you are confused because you assume that everybody dives with a buddy.
Couple questions on a pony bottle for bail out
- Thread starter Sonic04GT
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you are confused because you assume that everybody dives with a buddy.
No assumptions there 
This is Scubaboard after all
Even without a buddy, what makes a slung pony better than a set of manifolded doubles? Why is it a better choice?
This is Scubaboard after all Even without a buddy, what makes a slung pony better than a set of manifolded doubles? Why is it a better choice?
you can see the bubbles if you are losing gas.
How does that help when the pony is only there for emergencies? Its not part of regular gas planning.
in other words, even if all the gas leaked out of the pony bottle, there is no emergency (given the assumption of proper gas planning of course).
Please don't think I'm trolling, I'm genuinely interested in why people think it's a better choice vs proper gas planning and manifolded doubles (if redundancy required).
it is more flexible. maybe you want to take it on some dives, but not others. maybe you like splitting the weight of cylinders for hauling them around. maybe you have some physical impairment which means that means you can't do shutdowns, so a manifolded set provides no redundancy.
...or maybe it isn't better, but you just prefer it.
There are two common reasons. One is that the diver wants to be self reliant. Maybe they are aware of how frequently the buddy system fails or have read the SB A&I forum where threads involving buddy separation is common. Second, they are hunters or photographers or for what ever reason they solo and don't wish to rely on CESA for an emergency OOA.
This is the most common mistake that uninformed divers make. A pony bottle is for emergency use only. The only time it is involved in gas planning is when setting up your rig to determine the amount of gas you need to carry to get you safely to the surface in an OOA emergency. The goal is to never need it. Typical fills or top offs are only needed after practice deployment.
Yes, ponies are for redundancy. But why use a meat cleaver when a scalpel will do? The right tool for the job. A pony bottle is the precise tool for the job and can be easily tailored to each divers needs or preferences. It is a flexible system that is easily learned, relatively cheap to set up and maintain, stows easily on a crowded boat, lighter weight for the diver and requires less buoyancy adjustments. Can be used with almost any recreational dive gear configuration so no need for doubles backplate and wing. Better for travel, especially airline. And that's just off the top of my head.
DaleC
Contributor
There is also the problem of doing repetitive dives. With manifolded doubles you either need to bring a whole other set of doubles or do the second dive with less than a full fill. That makes keeping an adequate reserve more problematic for some profiles.
To use manifolded doubles effectively you also need to be proficient in valve shutdown drills. An additional skill many recreational divers who desire simple gas redundancy may not want or need.
To use manifolded doubles effectively you also need to be proficient in valve shutdown drills. An additional skill many recreational divers who desire simple gas redundancy may not want or need.
DaleC
Contributor
So you had a pony for your doubles...
No slight to you as I sometimes do the same. I also dive an Al 40 or even an 80 stage with a single if I want more gas but don't have my doubles.
But that raises an interesting point regarding weight. If you dive a single/pony for each dive your weighting will not change, compensating for between 5-8lb's of gas expended during the dive. If you dive doubles and use a stage you could have a weight swing of 10-20 lb's (roughly) between the beginning of dive one and the end of dive two. So you need to be pretty negative or change weighting between dives.
No slight to you as I sometimes do the same. I also dive an Al 40 or even an 80 stage with a single if I want more gas but don't have my doubles.
But that raises an interesting point regarding weight. If you dive a single/pony for each dive your weighting will not change, compensating for between 5-8lb's of gas expended during the dive. If you dive doubles and use a stage you could have a weight swing of 10-20 lb's (roughly) between the beginning of dive one and the end of dive two. So you need to be pretty negative or change weighting between dives.
Why not just use bigger tanks? HP100s are small and the best "bang for buck" in terms of weight for a given amount of gas. Size wise they are no bigger than two individual tanks.
Agree about the skill for valve shutdown...but you also need skill to use a pony bottle effectively. By the way, how do you share gas with a buddy if you have to switch to the pony bottle? Are we all solo divers now?
Also, most recreational divers I see around here with pony bottles are using them to extend their dives (pseudo stage bottle) instead of for redundancy.....and without training to boot.
---------- Post added July 16th, 2014 at 03:34 PM ----------
A single larger tank and good gas management will beat all of those points.
---------- Post added July 16th, 2014 at 03:50 PM ----------
So you had a pony for your doubles...
No slight to you as I sometimes do the same. I also dive an Al 40 or even an 80 stage with a single if I want more gas but don't have my doubles.
But that raises an interesting point regarding weight. If you dive a single/pony for each dive your weighting will not change, compensating for between 5-8lb's of gas expended during the dive. If you dive doubles and use a stage you could have a weight swing of 10-20 lb's (roughly) between the beginning of dive one and the end of dive two. So you need to be pretty negative or change weighting between dives.
To swing 20 lbs that would have to be some really long or deep dives!
A 130 (16L) has about 10lbs of nitrox gas weight in it
Really though, once you add the weight from the manifold and bands and extra regulator (~5lbs -ve all together) you don't need much. If using steel tanks it's even better and you would need even less weight.
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