Crazy secondary air source behavior

[WVDiver]

I think Spectrum covered it pretty well. I would add that I try to make it a practice to blow my octo out after every dive to prevent many of the crud problems. Just hit the purge button good and hard just before you leave the water and swish it around good while purging. It will clean it out well and perhaps prevent many problems down the road.

I have an Air 2 on my work rig and it has its own problems. But that is another story. I do a lot of diving in turbid, silty, nasty water and I haven't had problems since I began this practice. It seems to make a big difference. Good Luck.

 

[BabyDuck]

my advice would be to get a back up that's as good as your primary.

 

[opalobsidian]

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.

Well, I was appalled as well, I've had DMs who have interacted with wildlife but never anyone like this who seemed to enjoy roughing up the poor octopus, you should have seen how he treated the poor things! He pulled and pulled on them to get them out from under the rocks and then kind of rolled and squeezed them to get them to release all their ink so they could be passed around. I knew "better" than to hold this poor octopus, but I let curiousity get the better of me, and I considered it my due "karma" that the octopus pulled my regulator apart. I won't play with wildlife again!

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?

Ummmm, am I not asking the board how to get this thing fixed????

 

[opalobsidian]

I try to make it a practice to blow my octo out after every dive to prevent many of the crud problems. Just hit the purge button good and hard just before you leave the water and swish it around good while purging. It will clean it out well and perhaps prevent many problems down the road.

That's very helpful advice, WV! What I'm worried about is, the both the captain of the dive boat and the DM (not the same one as molested the octopuses) mentioned something about how sometimes problems with the first stage manifest themselves in the octo, so it might not be that the octo is disfunctional, but something else....?

 

[opalobsidian]

I assumed that she meant the spring loaded exhaust valve.

Yes, that thing inside the shoulder release valve, the captain referred to the round thing inside the valve as a diaphram

 

[Web Monkey]

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.

Unless you're a tech, pretty much any regulator malfuntion that isn't caused by being dirty is a sign that it needs service. Just make sure you take it somewhere that does a lot of whatever you have. This means that not only do they have the parts and experience, but they probably aren't screwing up a lot of regulators if they manage to keep busy.

Going to a slow SCUBA shop for repairs is like going to a buffet where you never see any cars in the parking lot.

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

When you soak it, you should have it attached to a tank (even a really small tank will do fine) and leave the tank on.

This keeps the system sealed, so water doesn't get inside.

The rubber cap hanging on your first stage is typically a dust cover and won't reliably keep out water.

Terry

 

[victor]

Pamela
I suggest you buy a new second stage, a match to your current primary, and ask the LDS tech to set it up as an octo, e.g make it slightly less prone to freeflow.
Have it hooked up on your chest or on a necklace under your chin, to keep it out of the muck.
Use it for a few minutes on every dive.

I use an air2 and I breathe of it at the start of every dive, and for a few minutes at depth on most dives. This way I am familiar with it and how it breathes.

 

[muddiver]

I use a full-size regular regulator as my octo (seaf second) and I have a holder for it that clips to my BC which has a built in plug for the mouth piece. Having a full-size reg. and keeping it plugged has prevented any problems with it.

Those small regulators that companies sell as octos are, like you said, not really ment to be used as a primary regulator. But, if it is free flowing and it does not stop when you put your thumb in the mouth piece, it needs to be adjusted. My second regulator is tunes way down so that it is harder to breath than my primary so that it will not free flow. So yes it does breath hard.

Also, if it leaking water during use there is something wrong. Like the diaphragm in side has a pin hole. Take the diaphram out and inspected by stretching it while holding it in front of a light. There should be no little points of light showing through. The other common source of a leak is an old or damaged mouth piece. Remove it and either closely inspect it or just buy a new one and put it on with a tie-wrap.

 

[spectrum]

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

When I rinse my regs thay are always connected to a clylinder and pressurized. Positive prerssure is the only way to be sure that water is not getting back into the system. Rinse water entering may even bring salt or dirty water into the system.

I pressurize them and let them soak, (sun) warmed water is best at freeing deposits. This is done first thing in the cleanup drill. When everything else is done I return to the regultors and swish each component to free loose stuff. Regulators get purged and swished repeatedly in the pail, like gargling. They then get hung to dry.

This ritual has served us well so far.

Pete

 

[spectrum]

Use it for a few minutes on every dive.

Excellent suggestion!

It keeps you in touch with how it will perform and that id dies perform! You get a regulator R&R drill in the bargain.

Be sure those around you know you may be doing this to avoid a rescue response.

Pete