Buying new gear

[Spoon]

Independent twins config

this was convenient but i preferr the manifolded twin set configuration. less things to worry about. im just trying justifying my twin set purchase

 

[paolov]

yes yes, independent twins..... higher factor of safety....

sidemount ROCKS !!!!!!

"WE DO NOT DO SIDEMOUNTS ...." ahhh never mind.....

 

[Halthron]

this was convenient but i preferr the manifolded twin set configuration. less things to worry about. im just trying justifying my twin set purchase

I agree that a manifold would be best but I'm also facing the reality that not every place I may want to go either has them or can deal with them. Then there's the bit about having to drag them around and once they're used, they're empty. Whereas with the independent, I'd be able to slap in two more bottles of Nitrox and get going again.

I'm thinking that for real tech diving, I'd prefer to use manifolded doubles while for the rec and almost-tech (like what we were doing last weekend) independent would be fine.

 

[diveshop@diveph.com]

Personally I will go doubles with twin manifold, reason being is that you will have to breath equal amount of gas from the left and right post for you to be balance underwater. You will have to have two pressure gauges on both post making your rig less streamline, one extra hose (with 2 more o-rings) that can give you 2 more problem, you stress levels will rise since you have to switch from left to right post regs to equilibrate you gases (stress high=CO2 high/CNS/labored breathing), and possibility that you might deviate from your plan because some of your brain will in those 2 SPG. I'm a firm believer on the KISS principle (Keep it super simple or some they say Keep it super simple stupid) the simpler everything is the more chances of mission success.
In the event that that you forget to breath exactly the same amount of gas from both post you will find yourself diving sideways, and that's going to make your diving a little more difficult, more in you are inside a wreck, as well as harder decompression.
In the event that you have a total lost of gas on you tank because neck o-ring rupture;
1) If you didn't equilibrate your independent doubles on the working part of the dive, this will mean that one of your tanks will be full, loosing all gas reserve.

2) If you did equilibrate your independent doubles, you will loose half of your remaining gas. The same way as double manifold.

Question we have to ask is, Will you have enough gas to reach you your deep stop / first mandatory stop? You'll never know until you get there.

This is what works for me, my equation is difficult=problems. I believe that what ever works for you, works for you as long as you have a valid reason.

 

[Hammerhead]

That is sweet...where do you get this stuff?

Matter of fact, right here on Scubaboard

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=125820

That was the only double hose he had, unfortunately...

...however, plenty for sale on ebay. Bubbles at the back = great for photgraphy. Wouldn't take it deep thougheyebrow

 

[Matthew]

Very informative post Tom. Thanks.

 

[Spoon]

Personally I will go doubles with twin manifold, reason being is that you will have to breath equal amount of gas from the left and right post for you to be balance underwater. You will have to have two pressure gauges on both post making your rig less streamline, one extra hose (with 2 more o-rings) that can give you 2 more problem, .

i agree 100% that is why i chose the manifolded system over the independents. in a manifloded twin setup, you are breathing from both tanks uniformly as they were on big tank. this will entail a competely balanced rig for the entire duration of the dive.

with the independent doubles setup you will infact have to breath 1/3, 1/4 or even 1/2 of one tank first before switching to the other tank. this poses several problems: 1 would be a very unbalanced rig, not cool when you are on a wreck and buoyancy is very critical here. 2 would be the taskloading of having to always monitor your gauges until a certain pressure reading is attained before switching to the second tank. this has to be done somewhat to a degree that you will still have to equally consume your air on the second tank before you ideally level off. 3. you will have an extra gauge which will add on the task loading.

i do see the merits of the independent doubles set up though as it is easy and convenient to use but like all there are tradeoffs and the unbalanced factor of this rig is enough for me to stay away from it. doing the sidemounts alone in the wreck kept me horribly offbalanced and had to keep shifting my weight through most of the dive. but if it works for you then by all means go ahead

 

[Spoon]

"WE DO NOT DO SIDEMOUNTS ...." ahhh never mind.....

you have a very good memory my friend

 

[chip104]

sorry eric...since you're already in the doghouse, I think you should buy an extra of everything for me.


If I do go for two tanks UW, I'll be sticking to a side mount for a while.

 

[jonix]

Personally I will go doubles with twin manifold, reason being is that you will have to breath equal amount of gas from the left and right post for you to be balance underwater. You will have to have two pressure gauges on both post making your rig less streamline, one extra hose (with 2 more o-rings) that can give you 2 more problem, you stress levels will rise since you have to switch from left to right post regs to equilibrate you gases (stress high=CO2 high/CNS/labored breathing), and possibility that you might deviate from your plan because some of your brain will in those 2 SPG. I'm a firm believer on the KISS principle (Keep it super simple or some they say Keep it super simple stupid) the simpler everything is the more chances of mission success.
In the event that that you forget to breath exactly the same amount of gas from both post you will find yourself diving sideways, and that's going to make your diving a little more difficult, more in you are inside a wreck, as well as harder decompression.
In the event that you have a total lost of gas on you tank because neck o-ring rupture;
1) If you didn't equilibrate your independent doubles on the working part of the dive, this will mean that one of your tanks will be full, loosing all gas reserve.

2) If you did equilibrate your independent doubles, you will loose half of your remaining gas. The same way as double manifold.

Question we have to ask is, Will you have enough gas to reach you your deep stop / first mandatory stop? You'll never know until you get there.

This is what works for me, my equation is difficult=problems. I believe that what ever works for you, works for you as long as you have a valid reason.

cool! thanks tom...simple and logical...sounds good to me