Crazy secondary air source behavior

[opalobsidian]

Hello!

I just got back from diving in Hawaii, where I had some big equipment mishaps, all easily solved except for the following....

The first day I went out with the regulator set-up I've had for about 8 months and 60 vacation dives, the secondary airsource (a little Oceanic) , had a slow but steady leak. The DM said to breathe off of it instead of my regulator, and by the second dive it wasn't leaking any more. I've never had to do a dive breathing off the octo and it wasn't much fun, it didn't draw well and seawater leaked into my mouth, so imagine my glee when it "magically" repaired itself and I could use the reg.

However, the magic ran out the next day on my second dive, which was a coveted Kona Manta Dive! Here I am sitting on the ocean floor with a rock and my lap and about 50 other people holding our flashlights collecting algae shivering in the chilly water waiting for the Magestic Manta to make an appearance, and about the time a big one arrives and begins his feeding ballet, that danged ol octo just errupts out of nowhere and begins freeflowing wildly! The DM sticks it in my mouth so I can hang out and watch the manta awhile longer, but after about 15 minutes the difficult draw and the seeping seawater takes it's toll and I called off my dive.

The next day I took it to an LDS for repair and described the situation to the repair guy. A few hours later he called up saying he had reset the knob on my regulator and if it free flows again I should just face it downward and it'll stop. "NO!!!" says I "it was the damn OCTO which was freeflowing, didn't i tell you?" He replied he didn't notice a problem with the octo so he assumed it was the regulator, but he can look at it again after the weekend. I declined and got my stuff back from the LDS.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be? I certainly hope it's not one of those elusive problems that never show up when it's at the shop!!!! My next trip is to Indonesia in June, so I do want it all fixed by then!!!! As a new diver I don't have an LDS I frequent so there's no one I know personally and trust.

Any theories?

Thanks!
Pamela

 

[spectrum]

You didn't mention that it had been recently serviced however it may have finally seated itself out of range. If it was that close it would almost start to breathe nice however. I'm not sure how to explain the intermittent healing.

The more common problem with alternates is crud making the valve linkage fetch up. Since the alternate is generally open to ambient water as opposed to your primary that is stuffed in your mouth all sorts of junk can wander in there. If your model allows the user to remove the front and diaphragm taking a peek in there could be telling. Looking in the mouthpiece may even give you a clue.

Lastly if you tend to do you rinsing with the system un pressurized there could be corrosion starting in the valve.

I'd rule out 1st stage IP creep since your more lightly tuned primary is behaving.

Now that you have alienated your tech is there another local Oceanic shop you can go to?

Pete

 

[do it easy]

Free flowing and not drawing well??? Usually these two don't happen at the same time. Perhaps it doesn't breathe as well as your primary second stage?

Otherwise, I would guess a misaligned diaphragm, a poorly adjusted second stage, and a bad LP seat. It's the trifecta of broken regs.

What other gear issues did you have and how did you fix them?

 

[opalobsidian]

Hi Pete!

I don't care if the "tech" feels alienated for whatever reason, he's in Kona and I live on the mainland, no reason i should ever cross paths with that dude again. He's just some guy that particular LDS calls in to look at stuff. I will probably take it in for repair in Denver or Boulder as that is where i live in the summer.

What does rinsing the system unpressurized mean? Maybe I have been doing that.....?

 

[opalobsidian]

Hey Do it Easy!

My other equipment breakdowns were not big deals, it just seemed as if it were always something because out of a planned week of diving I only got to go three days.

On the first day of diving, an octopus that had been ripped out from under some rocks and passed around by the so called "dive master" grabbed my regulator and pulled it apart! Imagine my suprise as I'm still holding the mouthpiece in my mouth, yet my mouth is filling up with sea water!!! Then I notice my reg is out there in space, with an octopus tentacle wrapped around it!!!! That's what I get for playing with the octopus.

The second day on my first dive, my BCD stopped holding air so I learned new lessons about bouyancy. Captain Steve fixed it by dismantling the diagram and juggling stuff around.

On both my second and third days, my OCTO misbehaved and yes, I think the octo may just tend towards being a hard to draw on, seepy thing. They aren't designed to be used except for short periods of emergency are they?

On the fourth day I washed my new 7 mm wetsuit and discovered that extreme bouyancy and washing machines do not get along- the darn thing floated up so much that it got stuck at the top of the machine and a big old hole got rubbed in the sleeve! DU'OH!!!!

Living and learning!
Pamela

 

[SparticleBrane]

On the first day of diving, an octopus that had been ripped out from under some rocks and passed around by the so called "dive master" grabbed my regulator and pulled it apart! Imagine my suprise as I'm still holding the mouthpiece in my mouth, yet my mouth is filling up with sea water!!! Then I notice my reg is out there in space, with an octopus tentacle wrapped around it!!!! That's what I get for playing with the octopus.

The second day on my first dive, my BCD stopped holding air so I learned new lessons about bouyancy. Captain Steve fixed it by dismantling the diagram and juggling stuff around.

On both my second and third days, my OCTO misbehaved and yes, I think the octo may just tend towards being a hard to draw on, seepy thing. They aren't designed to be used except for short periods of emergency are they?

Let me get this straight:
The DM snatched a wild marine animal from underneath a rock and passed it around??? What the heck?!?
Imagine: Some huge giant comes up to your house, rips the roof off, snatches you out of your house and passes you around for show and tell. :11: That's more or less what happened there. I'm...speechless.
Take only pictures, leave only bubbles. Oh...and don't touch things, especially not animals if it can be at all avoided.

I could be mistaken, but...I'm pretty sure there's not a diaphragm inside a BC, so I'm pretty confused about that...

About your octo, it depends on how you were taught. You were probably taught to hand an out-of-air diver your octo. I and many others were taught to pass from the mouth, and you breathe off the backup. For me, since I get to breathe it, it better be decent.
Besides, why would you want to make an OOA situation worse by handing a panicky diver a reg that's hard to breathe from and might not work?

 

[do it easy]

I could be mistaken, but...I'm pretty sure there's not a diaphragm inside a BC, so I'm pretty confused about that...

I assumed that she meant the spring loaded exhaust valve.

 

[SparticleBrane]

That makes more sense.

 

[BKP]

...The second day on my first dive, my BCD stopped holding air so I learned new lessons about bouyancy.

...On both my second and third days, my OCTO misbehaved and yes, I think the octo may just tend towards being a hard to draw on, seepy thing. They aren't designed to be used except for short periods of emergency are they?

Well, yeah, kinda... They should work as long as you'd expect your primary to work...

...On the fourth day I washed my new 7 mm wetsuit and discovered that extreme bouyancy and washing machines do not get along- the darn thing floated up so much that it got stuck at the top of the machine and a big old hole got rubbed in the sleeve! DU'OH!!!!

A soak in some fresh water and equipment wash or "Sink the Stink", with a rinse is all you really need... Washing machines may be a bit extreme...

Sounds like you had your own sitcom running here...

By the way... are you getting all this exotic travel through the job?
(and is there an opening?)

 

[MikeFerrara]

On both my second and third days, my OCTO misbehaved and yes, I think the octo may just tend towards being a hard to draw on, seepy thing. They aren't designed to be used except for short periods of emergency are they?

Pamela

Is that what you want to geive to a stressed OOA diver?