Dangerous gear?

[herman]

Other than the tilt valve second stage, nothing really dangerous comes to mind. Poor performers on the othere hand are plentiful.


On the Healthways diaphragm, from what I understand it should be out soon. I have a Gold Label with one of the prototype diphragms in it. Several of us have dove it to depths over 100ft and tank pressures to around 3500psi and all agree it is a great reg. The Gold Label with the new diaphragm and new mushroom valves in the exhaust and mouthpiece are very good.

 

[Ed Palma]

Okay, not under the category of dangerous, but since I don't see a resurgence of masks like these, I guess they fit the bill of "oddball"

I mean, over the past few months, I've developed a fondness for vintage gear, but this will probably take a little more coaxing for me to start liking these. Granted, being able to either breath through your mouth or your nose sounds great, but it seems like an overly complex system compared to a standard mask and snorkel.

 

[cloudflint]

The first Healtways DH exhaust system

That design always makes me very nervous, has their ever been any actual incidents of one of their exhaust valves actually failing?

 

[Rich Keller]

Scubapro made a one man recompression chamber back in the 80s that came to be called a coffin chamber. The chamber door closed from the outside not the inside so it was prone to failure. There was no external oxygen supply so a diver was sealed in on internal oxygen so if he convulsed he could not be helped. I have heard that there may be a few of these things still out there but it is almost suicide to go in one of these.

 

[Sam Miller III]

The HUB. Not necessarily dangerous but very silly, And I will admit that I almost bought one before I completed my OW class.

I am just a slow walking, slow talking, slow thinking, broken down diver from SoCaL....

What is a HUB

How does it work?

Why dangerous?

SDM

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Mares H.U.B.
hope this link works.
Mares H.U.B. Avantgarde BCD, Black/Gray

It was the pinnacle of poof.

 

[Sam Miller III]

HUB ! I recall that unit, it was introduced 3-4 years ago with much fan fare..

Some how I been laboring under the assumption that this thread was for VINTAGE EQUIPMENT.......Please correct me if I am laboring under false pretenses...

sdm

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I suppose it probably was started in good faith to discuss dangerous vintage gear but then the HUB was mentioned.
Actually I remember the HUB coming out about 10 years ago. It was only sold for a few years and was pretty much laughed off the market.
It's not that it was dangerous, it was just over the top clutter and layer upon layer of fluff.

But enough about the HUB, back to the main topic.

 

[captain]

Although many divers seemed to have success with it I would classify the SOS decompression meter as dangerous. I had a couple of them that went off calibration very easily if not handled carefully. Never could build up any trust in them.

 

[elmer fudd]

That design always makes me very nervous, has their ever been any actual incidents of one of their exhaust valves actually failing?

It could conceivably fail in two different ways. One is for it not to seal and to allow water to flow into the exhaust hose. I've had that happen to me, and while you wouldn't want to dive with it like that, it's not really life threatening. Basically, exhalation becomes difficult because you have to push the water out of the hose with each breath. You can however roll on your side and make it easier. Looking at the design, I think this must have been fairly common.

The other potential failure is much scarier. If the exhaust diaphragm were to fail and allow water into the cans, then you could potentially end up with flooded cans that can't be cleared. I really don't think this was ever likely though. The Healthways exhaust diaphragm was really quite tough and if it were even slightly maintained I think it would be less susceptible to leaks and tears than USD or Voit diaphragms.