seamless and take less than ~3 seconds. Seriously.

 

[Scram Bulleggs]

Doing my pool work to get cert everytime the class submerged it looked like someone tossed in a few million alkseltzers. My first ocean dive 3 out of the 4 divers had champagne bubbles for the dives.

 

[Crazy Fingers]

Doing my pool work to get cert everytime the class submerged it looked like someone tossed in a few million alkseltzers. My first ocean dive 3 out of the 4 divers had champagne bubbles for the dives.

Oh my god, that was so reckless of the instructor, the dive master, and the boat captain to let those people dive like that. Let's call PADI to try to get the instructors' certs revoked, let's call the coast guard to punish the boat captain, and then let's post on the internet about how much better we are than those stupid divers with bubbles.

 

[BigTuna]

The majority of the posts on this thread are ridiculous in the amount of attention they pay to this matter. See post #24 (where I truly hope he is kidding but can't tell.) Here's how it should work...

1) Get in water.
2) Notice bubbles coming from 1st stage/valve area.
3) Determine that it is from O-ring (this should literally take less than a second.)
4) If the bubbles coming out aren't golf ball sized or bigger, or sound like a jet aircraft, then do the dive.

The whole process should be seamless and take less than ~3 seconds. Seriously.

Why should knowing it's a small O-ring leak make me feel OK? If the ring fails catastrophically during the dive, that would be serious, indeed.

Do we have any experience with how long a poorly seated O-ring will leak without extruding itself or letting go altogether?

How long would a nicked or cut O-ring leak before it lets go?

 

[Ber Rabbit]

determine if you are using sherwood regs - ive freaked out many students with mine

LOL! Our university regs are Sherwood and the students get used to the bubble stream. Last year one of my students was insisting her reg was leaking and I told her it was the positive pressure port she said "Yes but there are too many bubbles coming out of it." and her buddy agreed. It did appear to be venting more aggressively than the others so I took it to the shop later that week and sure enough a part had gone bad in that port. The students were quite pleased with themselves when I told them they were correct
Ber :lilbunny: